GRASS VALLEY, Calif (July 7, 2026) — Community leader and longtime youth advocate Jennifer Singer will step down at the end of the year as Executive Director of Bright Futures for Youth, an after-school program that started with a handful of girls more than three decades ago and has expanded efforts and now serves several hundred young people every month in Nevada County.
Singer, who cofounded the organization formerly known as The Friendship Club with Mary Collier in 1995, is leaving to start a consulting business for nonprofits and companies and spend more time with her family. She shared her plans with the Bright Futures for Youth’s Board of Directors earlier this year to ensure a seamless transition with as little impact as possible on youth, team members, stakeholders, supporters and volunteers.
“Bright Futures for Youth is healthy and thriving,” said Singer, 51, who was born and raised in the community. “I am ready to leave now because we have an amazing organization that I, and many others, have built through the years. With the help of many people, from longtime supporters to committed partners, we have developed a one-of-a-kind organization with programs that meet a wide range of needs of children and young people in our community.”
Development Director Sienna Crawford, who joined the organization in 2022, will become Executive Director on Jan. 1, 2027.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to oversee a successful nonprofit that affects so many young people, their families – and the community overall. This was the community that raised me, so having the chance to give back and help shape the next generation is incredibly meaningful,” said Crawford, the former Executive Director of Social Venture Partners of Sacramento, a nonprofit that supports other nonprofits in the region, and a board member of the Nevada County Community Foundation. Crawford also grew up in the community and graduated from Nevada Union High School. “I am deeply grateful for Jennifer’s leadership and mentorship during the past four years. I remain committed to advancing her vision for the organization while continuing to evolve to meet the ever-growing needs in our community.”
Singer, also known as Litton Singer by some in the community, has expanded the one-time girls-only program into a multifaceted organization, serving many needs of children and young adults in the community.
“Under her direction and leadership, the organization has become a model of what can be accomplished through dedication, tireless work, out-of-the-box thinking and the ongoing support of the community,” said Mark Heine, President of the Bright Futures for Youth Board of Directors and a social worker and child/family psychotherapist for the Nevada Joint Union School District. “Bright Futures for Youth has helped fill so many needs in the community, from a fun and safe place to go after school to working closely with young people experiencing homelessness. Jennifer has been at the forefront, working with local government agencies and other nonprofits to make sure young people get the services they need.”
Bright Futures for Youth has three core programs – the original Friendship Club, an after-school program for middle and high school girls; the NEO youth center for boys and girls; and SAFE (Stability, Access, Foundation and Empowerment) for young people experiencing homelessness in Nevada County.
In addition, all participants – regardless of their age or gender – can enjoy free healthy meals and have access to clothing, counseling, health care and even housing, if needed. Team members will also help youth apply for college and financial aid, or even government-assistance programs.
“Bright Futures for Youth is incredibly important to the community,” said Nevada County Sheriff Shannan Moon, a Bright Futures for Youth Board Member since 2020. “The organization provides programs for our youth that are proactive investments in prevention, trust building and long-term community stability. Bright Futures for Youth is a place of hope and care, where everyone is welcome.”
Today, the organization connects with an estimated one of every 12 young people monthly in western Nevada County. It’s a dramatic increase from the several girls who joined The Friendship Club in the summers of 1995 and 1996.
“We soon realized these girls needed year-round support,” said Singer, who only planned to be with the organization for a few years. “I was drawn to the work because I realized there were so many youth in need and many were invisible to most of the community. These girls were hungry for connection, and I really enjoyed getting to know them, listening to their dreams and helping them find a path forward.”
The Friendship Club served as the foundation for a grassroots organization that has expanded to help many young people in numerous ways.
Young people connect with their peers, enjoy activities like art and music, and learn life skills through Bright Futures for Youth. The importance of education is always stressed. Healthy food is available, with more than 15,000 meals served last year. Many have also overcome personal challenges, from anxiety and overwhelming stress to a difficult home life – or even homelessness or substance abuse.
Many of the young people who have participated in the programs have earned college degrees and found rewarding careers, from education and health care to law enforcement. One graduate was recently elected as a city councilmember in Oregon.
“Bright Futures for Youth is key to the well-being of the future of our community,” said Barbara Thomas, who has been involved with the organization for two decades, including as a board president. “Young women and men who have participated in the program have a sense of well-being and what their future might bring, and they are able to express that in many different ways to many groups of people.”
Being a “key” to the community demands long-term planning, the occasional quick pivot and the knowledge that change happens. A lot.
After being in a handful of spaces the first two decades, Bright Futures for Youth moved into the Litton Building at 200 Litton Drive in spring 2018. The building has allowed the organization to expand programs and serve more young people.
The organization established the pilot program SAFE to help youth faced with housing instability in 2019. SAFE has assisted more than 500 young people during the past seven years.
With the COVID pandemic – and the distance-learning and work-from-home mandates – in 2020, The Friendship Club established virtual get-togethers with the girls and ensured they had what they needed, from food to access to counseling and health care services.
Bright Futures for Youth and Nevada County also developed a distance-learning center at the fairgrounds, where students – especially those in the more rural areas of the county – could access high-speed Internet access to ensure they could complete schoolwork. County leaders and education officials applauded the forward-looking idea to keep students focused and on task.
Also in 2020, Singer learned about an opportunity to merge with NEO, a popular afternoon hangout for middle and high school students. With the merger, The Friendship Club was renamed Bright Futures for Youth to better reflect an organization with after-school programs that now served boys and girls.
Three years later, Bright Futures for Youth announced a $500,000 capital campaign to build a new NEO youth center at the Litton Building campus. The 3,700-square-foot youth center – complete with art and music rooms, a café, game area and a backyard with a patio, garden and pickleball court – opened in fall 2023. Hundreds of middle and high school students attend NEO every week.
“The pandemic was terrible for many reasons, but we may not have Bright Futures for Youth without it, as we had the time to slow down and talk the merger through,” said Singer. “COVID was hard, terrible on youth, but we did the best we could. We were very creative, maintained youth connections as much as we could, and came out better and stronger as Bright Futures for Youth.”
More recently, the biggest challenges have been the economy, fast-rising costs – from food to gas – and a larger-than-expected drop in the number of grants available and the increased competition for those that remain. But Singer, who led the organization through the Great Recession almost 20 years ago and the pandemic-prompted recession a decade later, says supporters – especially longtime supporters – have always stepped up when needed. A majority of the organization’s budget comes from donations from individuals and small-business owners in the community.
“My motto is to embrace your current challenge because the next one will be bigger,” said Singer, who continues to meet with supporters. “This has kept me moving forward for 30 years. I’ve learned many things from each hurdle we have overcome.”
That can-do approach coupled with Singer’s leadership and passion for young people and the community has helped Bright Futures for Youth to become such a successful organization.
“Jennifer has been an exceptionally reliable, committed and mission-driven leader whose impact on the organization and the community will be felt for years to come,” Moon said. “Jennifer leads with her heart, which is evident in how she has remained so deeply focused on serving youth in our community.”
Singer, who will remain a board member of the Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital and CalYouth in addition to her startup consulting business, will continue to advocate for young people and youth programs in the community. Singer will serve as a strategic adviser for Bright Futures for Youth.
“I am very proud of the close-knit culture we have created in the programs, with our staff and board, and with our donors and larger community,” she said. “I’ve had the privilege of being around good, kind, loving, compassionate people who care about their community for my entire career. Bright Futures for Youth represents hope, goodness, care, love creativity, partnership and community. That, I hope, is part of my legacy.”
About Bright Futures for Youth
Bright Futures for Youth is a nonprofit committed to making life-changing differences for children and young adults in Nevada County. Bright Futures for Youth – created by the merger of The Friendship Club and NEO in 2020 – has three core programs: The Friendship Club, NEO youth center and SAFE, which helps youth facing housing insecurity. Bright Futures for Youth programs connect youth to positive experiences, relationships and environments to build resiliency today and into the future. The original organization started in 1995. For more information, visit www.bffyouth.org or Facebook at Facebook.com/BrightFuturesforYouth.
Editor’s note: We caught up with Jennifer for a look back at over 30 years of supporting youth and what’s next.
