Quality of Life Plan

Martindale-Brightwood Quality of Life Plan (2025–2030)

The Felege Hiywot Center’s role in youth-led community change

The Martindale-Brightwood Quality of Life Plan (2025–2030) is a community-driven roadmap created through years of resident input, collaboration, and shared vision. Led by One Voice Martindale-Brightwood and neighborhood partners, the plan outlines priorities across ten focus areas—including housing, health, public safety, economic opportunity, and youth engagement—to support a stronger, more equitable future for the neighborhood.

At The Felege Hiywot Center (FHC), we view this plan as both a reflection of community voice and a call to action. It affirms what our youth have long said: meaningful change happens when residents—especially young people—are trusted, resourced, and invited to lead.

 

FHC and the Youth Engagement Pillar

FHC is proud to serve as the lead organization for the Youth Engagement pillar of the Martindale-Brightwood Quality of Life Plan. This role recognizes FHC’s long-standing commitment to youth leadership, intergenerational connection, and community-rooted learning.

During the planning process, FHC supported direct engagement with middle and high school students, ensuring young people were not only consulted, but genuinely heard. Youth moved from questioning whether adults would listen to seeing their ideas reflected in a five-year neighborhood strategy—an experience that reinforced the power of civic participation and collective voice.

The Youth Engagement pillar is grounded in a simple but powerful belief: youth are not just future leaders—they are leaders right now.

Our Youth Engagement Priorities

Through this plan, FHC and our partners are working to:

  • Increase youth participation in community life and strengthen intergenerational relationships
  • Expand access to mental health supports and normalize open conversations about wellness
  • Help young people better understand systems that impact their lives, including the justice system
  • Create platforms for youth to tell their own stories and shape how their neighborhood is represented
  • Integrate youth into leadership and decision-making spaces today, not just in the future
  • Connect youth to food production, land stewardship, and community care as tools for health and stability

These priorities directly align with FHC’s programming across youth leadership development, media literacy, urban agriculture, and community storytelling.

Moving the Plan into Action

The Martindale-Brightwood Quality of Life Plan is not a static document—it is a living framework. FHC is committed to turning the Youth Engagement goals into real, measurable action through programs, partnerships, and ongoing collaboration with residents.

If you are a community member, partner organization, mentor, or supporter interested in youth engagement in Martindale-Brightwood, we invite you to connect with us.

The Felege Hiywot Center
fhcenter.org
info@fhcenter.org

Together, we are building a future shaped by youth voice, community wisdom, and shared responsibility.

For a full outline of the Martindale-Brightwood Quality of Life plan, see here.

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