Hi! We're The Mad Youth, an art collective whose main goal is to help change the lives of at-risk teens in our neighbourhood through art, fashion, education, and community.

And we’re on a mission to create an art studio for the teens of Vallejo to have a safe space to learn, create, and get mentorship by professional artists. To create healthy hobbies away from the vices that plague their generation, whether it be smoking, vaping, or social media doom scrolling.

This all started about two years ago when I met two preteen boys on the street in Vallejo, two brothers whose family didn't have a car or the means to take them to the places they wanted to go (most often the skatepark). They asked me to take them to the skate contest one day, and after becoming acquainted with their Mom, a working mother of five who struggles to get by, I quickly became Auntie Beck. Two years later, and these kids are now just like my family. I've been an emergency school contact, I've thrown birthday parties for them, and I've been at elementary school graduations.

Through these two boys, I've become acquainted with a lot of the teenagers in Vallejo, and I quickly saw the ways in which our community is failing them. There are no places for these kids to gather, outside of the skatepark and running the often very unsafe streets. From talking to these kids, I was informed that the majority of their friends start using drugs and alcohol from a very young age out of boredom and "having nothing else to do". So I formed "The Mad Youth" as an attempt to provide an answer to their needs. We're a company that makes zines, upcycles clothes, teaches art classes, and provides all ages events so that these kids have a healthy and safe space to form community, but there is only so much we can do without a proper space to host them.

***SO... with summer quickly approaching, we need your help so that we can open a permanent space to give these kids a home away from home where they can learn, create, connect, and grow in a healthy and safe place. We want to open a studio where we can let these teens come and use all of our creative supplies for free. We will be open, at minimum, three days a week during the weekdays so that they can come in and paint, sculpt, make clothes, create zines, and do any other creative outlet alongside creative mentors, and then we'll host workshops on weekends where professional artists will volunteer their time to come and teach classes in different mediums.

I know that this is a lofty goal, especially given that we're making these services 100% free to all kids, but I've seen the magic that this community is capable of, and I believe that we can make it happen. We're currently looking at a space in downtown Vallejo that is walking distance from where most of the youth we've already been working with live, but we need some hefty fundraising to be able to sign the lease and make this happen.

Whether it's through donating or through sharing our page, please help us so that we can change the trajectory of these kids lives.