Focused on Growth Academy

About Focused on Growth Academy (F.O.G.)

Focused on Growth Academy is a grassroots, peer-led nonprofit based in Berkeley, California. We exist to help justice-impacted, foster, and underserved youth ages 16–24 heal from trauma, build healthy habits, and prepare for real success in the workforce. Our team is made up of community health workers, peer support specialists, and people with lived experience including our founder who have rebuilt their lives and are now helping others do the same.

We know firsthand that many young people don’t get a second chance. They’re criminalized instead of supported. Punished instead of understood. At F.O.G., we believe healing must come before job training. That’s why we created Healing Through Habits—a 9-month workforce readiness program with three key phases:

Stability & Healing: Mental health support, peer counseling, emotional regulation, substance abuse recovery, and life skills.

Empowerment & Growth: Financial literacy, digital skills, daily routines, and community service.

Workforce Launch: Job training, paid internships, and partnerships with companies ready to hire youth with grit and potential.

Our goal is to remove barriers before a young person enters the workforce, so they show up ready, focused, and stable. From nutrition to court support, from resume writing to trauma recovery we walk with our youth every step of the way.

We also serve the broader community through:

Reentry support for formerly incarcerated young adults

Medi-Cal peer services (in development)

Youth-led events and healing circles

Partnerships with ALA Academy, CA High-Speed Rail, and OYCR to create tech and trade career paths

Outreach in East Bay schools, shelters, and juvenile systems

Our impact is already being felt. In our first year, we've served over 200 youth and built trust with families, city leaders, and community partners. Our youth are completing internships, building emotional intelligence, and finding purpose many for the first time in their lives.

But we need your support to grow. As a new organization with a small budget, every donation makes a direct impact. Whether it’s $5 for a bus pass to an interview or $5,000 to sponsor a youth through all three phases your gift helps create life-changing outcomes.

We’re not soft. We’re strategic. We don’t do band-aids we build futures.

Join us in creating a path to purpose. Help us turn pain into progress.