Natasha Zastko’s inherent purpose and passion oscillates between creative healing practices and community advocacy. She strives to uplift and ignite young leaders through creativity and cultural empowerment.
Over the past few years of working with yli, Natasha has had the opportunity to facilitate programming centered on retail tobacco prevention (Community Action Model/CAM), youth philanthropy (Building Leaders in Innovative New Giving/BLING), social emotional learning (COUN-SEL), and youth participatory action research (YPAR).
During her 3 years working on CAM, Natasha supported transitional aged youth in a political campaign to implement a Commercial Tobacco Free Generation policy in San Francisco while advocating to keep tobacco sacred and protected in Indigenous communities. During her time with the BLING program, she curated a curriculum that informed high school students on the colonization of wealth in the Americas and the importance of their philanthropic efforts as youth of color, distributing $100,000 of funding to youth-led programming in San Francisco.
Natasha is currently working on a new program, Concrete Rose, which focuses on elevating the voices of systems-impacted young people in the SF Juvenile Probation Center. Additionally, she is working on a program in San Mateo called Daly City Bay Leaders, focusing on civic engagement and housing justice.
Natasha’s hope is to be a supportive mentor for young people so that they are fully supported to evolve into powerful, compassionate, community-focused revolutionaries!