For Our Future / Para Nuestro Futuro campaign: Community Alliance for Safety and Peace (CASP)

Run to benefit Community Partnership for Youth

The 22nd Annual Rio Grill's Resolution Run will be held on Jan. 1 and benefits Community Partnership for Youth.

Community Partnership for Youth provides safe, positive alternatives to gangs, drugs, and violence by providing a safe place where children discover new possibilities in life.

US Attorney General Holder on the Importance of Our Mission

Following last week's meeting in DC of the National Forum on Youth Violence (repesentatives from Salinas and CASP were there), United States Attorney General Eric Holder wrote this blog post about the importance of the effort we're all engaged in -- and about signs that it's working:

In DC, Salinas & CASP Work with National Partners to Reduce Youth Violence

A delegation from the City of Salinas and the Community Alliance for Safety and Peace has recently returned from Washington, DC, where members worked on violence reduction with partners from the federal government and five other cities (pictured: Salinas Community Safety Director Georgina Mendoza and Thomas Apt, a Senior Policy Advisor at the Department of Justice).

Success a la carte: Rancho Cielo cooking program gives each student many options

Saute pans, China cap strainers and mise en place (kitchen-speak for food set-up) weren't always part of Jason Potts' repertoire. A year and a half ago, the 23-year old Salinas native was on his way to prison for violating his probation.

"I was on drugs and homeless," Potts said.

That's when a friend told him about the Drummond Culinary Academy at Rancho Cielo, a learning and social-services complex for at-risk, low-income youth in Salinas.

Assembly Member Alejo Honors Debbie Aguilar of ATFG

28th District Assembly Member Luis Alejo has honored Debbie Aguilar with a special resoultion. After her son Stephen was killed, Debbie channeled her grief into founding A Time For Grieving, a group that helps parents who have lost children to violence and works to restore peace.

Assembly Member Luis Alejo and Debbie Aguilar