RAMA Blueprints 5 Sisters Audio Garden

On February 8th, 2024 we facilitated a discussion about the current state of Juvenile Justice in San Francisco as part of our Tres Generaciones/Three Voices conversations. In this eXtra Commentary we are joined by two frontline staff of Tia Chucha’s Trauma To Transformation team Elvia Aguirre and Freddie Chavez. They work and serve youth incarcerated in various juvenile detention centers throughout Los Angeles County. They reflect upon the dialogue of the live podcast and comment on some of the similarities and differences between the Trauma To Transformation program and SF’s efforts.
This episode was produced and edited by Darren J. de Leon and Host Socorro Gamboa. Please consider donating to the RAMA Blueprints by visiting the CARECENSF.org website.

In 1969, the Real Alternatives Program called for the closure of SF’s Youth Guidance Center. 50 years later in 2019, the SF Board of Supervisors overwhelmingly approved the closure by the end of 2021. RAMA Blueprints hosts a live discussion with community members and leaders who were active in the Shut YGC down movement over the last 50 years. The discussion includes a lively intergenerational conversation between Alfredo Bojórquez(Court Alternatives Specialist, Office of SF Public Defender), Marlene Sanchez (Executive Director, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights), and Krea Gomez (Senior Program Officer, Rosenberg Foundation)moderated by Host Socorro Gamboa.
The live podcast was recorded at BRAVA For Women in the Arts' Cabaret. SHUT IT DOWN!: The Closure of Youth Guidance Center is part of our Tres Generaciones/Three Voices conversations.

In this extra for the RAMA Blueprints, we hear from three women who worked in the Real Alternatives Program's (RAP) CALLES Street Outreach program. We present this platica or dialogue to demonstrate how these two women, through consistency and relentlessness can lead to effective street outreach support services in response to community violence.
We talked with Donna Saffioti Johnson, the "Condom Lady" who began working at Horizons in March of 1988, and Michelle Alvarez Campos, a San Francisco Native, mother of two, practicing licensed clinical social worker who previously worked as a case manager with the CALLES program at the RAP.
Their story is one of the most underlying truths about this street intervention work, where there isn't a clear cut response plan in face-to-face engagements. They must rely upon their training, gut feelings and personal experience to bring forth the best traits within each human being they encounter. RAP's Calles program originally began as the Barrio Patrol in the late sixties to monitor police activity, provide safe passage for youth and guide youth development.
This episode was produced, written and edited by Darren J. de Leon and host Socorro Gamboa for the 5 Sisters Audio Garden. Please consider donating to RAMA Blueprints by visiting CARECENSF.org. Thank you and please share this show with 2 people.

In this RAMA eXtra, we hear commentary from Roberto Ariel Vargas, the Associate Director, Center for Community Engagement and Senior Staff for the Community Engagement Program and the Research Action Group for Equity of the Clinical and Translational Science Institute, of the UCSF. As a lifelong member of RAP's family, he talks about the parallels between his and Mitchel Salazar's life.
You can donate to the RAMA Blueprints by visiting the CARECENSF.org website.

In this eXtra for RAMA Blueprints, we hear from one of the Mission’s beloved sons, Orlando Torriente, who as a young man found his way out of a problematic life filled with drug use and criminal activity. He talks about his life with the Real Alternatives Program and the challenges of healing from trauma.
We thank all the private donors for their support of the RAMA Blueprints. To DONATE please visit CARECENSF.org. Thank you for listening.

In a multi-part episode, we begin to tell the story of Mitchell Salazar, the Real Alternatives Program's executive director from 1984 to 1999. We cover from the blocks of San Francisco's Bernal Heights as a young hustler with a deep entrepreneurial drive, to the legacy in the Mission for his You & I dances, to the young community leader who led RAP at the young age of 24, Mitchell's tenure at RAP, the level of youth services expanded, which also included starting a four year high school and a teen clinic.
Mitchell passed away in 2022. His story is a complex one filled with twist risk and opportunities. We follow a handful of events that not only help shape one of the San Francisco's Mission District's most effective community leaders, but also show what his heart and intentions were for the actions and decisions he made.
We are honored to have called Mitchell Salazar, our mentor, our friend, our brother.
This episode was written and edited by Darren J. de Leon and Host Socorro Gamboa for the 5 Sisters Audio Garden.
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