Inland Empire Nonprofit SBX Youth & Family Services Receives OpenAI Funding to Build Community AI Tools

Inland Empire – SBX Youth & Family Services (Sigma Beta Xi, Inc.), a long-standing Inland Empire nonprofit focused on disrupting cycles of poverty and violence, 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.

The Fund backs organizations using AI to expand opportunity, strengthen civic engagement, and ensure technological progress reaches communities often overlooked.

“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,” said 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 development of an AI Civic Engagement Navigator, an emerging 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,” said 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,” said Darrell Peeden. “We can either consume AI or create it, and building it ourselves means stronger communities and a stronger local economy.”

SBX will engage youth, parents, and local partners as co designers throughout the development process. The organization envisions a model that can be shared with other regions, showing 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,” said Peeden. “With the support of the OpenAI Foundation, SBX and the Inland Empire have a chance to help define that future.”

For the full list of grantees and OpenAI’s announcement, visit: Announcing the initial People-First AI Fund grantees | OpenAI