Community Partnership for Youth’s (CPY) mission is to provide positive alternatives to gangs, drugs, and violence while reinforcing individual strengths. Our vision is to provide youth with a safe, structured environment that encourages healthy boundaries, positive self-esteem, and the ability to make good choices for a full and successful life.
The three objectives for participants include building leadership confidence, gaining valuable life skills to build resiliency, and learning job skills, including work ethic.
High school students are assigned to a CPY school site with mentors who have been with the program for many years. They learn that making mistakes is an important process in learning, and necessary – that is, if one doesn’t move beyond one’s comfort zone, growth doesn’t occur. Students are taught to recognize that each child being mentored learns differently, and it is CPY’s job to figure out how to help each child be successful.
We are very proud of the flexibility and established work ethic our mentors have learned. This past fiscal year, 19 paid high school mentors worked 4,584 hours and earned a total of $72,131, adding to their family’s financial support. In addition, seven students are volunteering in anticipation of earning their first paycheck.
The reason I come to CPY is to gain knowledge on how to be a leader. I have worked on this throughout the years and continue to, hoping that one day I become an experienced and respected leader. CPY provides me with an opportunity to work alongside many other experienced leaders and learn from them. What I have learned in CPY is how to behave around kids. I have realized that a positive attitude is necessary to pass that positive energy to kids. This is important in order to establish a positive relationship with them. By having good energy, I can hopefully lift a kid’s spirit. Although I now understand the importance of this, I continue to work on it to ensure I have a positive attitude every day. -Rubi, Age 17, Seaside
- Rubi Anonymous
