Getting to ask questions to the CASP people and interact with the mayor for me, was, to begin with, a great point of interest as in the country I come from it is almost impossible for us as citizens to even get the chance to see our ministers. The fact that CASP puts in the time and effort to engage with members of the community who have been , because of their disadvantaged backgrounds, marginalized and faced hardships growing up was heartening to hear and in the leaders of CASP groups found themselves a safe place to open up, connect with and talk to people who were making an effort to bridge the gap between the haves and have nots.
It was very humbling to see how many people come together with a common agenda to have programs targeted toward uplifting the conditions for the disadvantaged youth. However to give credit to Lorena’s point on there not being a severe under-representation of youth at the meeting I feel that it was yet again a situation of “giving voice to the voiceless”, where the people being targeted were not part of the process.
For the afternoon session we went to Rancho Cielo and I was pleasantly surprised to learn about the various program initiatives that were being implemented as a part of the re-integration process. The entire hands on learning approach with the focus being on expanding exposure for accommodating the various needs of people ranging from culinary to music needs was heartening and encouraging to learn about. The re-direction program targeted toward people from all ages and inclusive of varied learning styles was very impressive.
The student garden that was built by the students and having the extra advantage of the potential of them to be viewed as science classes was an added incentive as well. Even though transportation was a challenge faced by the people running the program because of the location – it was not a barrier strong enough for the woman running the program to stay strong in her desire to be committed to work with youth who want to make their lives better. It was so inspiring to hear how some members who became successful within their respective field would come back, share their stories and provide the members of the community a source of inspiration !
The housing facilities being free of cost and very respectable conditions whilst also having the benefit of there being an RA as a part of the program as well seemed to be a very effective way to provide people with a role model as well as structure in order to aim at improving their lives.
Overall for me the most impactful part of the day was getting to meet Mr. Kelly and Mrs. Adele and hear them about talk about their time serving as ex chief and current chief of the Salinas police department. Getting to listen to what they had to say about about the impression people have of the police, being a Latina woman serving in a predominantly male dominated position and providing insight on the shoot to kill vs shoot to eliminate the threat policy was a huge learning for me today.
The beautiful Rancho Cielo.
