BVN Staff
Moreno Valley-based organization, SBX Youth & Family Services (Sigma Beta Xi, Inc.), has been selected as an OpenAI Foundation People First AI Fund grantee. SBX is one of just 208 nonprofits nationwide receiving funding to develop community-driven AI tools.
SBX is among the list of inland area grantees for this opportunity including the Boys and Girls Club of Fontana, El Sol Neighborhood Educational Center in San Bernardino, Legal Aid Society of San Bernardino and Reach Out West End Inc. in Upland.
The Fund supports organizations using AI to expand opportunity, strengthen civic engagement, and to ensure technological progress reaches communities often overlooked. The Foundation will provide $40.5 million in unrestricted grants to the nonprofits awarded the grant. Funds will be disbursed by the end of the year.
SBX Youth & Family Services offers mentoring, education and community organizing to disrupt the cycle of poverty by supporting students from low-income families, foster youth, English learners and young men of color.
“For more than twenty-five years, SBX has stood with youth and families in the Inland Empire, helping them build resilience and leadership despite systemic barriers,” stated Berenice Zuniga, co-CEO of SBX Youth & Family Services. “An AI tool that strengthens our work and helps families engage with local government will keep community voices at the center of public policy.”
With support from the OpenAI’s People First AI Fund, SBX will begin developing an AI Civic Engagement Navigator, a new tool that will help communities track and respond to local policy and budget decisions.
“The AI Civic Engagement Navigator will take the complex and information dense world of policy and transform it into clear, digestible information with practical steps that are backed by data,” stated Darrell Peeden, co-Founder and co-CEO of SBX Youth & Family Services. “We want residents to quickly understand what is on the agenda, how items are moving, and where our leaders are headed with their votes and comments. When the community knows what is happening, we can respond in real time, work with our elected officials, and guide agencies in a more collaborative way.”
SBX is designing the AI Civic Engagement Navigator at the intersection of AI, public policy, and community organizing. The project will focus on making public records, city and county agendas, minutes, and budget documents easier to understand for everyday residents, especially youth and families who are most impacted by these decisions.
“The Inland Empire cannot sit out the next wave of technology,” Peeden continued. “We can either consume AI or create it, and building it ourselves means stronger communities and a stronger local economy.”
SBX is setting out to engage youth, parents, and local partners as co-designers of the navigation tool throughout the development process. The organization envisions a model that can be shared with other regions and be an example of how neighborhood-based nonprofits can use AI to strengthen democracy, by making information more accessible and digestible for the public.
“Advocacy is going to look different in the coming years,” Peeden stated. “With the support of the OpenAI Foundation, SBX and the Inland Empire have a chance to help define that future.”