Rural Reflection Conference

April 2010

10 students attended the WSU Horizons Rural Reflections Conference held in Moses Lake. Students attended a variety of workshops and meetings dealing with a variety of subjects including youth entrepreneurship, talks about the growing Hispanic Community; youth and adult partnerships; fundraising and boardsmanship; and how to use Grantstation (a grant finding database). Youth took the opportunity to network with other community members and truly show that youth are able to be a difference in their community when given the opportunity to try.

Gang Awareness

April 2010

La Vozes co-sponsored an evening of local gang information for parents. Wahluke SRO (School Resource Officer) Grant County Sheriff Deputy L. Sanchez led a 2 ½ hour presentation to 100 community members on the growing local gang problem. Various presenters (including former gang members) were on hand to discuss how they entered gang life ad what local parents can do to keep their children form entering gangs. Youth were not allowed to attend the meeting, as pictures of local gang members (those who place their pics on facebook, twitter, and other multimedia sites) were shown to the community to enforce that idea that gang members are in the area, and many local youth claim affiliation to these gangs.

LEAP Conference

February 2010

Six members of La Vozes group attended the Latino Educational Achievement Project (LEAP). Attending various workshops with the goal that “all students will graduate from high school with the skills, acknowledged and confidence needed for success in post secondary education or in today’s information age and technology-driven workplace”. LEAP activities included:
•A legislative Day
•Student Leadership forums
•Public Education Workshops
•Advocating at the State Legislatures
•Educating and Advising Students how to create change in their communities using local government channels.

Community Survey

Students assisted the North Columbia Community Action Council in distributing and acquiring the 2009 Community Survey. The survey a pamphlet 15 pages long consisting of 45 quetions gathering knowledge of community members experience, participation, invovlement of thier community and people's ideas of how to improve poverty in their region. Students acted as interpretors for those who spoke and/or read only in Spanish. The students handed out 250 surveys in the first round. In return North Columbia Community Action Council sponsored 14 studetns to attend the 4-H Summer teen Connference, held in Pullman.

Student Cultural Exchange

La Voz de Los Jovenes was invited to attend a 2-day student culutrual exchange with some youth from Eqaudor at Washington State University in Pullman. Six students from the program were selected to represent Wahluke High School and meet with the equador students to discuss poverty and what it looks like, what can be done and how to find some common ground to dealing with poverty issues even from across the world.

During the workshop students were given the chance to particiapte in a wall climbing exercise, some were more than happy to particpate, some were happy to provide the much needed encouragment and moral support.

Part of the workshops was to teach students abouts creating documentaries.

Community Gang Awerness Seminar

The Horizons Program, Voz de Los Jovenes and the Wahluke School District sponosred an evening workshop to inform the community on the growing gang problems and what parents and other community members should look for and whay they can do to help in the preventiatve efforts to stem the growing problem.

Nearly 200 community members were in attendance.

Study Circles

After completion of the facilitator training and the several community meeting the following action items were identified:

• Establishment of a Horizons Club at the Wahluke High School
• Improve and/or increase local Public Transportation
• Increase the understanding that higher education plays in reducing poverty, and how it can be accessed
• Increase participation in local governmental agencies by youth.
• Increase knowledge of the gang presence (and preventative measures) to the community
• Increase knowledge of how parent can access local educational establishment.
• Increase community knowledge of existing social service programs and how to better access their services
• Increase the communities knowledge and prevention efforts in teen pregnancy, domestic violence and other factors that contribute to generational poverty.
• Increase the knowledge and provide the skills that help in the communities grant writing and fundraising efforts to increase community sustainability.

Message to the Community

Why a Youth Project?

True poverty reduction must start in the hearts and minds of the people who live it day-to-day. But to truly maintain long term poverty reduction we must reach youth. It is there that we will end the cycle of generational poverty, it is there that we must plant the idea that a life without poverty is truly achievable. We always tell youth that the future is theirs - what we are doing with a youth project is exactly that - we are giving them the training, the skills and the desire to change their future and that of their community.

- Tony Garcia
- Horizons Community Coach

Community Labels

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