Focused on Growth Academy (F.O.G.) is a community-rooted nonprofit based in Berkeley, California, dedicated to disrupting cycles of incarceration, addiction, and generational trauma through a structured, healing-centered approach. Founded by individuals with lived experience in the justice system, F.O.G. provides a 9-month program that addresses mental health, substance recovery, behavioral change, and job readiness for youth and young adults facing high-risk circumstances.

Our signature initiative, Healing Through Habits, is designed to transform habits in every area of life from mindset to employment before one mistake becomes a lifelong sentence. The program includes peer-led support, counseling, structured daily routines, and eventual placement in job training or internships with community partners such as the California High-Speed Rail initiative and workforce-focused training centers.

At F.O.G., we don’t offer pity we offer tools. We believe structure is healing, and that real transformation happens when we turn former takers into givers. Our mission is simple but urgent: get young people off the streets, out of survival mode, and into long-term, purpose-driven careers.

Healing Through Habits: Mentoring TAY Through Wellness & Growth

If you have nothing else, you have a responsibility to yourself

Team Members