Taalia Hasan
Executive Director - West Contra Costa Youth Service Bureau
Richmond, CA
Taalia Hasan has been a leading spokeswoman and advocate for underserved, disadvantaged youth and their families in West Contra Costa County for well over thirty years. She currently serves as the Executive Director of West Contra Costa Youth Service Bureau, an organization founded to address their most critical needs in her community.
Hasan was among the first to recognize that children's homelife, school and neighborhood conditions were preventing them from doing well in school and thriving. She parlayed a small agency budget, leveraging violence prevention, community building, and mental health funds into a full-service agency. The Bureau developed the capacity to assess family need and provide wrap-around services to clients, providing assistance in-house or referring to qualified partner agencies for specific expertise such as domestic violence, employment training, or legal aid.
She serves on the County's Commision for Juvenile Justice which is credited with providing the impetus for the County to develop the Chris Adams Center, a diagnostic and treatment center which did not exist 10 years ago. Hasan was also a major architect of the SafeFutures program, a gang violence prevention program which established a footprint in West County still felt today by community and law enforcement.
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