Youth Connections adds Healdsburg site to serve northern Sonoma County

Determined to catch up on school credits, Rey Lopez spent the past month waking up at 5:45 a.m. to board a bus from Healdsburg to Santa Rosa. Dropped off near Coddingtown Mall, he had to walk more than a mile to Youth Connections on Dutton Avenue, where he was taking classes at a high school diploma and career readiness program for at-risk youth.

He was never late.

But Lopez, 17, no longer needs to travel so far to attend class. Youth Connections last week opened a site at the Healdsburg Community Center, a roughly 15-minute walk from Lopez’s home.

“I can catch up on my sleep,” he said.

The new branch marks the latest expansion for the 3-year-old program, which last year moved its headquarters into a larger space on Dutton Avenue, next door to its parent agency, the Community Action Partnership of Sonoma County.

In addition to helping 16- to 24-year-olds make up credits and get their diplomas by working with the John Muir Charter School, the program also will offer college mentoring, leadership and workforce development and internships.

Jason Carter, the program manager, plans to roll out those services in about six months at the Healdsburg site, where 14 students are enrolled. The Santa Rosa site has 35 students.

“The leadership and workforce development is just as important as their high school diplomas,” Carter said.

“Right now,” he said, “it’s about being here and helping our students reconnect to their academics.”

On Thursday, Lopez and more than a dozen other students kicked off their morning with a journal entry, describing an image of a woman surrounded by dark clouds on the projector. They then focused on preparing presentations for Mental Illness Awareness Week, which kicked off Oct. 4.

“This prepares them for public speaking,” teacher Heather Tait said about the presentations.

Some of the students were researching the economic impact mental health has on the U.S., while others were looking at the biology of mental illnesses and how they have been treated over the generations.

“Their lives tend to get in the way,” Tait said about her students, who sat quietly at their desks, deeply immersed in their research.

“They had situations that didn’t allow them to complete the (school) work,” she said. “They all want to be here … . We will do whatever we can to make them successful.”

One student talked about the impact his mother’s alcohol and drug addiction had on him, while another discussed his struggles with attention-deficit disorder. One girl struggled with school after her father died, and another talked about being a single mom.

In spite of their challenges, the students didn’t lack a desire to pursue higher education and careers.

One student wants to go to culinary school and eventually open a restaurant. Another wants to go into criminal justice.

Mariah Sanchez, 17, of Healdsburg would like to be a lawyer or cosmetologist. She’s also thinking about photography and modeling.

“I obviously want to graduate and get my diploma,” she said to her classmates.

Sanchez was taking classes at Marce Becerra Academy after struggling at Healdsburg High School. But she said she chose to switch for a second time after an official at the alternative school told her she would never graduate and instead urged her to get her GED - something Sanchez did not want to do.

“I wanted to actually finish my education and get a high school diploma,” she said, adding that she’s found better footing at Youth Connections.

“All we want is to get an education,” Sanchez said. “We just have a different way of learning.”

Traditional high school wasn’t a good fit for Lopez, who found the class schedule stressful and students who liked to pick fights a distraction. Although football kept him grounded for a while, he said he started to fall behind his junior year.

“I wasn’t disappointed at the school. I was disappointed in myself,” he said.

Told he would not graduate on time, Lopez turned to Youth Connections after an official at Healdsburg High recommended the program.

A 17-year-old student who wished to only identify herself by her first name, Esmeralda, said she, too, struggled to concentrate in a traditional school.

“You’re not just leaving with a diploma,” she said about the Youth Connections program. “You’re leaving with skills you’re going to need later in life.”

Tait said the lessons are individualized for each student, but all will learn about putting together a resume, crafting emails to potential bosses, time management and other important skills they’ll need in the workplace.

Educators first identified the need for a site in the north county about three years ago, when nearly 70 students dropped out of schools in that area. He hopes to one day expand the program into the west county and Sonoma Valley.

It’s a model that’s helped dozens who dropped out of school or weren’t doing well in traditional classrooms succeed. Nearly three dozens students have completed the program and received their diplomas since its inception in 2012, Carter said.

He said more than half of the students who completed the program were young moms and all came from low-income households. Nearly all of them have gone on to college or landed jobs, Carter said.

“This program is just the beginning,” he said. “Once they complete the program, that’s when their journey begins. We want to prepare them.”

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