Providing Life Skills to Learn, Earn and Thrive

Our program/Project will work with School Districts, Community and civic leaders and other community Based organizations. CRC has a wide network and access to resources that will be utilized to complete our mission and goals. Since this is a new effort I am using this space to convey that, although we have not confirmed our collaborators, we have already initiated outreach to ensure that we will form collaborations and a support network.

Community Safety

Pilot or new project, program, or initiative

Each of our family members were bolstered as youth by community and civic programs and resources that don’t exist today. Each one of our siblings attended Upward Bound, which affected a very small portion of youth in our communities but due to the fact that Upward Bound was a continuous program, throughout high school, those that attended were prepared to succeed in higher education and the workforce. Competition among nonprofits to obtain resources have lead to more of an emphasis on micro successes as opposed to macro successes. We understand what it is like to face obstacles and quite frankly dangerous circumstances. Raymond Ramirez who is our expert on Life Skills, was almost killed at the age of 19 by two gang members that were on PCP and he managed to fight them off alone and drive himself to the Emergency Ward. Our experiences and breaking through barriers have fueled our desire to instruct, guide and enable those less fortunate to have a fighting chance to succeed in life.

Beginning with two distinct areas in Los Angeles County, Pasadena California and Elysian Heights in the Northeast area of the City of Los Angeles, CRC will implement programs such as STRATEGIES FOR LIFE SUCCESS (SFLS). SFLS Is a six module life and soft-skills program designed to help individuals succeed personally and professionally. SFLS helps participants focus on understanding their behaviors, attitudes and relationships with others to improve their work and personal lives. Curriculums centered on Life Skills will be offered to students from age 5-18. A special emphasis will be placed on students age 15-18, in order to assist them during a critical age where they are seeking jobs and higher education. Each community we have worked with, rich or poor, has benefited from our Life Skill curriculum, yet, we have found that the most effective programs have stemmed from an understanding of the immediate and long term needs of each unique community. Our dashboard of services ranges from peer mediation to successful job seeker habits. Often times though, communities face crisis’s that can be detrimental, such as school violence or racial conflict. CRC can immediately work with schools and communities to address these issues in a timely manner. CRC will provide comprehensive services that go beyond the scope of a traditional student peer mediation program, where youth and adults will be partners in issues such as violence prevention.

The documented impact of this program is measured in an entire school population and also its surrounding community. All youth within a school will be affected. Our program will work with 2 high schools 2 middle School and 2 elementary Schools. Furthermore the skill sets that youth will learn will have an impact on each of their families. If each school has an average enrollment of 300 students than we will be affecting 1800 students and more specifically some of those students will earn certificates in matters such as Conflict Resolution and Peer Mediation, that will benefit their school. Also, teachers at each school will be trained in programs such as Anti-bullying, Peer Mediation and Empathy. An example of a specific impact will stem from our programs that will target cases involving suspensions, poor attendance, disrespectful student behavior towards school officials, parent complaints, teacher-administration disputes, and community complaints against school sites.

We are looking at youth living in communities that within the next ten years will not be able to afford to live in their own neighborhoods. Due to gentrification and rent increases our program participants will have to move out of their own neighborhoods to make way for individuals with higher wage earnings. Our programs will provide pathways to obtaining higher paying jobs and higher education that will give them a fighting chance of living and purchasing real estate In the communities that they grew up in and have roots. We will demonstrate that through our Life Skill and self-advocacy programs coupled with collaborators that specialize in assisting marginalized communities we can affect the lives of our targeted youth. Our success will be measured by the ability of our programs to provide life skills in a short time period to address student success and to provide skill sets that will impact the lives of individuals and communities on an ongoing basis.

Specific roles and functions of collaborative partners have not been determined. I must stress that this will be a collaborative effort but we are in the beginning and negotiating stages of developing our partners and support network. An example of our capacity can be seen in our attached video which demonstrates our Executive Director's ability to make a huge impact on a community with a small staff, collaborations and volunteers.