Youth Leadership
Supporting youth leadership across Monterey County
Ciclovía Salinas
Since 2013 youth from the Salinas community put on an open streets event called Ciclovía Salinas. Ciclovía Salinas temporarily opens Alisal Street, extending from Salinas Street to Sanborn Road, for recreational activity. This temporary transformation of the streets allows residents to utilize the streets – participating in a wide range of physical activities, such as running, walking, biking, Zumba, as well as providing free access to a family day filled with hands-on activities and resources for children and adults.
Ciclovía Salinas is an opportunity for youth to discover their voice and leadership, as well as seeing themselves as assets in their community. It is also an entry point to civic engagement and a pathway to organizing.
Ciclovía Goals
To create a healthier and more vibrant community
Increase community youth voice by promoting active civic engagement
To stimulate the local economy
To unite the community
To change the narrative of the community
La Cosecha
La Cosecha focuses on education issues using a healing-informed organizing lens. La Cosecha focuses on strengthening student voice in school decision-making processes with the goals of impacting curriculum and culture by applying the most equitable means possible.
Youth Speaking Up Against Racism in our Schools
Thank you to all the youth for speaking your truth for not only yourself but your peers as well!
Seaside Rising
Seaside Rising’s purpose is to develop youth leadership through the co-development of a youth leadership academy with a focus on healing informed community organizing principles.
Our Why
The murder of George Floyd sparked a fire and a passion for justice in our youth in Monterey County. Seaside’s Black youth, in particular, signaled that they are ready to go into civic life and work for change. Starting in May 2020, BHC and local organizers conducted over 1,000 wellness calls to Seaside families to capture the issues they were facing during the pandemic. A number of families with youth described issues such as lack of leadership and skill development opportunities, not enough affordable extracurricular activities, no safe place to go and interact for teens, housing and food insecurities, youth employment, higher learning opportunities, incarceration of youth of color, and educational inequities.
Seaside Rising’s purpose is to develop youth leadership through the co-development of a youth leadership academy with a focus on healing informed community organizing principles.
Seaside Rising Goals
Understanding the root causes of inequities
Core racial equity concepts
Leadership skills
Communication skills
Relationship building
Healing spaces
Wellness Wednesdays
An impactful after-school program created to build the leader in your student. Our cohort encourages the youth to believe in themselves, become confident using their voices and develop skills that contribute to their school campus, their academic success and their community.
Wellness Wednesdays incorporates the importance of civic-engagement, wellness and healing circles, restorative justice and maximizes their role as leaders. Our teaching style is expressed through interactive games, lesson plans, self-assessments, group activities and guest speakers.
Areas of Cultivation
Courage
Motivation
Success
Advice
Direction
Goals
Coaching
Support
BHC Youth Leadership Impact
Xitlaly Olivera
A 21-year-old UC Berkeley student who became involved with Ciclovia Salinas and La Cosecha when she was 14, discusses the impact BHC’s programs have had on her life and future plans.
Erick Rocha
Who has been involved with BHC since his freshman year of high school, shares about his continued involvement with BHC and his project with Salinas youth.