Resilient Stars is reshaping youth wellness across Greater Los Angeles. From substance-use prevention to genuine mental health support, we build peer-driven programs that help young people take charge of their future.
THRIVE 2026 was made possible by Dattilo Wealth Management Group, Philip DeMatteo and HomeQuest Real Estate, along with our donors and eighteen local businesses who gave in kind — see everyone who made it happen.
Driven by Leadership. Grounded in Community.
Raised in Los Alamitos and currently attending Oxford Academy in Orange County, Niha Goel has been pushing the boundaries of youth health leadership from an early age.
Her path began in middle school, when she was named the only student in California to earn the prestigious HOSA Founders Scholarship. She went on to research, design, and deliver a workshop on community health access to a global audience at the HOSA International Leadership Conference.
Building on that momentum, Niha was chosen as the sole youth representative from California and one of only 10 selected nationwide to join CADCA’s elite team of national youth ambassadors.
Today, she brings that national experience back home to Greater Los Angeles, leading Resilient Stars Foundation to deliver prevention education and wellness platforms that empower young people to lead.
Most prevention still reaches young people the way it did twenty years ago — one assembly, one slideshow, once a year. What it’s up against has changed completely. Substances don’t come from a stranger on a corner anymore; they arrive through the same apps young people use to talk to their friends — ordered in a direct message, delivered like takeout, sold by an account that’s gone the next day. What shows up is whatever the seller says it is.
The everyday risks are quieter and far more common. One in four high school seniors used cannabis in the past year, at potencies that bear little resemblance to what their parents encountered. And vaping is no longer occasional — nearly a third of youth who vape now do so daily. That isn’t experimentation. That’s dependence, in students who can’t get through a school day without it.
At the same time, the ordinary foundations of wellbeing have eroded. More than three quarters of high school students sleep less than the eight hours they need — a number that’s hard to separate from a phone that never quite turns off. Across a decade the CDC has recorded declines in every category it tracks: sleep, physical activity, nutrition. These aren’t separate problems from substance use. Exhaustion, stress, and isolation are the conditions it grows in.
“Prevention isn’t a lecture you sit through. It’s a community you’re part of.”
Resilient Stars exists to close that gap. We connect young people and families directly to the professionals, organizations, and resources already in their community — and we put youth in charge of how that happens. The young people we work with have grown up online. They know better than anyone where the pressure comes from, and what an adult-made slideshow misses.
Because the encouraging truth is that most young people are already making healthy choices. Our job isn’t to frighten the majority. It’s to protect the progress they’ve made, and make sure the ones who need more know exactly where to find it.
Teens shape the message, the format and the delivery — because a peer is heard differently than a podium.
Clinicians, first responders and local organizations, in one place, where families already are.
Every event sends people home with resources they can use in the weeks and months that follow.
Where this work has been shared — a TEDx stage, a school board meeting, a national prevention coalition, and the front page of the local papers.
Where the clinics, the groceries and the safe places are — and where they aren't — quietly decides what a young person's options look like. Niha makes the case for treating those blank spaces on the map as a health problem.
Speaking to the Los Alamitos Unified School District Board of Education about a student-led wellness initiative for the district — and inviting the schools and families of Los Al to the THRIVE Youth Wellness Fair this October.
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Selected as California's youth ambassador — and the youngest in the country — for the 2026 HOSA–CADCA Voices of Youth Initiative, joining nine national HOSA leaders at CADCA's Annual Leadership Forum and advocating on Capitol Hill for continued prevention funding.
Two days after the fair, Mayor Tanya Doby spoke about Niha and about THRIVE in open session — the same week Los Alamitos and Seal Beach both proclaimed Red Ribbon Week.
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The district and Oxford Academy posted together after the fair — over 700 attendees and 40+ community partners, the school’s HOSA chapter and the teachers who backed it, and the recognitions from both mayors and State Senator Tony Strickland.
Videos open here on the page — nothing loads from YouTube until you press play.
Local coverage of the THRIVE Youth Wellness Fair.
How THRIVE came together — the booths, the zones they are grouped into, and the passport card visitors collect stamps on as they go.
The fair reaches the communities it was built for, alongside Niha’s remarks to the Los Alamitos Unified board and why she went to the schools first.
Written by OA–HOSA’s Projects & Partnerships Chair: the CADCA Voices for Youth selection, Capitol Hill, and the naloxone demonstrations HOSA members ran at the THRIVE booth.
What the fair was given, by the people who were there.
Presented by Senator Tony Strickland, 36th District, to the Resilient Stars Foundation for hosting THRIVE.
Proclaimed by Mayor Tanya Doby, naming Niha Goel’s leadership and THRIVE as the local launchpad for Red Ribbon Week.
Proclaimed by Mayor Lisa Landau and the City Council — and, in the same resolution, annually from here on.
Wellness isn't one thing, so our work isn't either. Each area reinforces the others.
Honest, current education on what young people actually encounter — high-potency cannabis, daily vaping, and fentanyl in counterfeit pills — delivered without scare tactics or condescension.
Resilience, stress management, nutrition and healthy coping — plus direct connections to local mental health resources for young people and the adults who care for them.
Training and real platforms for young people to run prevention work themselves — because a message from a peer lands differently than one from a podium.
Convening schools, nonprofits, health professionals, first responders and local businesses so families can find everything in one place — and stay connected to it year-round.
Prevention works when it is local. These are the agencies and organizations bringing expertise, people and resources to our programs.
Interested in joining them? Contact us to be part of THRIVE — we are still building the 2026 partner list.
Prevention, health and youth-serving organizations spent one Saturday together on the lawn at Eisenhower Park — 46 booths across eight zones. The full roster, the schedule and the booth map are on the THRIVE 2026 page.
Not every agency on the lawn is shown here — these are the ones whose logos we hold. Want a booth at the next one? Get in touch.
We're a young organization doing this from the ground up. Every one of these makes a measurable difference.
Tax-deductible gifts fund materials, speakers and activities. Every dollar goes into programming.
Give now →Local businesses can sponsor from $100 to $2,500+, or donate goods and services in kind.
Request the packet →Nonprofits, clinics, agencies and schools — a free 10×10 space on October 24. Bring an activity, a demonstration, or your resources.
Contact us to be part of THRIVE →Students and adults alike. Help plan, set up, staff a station, or join our youth leadership team.
Sign up →Whether you want to sponsor, partner, volunteer, or just learn more — we'd love to hear from you. We reply to everything.