New home helps Youth Connections expand in Santa Rosa

A growing program that helps at-risk students make up class credits and earn their high-school diplomas is getting a new headquarters in Santa Rosa, one that administrators hope will give them more space to further expand enrollment and offer more services to students.

Youth Connections moved to North Dutton Avenue, next door to its parent agency, the Community Action Partnership of Sonoma County. The new location is three times larger than its former site, the South Park Youth Center off Temple Avenue.

“Every inch of the room was filled to capacity,” program manager Jason Carter said about the youth center.

Students packed into it for two years. Their desks bumped up against a bulky copy machine and staff workstations. Meanwhile, staff members had to make calls and meet clients in the same room with the students, some of whom were teen moms and needed to bring their kids to class when they couldn’t find baby sitters.

“(But) it’s much more than the space,” Carter said, adding that the move also will expose the 16- to 24-year-olds served by the program to a more businesslike setting.

“We’re able to have the students be part of this work-ready environment,” he said. “It’s setting them up for college.”

There are 34 students in the program, many of whom dropped out of school after not doing well in traditional classroom settings. Youth Connections will be able to accept more students in the future with the expanded location, Carter said.

In addition to helping them make up credits and get their diplomas by working with the John Muir Charter School, the program also offers career mentoring, leadership development and internships.

Student Carlos Arias wants to see the program continue to grow.

The 22-year-old Santa Rosa resident dropped out of school at 16. He was working at a winery when he decided he wanted to go to college and enrolled in the program.

“I realized I wasn’t going anywhere without my diploma,” said Arias, who initially was turned down because there was no room in Youth Connections.

Arias, who started the program seven months ago, said he’s learned new leadership and work skills. He also learned to put together a resume, which he said helped him land a job as a security officer.

“I probably wouldn’t have been able to get it without being here,” explained Arias, who wants to go into law enforcement. “When I meet someone walking the path I was on, I tell them about the program. I try to encourage them.”

Students will have access to internships and other services that Community Action Partnership already provides there, including career training and financial literacy and micro-business classes. It’ll be a one-stop shop, said Lucy Hernandez, the nonprofit’s programs director.

“We want to prepare our youth for jobs here locally,” she said. “We don’t want them to leave.”

Of the 20 students who graduated in June, more than half wanted to start their own businesses, Hernandez added.

The new location will be named the John Jordan Education Center, after the foundation that awarded the nonprofit a $25,000 matching grant to pay for much needed upgrades on the building, including the heating and air-conditioning system, Carter said.

However, officials said they still need to raise $25,000. They hope to do that by putting on breakfast fundraisers and reaching out to supporters in the community.

“Being in the building, they have a sense of pride,” Carter said about the youth. The new location includes a small library, kitchen, conference room and separate offices for the program’s staff.

“It’s nicer and cleaner,” said 17-year-old Yeimy Solorio, who seven months ago joined Youth Connections.

Solorio dropped out of school after she had her daughter, Dioselena, three years ago. She said she was working six days a week in the vineyards, pulling leaves off the grapevines when one of her older sisters encouraged her to enroll in Youth Connections and get her high-school diploma.

When she started the program, she couldn’t do more than just start up a computer.

“I didn’t know how to use a computer. I didn’t know how to do much,” said Solorio, who now finds herself using a computer daily to schedule and organize events as part of her paid internship that Youth Connections set up for her at Sonoma County’s Energy and Sustainability Division.

Her daughter also is enjoying the new site, which includes a free child care center.

Solorio, who hopes to one day work for an organization like CAP and do community outreach, said her daughter no longer has to sit on her lap during class. She said her daughter, who also attends the nonprofit’s Head Start program in the afternoons, can draw, play and have books read to her while she studies next door.

The nonprofit program plans to bring in someone to work with the children and prepare them for kindergarten as part of a school readiness program.

“What better way,” Hernandez said, “to have the children learn as the parent learns.”

You can reach Staff ?Writer Eloísa Ruano González at 521-5458 or eloisa.gonzalez@?pressdemocrat.com.