Belvedere resident launches new space for Marin’s teens

Sally Newson stands in the Karma Club at Northgate mall, a new afterschool space for teens 13-19 opened by the Belvedere resident’s nonprofit, Wellify Teen. (via Sally Newson)

Editor’s note — This article won an honorable mention for best nonprofile feature story in the National Newspaper Association’s 2024 Better Newspapers Contest.

Last year, Belvedere resident Sally Newson was speaking to a Marin Catholic High School class about Wellify4Teens, an app she created to promote teen mental health, when a group of students approached her at the end of the session.

“We met and they said, ‘There’s nowhere for us to go in Marin County after school. There’s just nothing,’” Newson recalls.

They followed that up with a question: “They said, ‘Can you build us a space?’”

Newson has since made that request a reality. On Aug. 23, backed by an initial $50,000 grant from the Fullerton Family Foundation to Newson’s nonprofit, Wellify Teen, she opened Karma Club. The new after-school community space in San Rafael’s Northgate mall gives Marin teens ages 13-19 a place to study, participate in art projects, play games, munch on free snacks and just be.

Karma Club also collaborates with nearly two dozen nonprofits to offer enrichment programs on a variety of topics, from crocheting and stress management to deconstructing gender stereotypes and self-care, and to help teens connect to resources offered throughout the county.

The after-school program is intended to fill a long-neglected need among the county’s youth, Newson says.

“Teens need a space where they feel safe to experience real life, to connect, to engage and to navigate the world,” she says.

Newson, who has lived on Belvedere Island for five years, has long been attuned to the mental-health challenges teens face. She founded Wellify Teen in 2017; the Wellify4Teens app offers access to a clinical-level mental-health screening for teens, education about mental illness and resources for getting a diagnosis and treatment.

When the Marin Catholic students approached her about the lack of after-school gathering spaces, Newson says, they were repeating “a fact I’ve heard over and over for over a decade.” Through Wellify Teen, she had already secured the $50,000 grant from the Fullerton Family Foundation, through the Marin Community Foundation, that was earmarked to bring mental-health services to West Marin. She asked for and received permission to use those funds for the Karma Club and says she immediately thought of Northgate as the venue, noting the mall has been offering low-rent spaces to nonprofits as more brick-and-mortar retail shops shuttered.

She says she knew from the get-go that she wanted to involve other Marin nonprofits.

“It’s 100% a collaborative effort,” she says.

She notes there are a lot of great organizations serving teens throughout the county, but that work can sometimes feel a bit disparate, as one nonprofit may not have a real sense of what another is doing.

Her thought with Karma Club, she says, was, “Let’s bring them all together instead of competing with one another.”

That collaboration goes beyond just stocking the club’s “care corner” with brochures and other materials about some of the programs offered around the county, Newson says, to actually helping teens connect with those resources and putting them in touch with those who can offer the help they’re looking for.

“We don’t just say, ‘You can go there,’” Newson says. “Teens, they need help, they need a bridge. We’re like that bridge that will guide them.”

Those nonprofits — which include 10,000 Degrees, Buckelew Programs, the Canal Alliance, Bridge the Gap and the Spahr Center, among others — will also help sponsor events and lead workshops and classes on a wide range of topics, from mental-health and personal development to financial literacy and college readiness, Newson says.

In addition, the club is partnering with The Representation Project, a nonprofit founded by Jennifer Siebel Newsom, first partner of California, to pilot an eight-week peer-to-peer gender-equity course that trains college students to teach high-school students how to challenge gender norms and stereotypes.

It will also collaborate with the Child Mind Institute to bring the nonprofit’s Youth Mental Health Academy to up to 60 teens at Karma Club this summer. The program provides paid project-based learning and summer internships to rising high-school juniors and seniors from marginalized communities.

Newson says Karma Club plans to lease an additional vacant storefront in the mall, around the corner from its current space, to accommodate private classes, workshops and other events.

Karma Club’s site director has a degree in psychology and is a trained crisis counselor, Newson says. The club will also rely on a network of volunteers through Dominican University’s service-learning program and its psychology department.

Most of the students who participate in the after-school program, which currently runs 2-6 p.m. weekdays, are from Terra Linda High School, which is within walking distance of the mall; Newson previously met with the school’s principal, who included a Karma Club flyer in the school’s back-to-school communications, and is also promoting the club at San Rafael High School. However, she notes the club is open to all Marin teens ages 13-19, though participants must be registered in advance by their parents and can’t just walk in.

Since opening, she says, the club has already averaged about 20 students a day. She says she envisions the club growing organically as she ramps up advertising efforts, and she’ll decide on a daily capacity depending on staffing and other factors. She also hopes to continue adding activities, including Friday night events such as poetry slams and karaoke. Newson, who is working pro-bono to launch and run the club, plans to continue fundraising to sustain the program, relying on the Marin Community Foundation, private family foundations and corporate sponsorships and will eventually begin exploring grant opportunities.

She also wants to empower teens to help create programs and events they’d like to see in the space. For example, she says, a teen recently mentioned she’d like the club to have an activity focused on queer students, and Newson asked what she had in mind.

“She said, ‘Well, we do this drama-class exercise at school that the kids like, everybody loves it, and it would be so fun to do that here,’” Newson says. “And I said, ‘Let’s do it,’ and you should have seen the smile on her face.”

Newson says that type of exchange embodies the spirit of Karma Club.

“I really just believe that you get back from the world what you give, and this is the message I want to have abound in Karma Club,” she says.

She says she began seeing the type of impact the club could have even before it opened. She was inside doing some planning when two teens poked their heads in and asked about the club. They then left, she says, but one returned by himself about 10 minutes later.

“He said, ‘Can I ask you a question? Can you help me with depression? I have a lot of sadness,’” Newson recalls.

“My heart melted, and I said, ‘That’s why we’re here, and let’s talk,’ and we took it from there,” she says. “A big part of Karma Club is not doing this alone.”

She recalls a group of students who recently came in and began using the art kits provided in the space. Within minutes, she said, the kids were talking and opening up to each other.

“When you have an activity to do, it changes everything,” she says. “It provides a place to focus your energy while you’re bonding, connecting, laughing and having fun with friends.”

She says the initial response to the club is proof that teens want dedicated spaces where they feel free to express themselves.

“Teens are hungry for a sense of belonging, a sense of community and building authentic relationships with caring adults,” she says.

She notes that Karma Club has also been a personally rewarding endeavor for her, as she’s been spending several afternoons a week at the club.

“I believe in giving and have over the years contributed to a lot of different things, but there’s a difference between writing a check and being hands-on and establishing relationships with these kids,” she says. “It’s absolutely the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done in my life.”

She encouraged others to get involved, whether by volunteering or donating to ensure the club continues to thrive.

“Let’s come together as a community and serve these kids,” she says.

Reach Assistant Editor Emily Lavin, The Ark’s education and youth reporter, at 415-944-3841.