CENTER FOR COMMUNITY ADVOCACY

Under the health program, CCA trains neighborhood leaders to act as promotores comunitarios, or health promoters. After being trained, the promotores deliver, to their peers, preventative health information/interventions in the following areas: chronic diseases, behavioral health and youth violence prevention.   Promotores are trained by health service providers (Natividad Medical Center Family Practice Residency Program, Public Health Department of the County of Monterey (Behavioral Health Division), American Cancer Society, Diabetes Regional Collaborative (Santa Cruz County), Breathe California, Strengthening Families, etc.).

CCA’s youth violence prevention program, called Strong Families, is our latest initiative. CCA’s Strong Families Program aims at reducing youth violence by strengthening the role that families play in their children’s lives. The program trains CCA neighborhood leaders to help their peers incorporate certain strategies into their familial relationships. The leaders undergo a five week, five topic curriculum taught by certified trainers who, themselves, developed the curriculum. The curriculum includes the following topics: Family Values, Family Communication, Stress Management, Parenting Styles/Positive Parenting and Gang Awareness and Prevention. Once they finish their training, CCA deploys the neighborhood leaders to housing sites, schools and churches where they make presentations to their peers.
 
The CCA Strong Families Program is adapted from an evidence based program, called Strengthening Families, first developed at Iowa State University. Strengthening Families is a 7 week, 2 hour per week curriculum taught to at risk youth and their families. CCA contracted with the local Strengthening Families Program to modify the curriculum such that (1) CCA-trained neighborhood leaders could be taught as trainers and (2) the leaders could then teach the curriculum to their peers. The modifications include a curriculum reduced from ten to five topics and classroom sessions reduced from 2 hours per week to 1.5 hours per week. Strengthening Families staff provided the initial classroom training to the CCA neighborhood leaders and monitored the leaders’ initial presentations.

CCA’s vision for Youth for Change (Y4C) is to motivate youth to activate their potential, advance their aspirations and open the door to leadership and civic engagement opportunities through our programs and in their community. CCA supports Y4C youth by engaging in the following core strategies: a) cultivate youth trust, respect, and vision; b) prepare youth with information, opportunities, inquiry, and reflective practice; c) activate youth vision with access to change-oriented experiences, decision-making roles, partner connections, and relationship-building; and, d) recognize youth achievements with acknowledgement, celebration, and ongoing inspiration. Further, to increase the potential of future engagement, CCA has developed a 3 tier structure to maximize participation from the youth while providing hands on experience to those participating within the tiers.