Program Information OUR HOUSING FOR FARMERS
We help farmworkers organize housing-site committees for the purpose of improving substandard conditions in the housing units that they occupy. CCA also helps farmworkers to mobilize members from the various housing committees to advocate for the construction of new, quality, affordable housing for farmworkers and other low-income working families.
OUR HEALTH PROMOTERS
CCA trains neighborhood leaders to act as promotores comunitarios, or health promoters. After training, 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.
The majority of CCA-trained volunteer promotoras are also mothers. They dream of providing a better future for their children. They dream of helping to create healthy, safe and strong neighborhoods.
Our volunteer health promoters are one of the most significant pillars of Center for Community Advocacy (CCA) in its efforts to provide education, orientation and health support.
YOUTH FOR CHANGE
YOUNG PEOPLE DISCOVER THEIR COLLECTIVE POWER THROUGH ORGANIZING TOGETHER
Back in 2014, CCA Lead Organizer Joel Hernandez began recruiting for Youth for Change the hard way, distributing flyers at a bus stop near La Paz Park, in East Salinas. CCA’s organizing team engaged youth with cleanups, door-to-door campaigns, and traditional gatherings like Christmas “posadas” and Day of the Child celebrations. For participating in these efforts, volunteers received community service hours, required by local high schools to graduate. Successful events helped Youth for Change spread the word.
When members of the group joined other youth and parent residents helping advocate for Acosta Plaza’s basketball court and recreation area, Hernandez knew they had started something significant.
From the beginning, young people led the way by expressing ideas. They then took initiative, building actions and bringing their original thoughts to life.
“There were two different branches,” recalls Hernandez of their concerns. “One of them was civic engagement, and the other component was higher education . . . How do I go to university? Am I taking the right classes? Am I looking ahead five years, and knowing where I’ll be?”
Interest in how government works led to two successful campaigns by Youth for Change, both non-partisan efforts. The first of these, a voter-registration drive in a targeted East Salinas precinct, led to a ten-percent increase in that precinct’s turnout. The second, the political forum, was a real achievement in leadership for its young organizers.