RECLAIMING OUR YOUTH

Roseland Elementary KaBOOM! Playground Project

Measure O mini-grant helps bring a new playground to the children of Roseland Elementary School

The community turned out in force to build a KaBOOM! playground at the Roseland Elementary School on Saturday December 3.

Starting at 6:30 am, volunteers got into action preparing for the day and by 9:00 am, over 300 hundred volunteers started mixing and pouring 276 eighty lb bags (that's 22,080 lbs!) of concrete. They laid 385 cubic yards or 5 truck-loads of mulch, and sawed 201 pieces of lumber to build benches and arbors for people sit and enjoy watching the children at play.
The Kitchen volunteers prepared 340 burritos and, drinks, and countless snacks. At 3:00 pm everybody was celebrating and the playground was complete.

At noon on Tuesday, December 7 Roseland Elementary School student played on the new equipment for the first time.

The KaBOOM! Playground project was a true partnership of, PG&E, Roseland Elementary School, the KaBOOM! organization, Community Action Partnership of Sonoma County and over 300 people from the community who believe that helping people really can change lives.  The majority of the funding was provided by PG&E. Measure O provided funding to help Roseland Elementary and Community Action Partnership meet the local match requirement. 

Click here for a video of the event produced by PG&E.

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Youth Employment Center Spotlight

GEM Field Trip-Oakland Zoo

The YEC kicked off our first field trip with members from the Girls Empowerment Conference. We took a trip to the Oakland Zoo and enjoyed the diverse wild life (no we are not talking about our girls.) This was a first time for many of them to drive through Oakland and some of their preconceived notions  were challenged by what they hear or see in the media. The girls shared stories of being in Oakland and what they were taught about urban areas. Many were expecting to see a lot of ghettos and possibly get robbed.  Toni magnified their fears by making a point to lock the doors when we were at stoplights. All in all it was a great experience and they appreciated the beauty of the city and good food in Berkeley.

Sunflower Garden Success Story

Irwin Tenorio has been working at the Sunflower Community Garden in Santa Rosa. He has benefitted from the collaboration between Social Advocates for Youth and Double Punches which are two partnering agencies that sit on the Mayor’s Gang Prevention Task Force. In August, he spoke to the City Council on behalf of the proclamation for Gang Awareness Week. Irwin came into contact with SAY through the Clean Slate program. He wanted to remove his tattoos and part of the requirement was to volunteer at the Sunflower Garden. He was invaluable to the garden and he brought a lot of knowledge from working with North Bay Institute for Green Technology. This paid off in the long run and he has a paid position at the garden and is taking on more responsibilities as a an assistant supervisor.

Girls Empowerment Movement Field Trip

Our field trip to San Francisco was a success with the GEM girls. We spent the day with five girls in the City. We spent the day shopping for school clothes and enjoying the diversity of SF. Most of them rarely leave their town let alone go to the city.  We browsed briefly at Macy’s (some of them had never been inside, and were amazed at the cost), then went to H&M, DSW (Jen showed them the clearance basement), Ross, and Old Navy. The highlight of the trip was having lunch at Cheesecake Factory on the rooftop patio and the girls could soak up the sun and enjoy good food.