Our Four Pillars
MHHF serves as the backbone organization for Uplift San Bernardino. This collective impact initiative unites dozens of cross-sector partners focused on building a generation of successful adults committed to growing roots in San Bernardino. Uplift SB is also recognized as the only Accountable Community for Health (ACH) in the Inland Empire, aligning public health, education, economic development, housing, and nonprofit sectors around common goals. Guided by the Vital Conditions for Health and Well-Being framework, Uplift works to shift systems and redistribute power and resources through resident-led decision-making, data sharing, and shared accountability. Initiatives under Uplift are advancing the social determinants of health and a thriving, inclusive future for the region.
The KITS Program equips parents with the tools, knowledge, and support they need to prepare their young children for school and life. By offering free parenting classes (in partnership with California State University, San Bernardino’s Institute for Child Development & Family Relations), peer support through KITS Club, and access to high-quality learning resources, the program helps families build strong relationships, reduce stress, and nurture their children’s early development. Parents learn practical skills—from positive guidance and brain development to financial education and stress management—while children benefit from free books and engaging online learning in reading and math.
Through KITS, families not only gain confidence in parenting but are also connected with the San Bernardino City Unified School District and community resources, engage in fitness and enrichment activities, and are members of a supportive community of peers.
With more than 1,700 parents engaging each year, the program has shown outstanding results: nearly all parents report knowing how to prepare their child for kindergarten, feeling empowered to partner in their child’s education, and recommending KITS to others. Together, KITS is breaking cycles of trauma and building brighter futures for San Bernardino’s youngest learners.
This program focuses on the K-12 portion of students’ educational journey and the SBCUSD programs that serve them. This program pairs donors with urgent, emerging, and/or innovative needs in the SBCUSD, including the installation of a medical lab at Bing Wong Elementary School, which serves as the first step in a health careers pathway, and funding for thousands of books distributed at SBCUSD Literacy Fests.
This is also the home to funds for multiple SBCUSD programs, including the ETSA (Equity and Targeted Student Achievement), Special Education, Growing Hope at San Andreas High School, The Olive Branch at Sierra High, the Child Welfare fund, and others.
Finally, this pillar is home to our youth workforce development programs, where high school and community college students receive paid internships from the Making Hope Happen Foundation and others to complete work in community engagement, green energy careers, and cybersecurity.
In this flagship program, $3,000 cash awards plus a paid mentor are awarded to students graduating from SBCUSD high and adult schools. Unless otherwise stipulated by the donors, students are free to use their scholarships at any accredited post-secondary institution in the United States. We have students at vocational and community colleges, state colleges and universities, as well as private universities, including those in the Ivy League.
Mentors are upperclassmen or graduate students who were scholarship recipients, so they understand what our largely first-generation college students experience. Since 2017, we have awarded 816 scholarships totalling $3,672,000.
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