Tri-Valley Nonprofits Awarded $34,500 as Student Builds Scam-Call App

The Tri-Valley Nonprofit Alliance (TVNPA) has announced the final 11 recipients of its 2026 Tri-Valley Nonprofit Fund grants, distributing $34,500 to local community organizations and bringing its full-year 2026 total to 34 grants totaling $100,000 across Livermore, Pleasanton, Dublin, San Ramon, Danville, and Sunol (The Independent). Across the Tri-Valley, the Patriots Foundation of California is preparing for its 2026 Patriots Ball at Concannon Winery in Livermore on Saturday, Nov. 7 (The Independent), the Dublin Office of Economic Development scheduled a free entrepreneur workshop at the Dublin Civic Center (The Independent), and Foothill High School junior Aarush Sharma in Pleasanton is beta-testing a cryptographic caller-verification app called CallVerify (The Independent).

Tri-Valley Nonprofit Alliance Distributes $34,500 to 11 Organizations

TVNPA President and CEO Kathy Young said the final 2026 round of $34,500 supports residents from newborns and foster youth to seniors and adults with disabilities (The Independent). While individual grant amounts were not disclosed, the 11 recipients and their planned projects include:

• Agape Villages Foster Family Agency, which will certify 6 new resource families to create homes for up to 30 children in the Tri-Valley.
• Goodness Village, which will provide resiliency training for 15 staff members focused on recovering from stress, adversity, or trauma.
• Livermore Valley Arts, which will apply its funding toward The Great Elephant Migration, a traveling exhibition of 30 life-sized elephant sculptures on display in Livermore through Sunday, Dec. 6.
• The Bay Area chapter of Sewa International, which will train 25 adult volunteers in Youth Mental Health First Aid.
• System Overload Robotics, a student-led FIRST Robotics Competition team in Livermore, which will give more than 60 high school students free access to computer-aided design software and an engineering curriculum.
• Fertile Groundworks (planting winter food crops at its Garden of Grace site for food banks and community kitchens), Z-Cares Foundation (mental-health presentations for youths and adults), Little Miracles (diapers, baby formula, car seats, and cribs), the Alameda County chapter of Sleep in Heavenly Peace (beds for children), Spectrum Community Services (Meals on Wheels leadership development and staff cross-training), and Sunflower Hill (upgrading the fitness room and makerspace at Irby Ranch in Pleasanton).

Patriots Ball at Concannon Winery and Dublin Business Workshop

In Livermore, the Pleasanton-based Patriots Foundation of California will host the 2026 Patriots Ball at Concannon Winery, 4590 Tesla Road, at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 7 (The Independent). The evening includes a cocktail hour, formal dining, dancing, raffles, and ceremonies honoring veterans and active and retired first responders, with tickets available at patriotsfoundationca.org. Proceeds benefit Runestone Ranch, a 102-acre retreat outside Livermore offering peer-driven wellness, training, and stress-relief programs for law enforcement and first responders.

In Dublin, the Dublin Office of Economic Development organized a free 1-hour workshop titled "Starting a Business: The Process and Resources for Starting a Business in Dublin" at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 27 at the Dublin Civic Center, 100 Civic Plaza, covering site selection, city planning, building permits, business licenses, and 1-on-1 consultations with city staff (The Independent).

Pleasanton Junior Aarush Sharma Develops CallVerify Anti-Spoofing App

In Pleasanton, 16-year-old Foothill High School junior Aarush Sharma — a member of the school's computer science, cybersecurity, and robotics clubs and a USA Computing Olympiad (USACO) participant — built and self-funded CallVerify, an iPhone app and backend server designed to detect spoofed caller IDs before a recipient answers (The Independent). According to the Federal Trade Commission, consumers submitted more than 1 million reports of imposter scams in 2025, reporting $3.5 billion in losses.

After testing the system across 2 iPhones, Sharma opened a beta test with 20 participants via Apple's TestFlight platform and filed a patent application for the technology. When both parties on a call have CallVerify installed, each device stores an on-device cryptographic key; the caller's phone signs a 1-time challenge and the recipient's phone displays "Verified," "Not verified," or "Couldn't check" while ringing. Sharma plans to release the iPhone app on the App Store in the coming months, followed by an Android version and verification tools for banks and credit unions via callverify.app (The Independent).