%20(1).png)
.jpg)
Who We Are
Across many places, young people and grassroots leaders are doing essential work—organizing, feeding neighbors, creating cultural spaces, launching local enterprises, and responding to gaps left by public systems. Too often, this work is underfunded, unsupported, or treated as temporary.
THRIVE ON! was created to change that.
We are a youth-powered, community-rooted organization building leadership pathways and practical infrastructure for community-led work. We pair paid youth leadership pathways with long-term support for grassroots leaders and local projects—so ideas, effort, and care are not extracted or short-lived, but sustained.
Rather than cycling people through short-term programs, we focus on building the conditions that allow community-led work to last, grow, and adapt over time.
What Makes THRIVE ON! Different
Our work centers relationships, trust, and accompaniment, not one-size-fits-all interventions.
We support people, not just programs.
We provide fiscal sponsorship, operational support, strategy, and shared systems so grassroots work can grow without burning out leaders.
We invest in infrastructure, not just activities.
Young people are not placed “under” adult leadership; they are developed alongside grassroots leaders as co-creators and decision-makers.
We bridge generations of leadership.
Our work is accountable to community context, not abstract models or funder trends.
We stay rooted in place.
Young People
We provide paid leadership and workforce pathways that connect young people to real community projects. Youth develop professional skills, leadership capacity, and decision-making experience while contributing measurable value to initiatives that strengthen their communities.
Grassroots Leaders & Community Projects
We support grassroots leaders and early-stage community initiatives by providing fiscal sponsorship, project incubation, and operational infrastructure. This includes informal projects and those without nonprofit status. Our support helps community-rooted work focused on equity, care, and local ownership achieve stability, readiness for growth, and long-term impact.
We believe communities are strongest when youth leadership and grassroots leadership grow together.
Why This Matters
Across communities, promising work and leadership are often lost not because of a lack of ideas or commitment, but because the systems needed to sustain them are missing. When support structures fail, communities pay the long-term cost.
01
When grassroots leaders lack infrastructure, good work disappears.
When grassroots leaders lack access to fiscal, operational, and administrative infrastructure, promising community work becomes unstable and often disappears before it can scale or sustain impact.
02
When young people lack paid pathways, leadership pipelines break.
When young people lack paid leadership and workforce pathways, communities lose future leaders and the continuity needed to sustain long-term change.
03
When communities lack ownership, resources are extracted and lost.
When communities do not have ownership over projects and resources, value is extracted outward, limiting local capacity, accountability, and lasting benefit.
THRIVE ON! exists to interrupt these cycles by keeping power, resources, and decision-making close to the people doing the work.
How We Do Work
THRIVE ON! operates as a platform, not a single program.
We combine:
-
Paid youth leadership programs
-
Project incubation and fiscal sponsorship
-
Shared infrastructure and administrative support
-
Cross-sector partnerships and resource alignment
This allows ideas to move from vision → pilot → stability without losing their community roots.
