Dontae Lartigue

Dontae Lartigue is the CEO and Co-founder of a non-profit organization, Razing the Bar, that provides comprehensive mentorship and housing support services to current and former foster youth, as well as other under-resourced youth populations in San Jose. Believing that relationships are the key to successful youth development, Dontae’s organization has created a successful model of mentorship and housing support to help transition-aged youth (TAY) achieve permanent connections and self-sufficiency. 

Dontae is driven to pursue this work because of his own lived experience. He entered foster care at a very early age and lived most of his life in shelters, group homes and various foster placements in San Jose. Fortunately for Dontae, he had mentors that invested in him. After graduating from high school, Dontae attended DeAnza college where he earned an Associates Degree in Liberal Arts with an emphasis in Social and Behavioral Sciences. He then went on to receive his bachelor's degree in Psychology from San Jose State University. Through his life experiences, Dontae has come to strongly believe in the need to shift power from traditional systems of care to systems led by individuals with lived experience. He also believes in the power of collaboration between traditional homeless service and foster care organizations and his local communities as he has seen the change that is possible when coalitions bring together those with institutional power and those with lived experiences. As part of this work, Dontae serves as  Chair of the Lived Experience Advisory Board of Silicon Valley (LEABSV), sits on the Santa Clara County Continuum of Care (CoC) Board and is a former commissioner of the Joint Foster Youth Task Force Commission in Santa Clara County. He also serves on the De Anza College Student Services Committee and is a board member of Pivotal, an education and career support nonprofit which he participated in as a youth. Dontae is a proud husband and father of 4. Outside of his life's work, he loves spending quality time with his family. Dontae’s life commitment and passion is to connect with people, have dialogues, and reach deeper understanding. He would love to have a conversation with you!