HOW WE SERVE THE COMMUNITY . . . NOW

One Step A La Vez continues to serve the community during the pandemic in the following ways:

Digital Pivoting
After we moved all of our youth programming to digital platforms in March, we have begun re-opening in stages and limited ways.  Our daily drop in Zooms have been replaces with drop-by hours at the teen center.  We are allowing up to 6 youth at a time to come in and see their mentors and connect regarding resources.  Our LGBTQ+ support group meets each Wednesday with social distancing protocols and COVID-19 screening in place. We have been able to continue offering psycho-education, sex education and free counseling thanks to our community partners such as Coalition for Family Harmony. Our dedicated staff does outreach texts and phone calls to our nearly 200 youth members.  We have also used this time to reach out to alumni and youth with surveys to see how we can improve the program in the future. Staff have also been attending numerous trainings on topics such as, trauma informed care and LGBTQ cultural competency and are becoming certified in SMART recovery so that we can begin hosting our own drug and alcohol recovery programming for teens.

Hands On / Gloves & Masks On
During the summer months we were delivering hot meals to the teens homes every Thursday.  Our community food pantry based at the teen center has more than doubled its usual number of families needing assistance. We are so grateful to our staff and volunteers for making sure this needed pantry could adjust and continue.  Through this time we have continued to remind the community about the importance of the 2020 Census and to offer support and key messaging.

Outreach & Raising Youth Voices
Through the Conocimiento program we have been able to do more parent outreach than ever before while providing specific case management support for families as well as COVID-19 safety information.  We have continued to raise issues of disparity that affect our youth and community and to reach out to our County agencies and partners for support and current information so that we can bring that vital information back to the community as a trusted messenger.   We continue to center youth voices/input and encourage youth to step into leadership and planning roles.