Building on California’s requirement that consumers and stakeholders are included in state and local program advisory boards and commissions, HEAPA hopes to improve California’s medical and behavioral population health outcomes among transition age youth by supporting their appointment to county behavioral health boards and commissions. Like CDPH, HEAPA believes that Californian’s deserve a system of health care in which prevention and care work in tandem, and are grounded in the experience of consumers.
HEAPA believes that a recently-successful statewide event, the National Lived Experience Leadership Conference in September of 2026 in San Jose, has identified it a core of TAY leaders which it believes can successfully accomplish the applications’s goals. The program application’s goals are to assist local governing behavioral health boards and commissions to identify, recruit, and support the appointment and retention of transition age youth (those 18 to 25-year olds) who meet their otherwise eligibility requirements. Funding will include salaries and organizational administration; stipends for TAY in planning, research, and recruitment of participants; and conference and communication costs. Expected budget is $250,000/year for two years.
