Mary Toni coordinates the San Francisco Friday Night Live/CMCA youth substance prevention programs MPACT and WPX3 where they oversee recruitment of 20 young people a year, train them in substance use harms and impacts, and help them to use storytelling methods to share their stories. They also run the Youth Alcohol Prevention Coalition, where 3 youth work in partnership with 5 community-based organizations to inform San Francisco youth of the harms and impacts of substance use.
Mary Toni (aka MT to some of their youth) is a San Francisco local who graduated from UC Davis with a double major in Political Science and History. They were born in the Philippines but have called SF home for their entire life (ask them what high school they went to, iykyk).
Working with youth to better their community has been a long time passion of Mary Toni’s. Some of their experiences include spending two summers in Japan interning as a group leader for a global youth empowerment program. They finished their final quarter of undergrad in Washington DC to intern for both the World Movement for Democracy and the National Education Association. They seek to bring everything they learned to help uplift youth voice and advocacy in the context of healing-centered discussion.
In their free time, Mary Toni loves: spending time with their loved ones, BTS, reading, planning their next trip, and being a life-long learner.