Job Readiness & Employment/Role Models (Mentoring)/Relationships with Police & Other Public Protection Agencies/Neighborhood Safety:
- Completed a 14th phase of operating the widely acclaimed Sponsored Employment Program in partnership with College Track, El Concilio, JobTrain, Live In Peace and Belle Haven Community Development Fund. SEP is an employment-based crime prevention strategy that provides positive income earning alternatives, mentoring and community connectedness opportunities for 14-24 year old EPA and Belle Haven/eastern Menlo Park (EMP) young people with multiple challenges to finding and or retaining employment. Summer 2018 SEP operations provided jobs for 80 youth and young adults and nine Peer Mentors (EPA/EMP college students home for the summer), with OEPA serving as SEP’s employer of record for the eighth year.
- Implemented Year 7 of an Executive Intern program offering Executive Director mentoring and other nonprofit leadership development opportunities to one EPA college student through a year-round employment experience.
Educational Excellence & Success:
- Continued to implement “YouthEPA at the Schools” as a school site-based component of youth-focused substance abuse prevention efforts. This program provided environmental prevention and leadership development training to 43 youth at Menlo-Atherton High School and East Palo Alto Academy.
- During 2018, OEPA received renewed SMC Measure K funding to operate Year 5 of the Behavioral Health Advisory Group Ambassador Team (BHAGAT) project at RCSD’s new Ravenswood Middle School (RMS). BHAGAT provides a culturally and linguistically diverse team of OEPA staff members to implement mental health-based crisis intervention support to RMS students suffering from trauma caused by violence.
BHAGAT is planned and implemented by a partnership led by OEPA and comprised of EPABHAG, RCSD, EPAPD and San Mateo County Office of Education and has produced impressive results indicative of a positive impact on student behaviors. This groundbreaking initiative provided case management and referral services to 30 RMA and 50 RMS/Chavez Academy students and their families, Youth Mental Health First Aid and Adult Mental Health First Aid training to over 47 school personnel and community members and school-wide awareness raising activities to over 300 RMA students, parents and staff members.
Health & Well-being
- Convened monthly meetings and other activities of the East Palo Alto Behavioral Health Advisory Group (EPABHAG) whose work is conducted in partnership with SMCBHRS and is supported by OEPA’s contract funded by SMCBHRS’ Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) grant.
- Coordinated EPABHAG’s efforts to implement the 11th Annual Family Awareness Night on May 17, 2018 as part of the national celebration of “May is Mental Health Awareness Month.”
Provided fiscal sponsorship and administrative coordination of the East Palo Alto Partnership for Mental Health Outreach (EPAPMHO), a collaboration with El Concilio, FAL and MCESBA, supported by a contract funded by SMCBHRS’ MHSA grant.
- Completed Year 10 and began Year 11 operations of The Barbara A. Mouton Multicultural Wellness Center (The Mouton Center or TMC), which is funded by OEPA’s contract work for SMCBHRS’ MHSA grant. Since its inception, The Mouton Center has provided safe space, drop-in leisure activities and other supports to 1612 unduplicated consumer-members dealing with mental health issues and their families. During 2018, TMC provided services to 125 unduplicated consumer-members, including duplicated 125 referrals to SMCBHRS for mental health services.
- Completed Year 9 and began Year 10 of operations of YouthEastPaloAlto (YouthEPA), a multi-year Drug Free Communities (DFC) federal grant to implement a city-wide, youth-led initiative to prevent/reduce alcohol and other drug use among EPA youth. YouthEPA operates in conjunction with the East Palo Alto Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition (EPASAPC), which is convened by OEPA and funded jointly by the agency’s contract work with SMCBHRS’s Alcohol and other Drugs Division and its DFC grant.
- Completed Year 6 and began Year 7 operations of The Barbara A. Mouton Multicultural Wellness Center (The Mouton Center or TMC), which is funded by the agency’s contract work for SMCBHRS’ MHSA grant. Since its inception, The Mouton Center has provided safe space, drop-in leisure activities and other supports to 1100 unduplicated consumer-members dealing with mental health issues and their families. During 2014, TMC provided services to 165 unduplicated consumer-members, including 20 referrals to SMCBHRS and other mental health services as well as other quality of life improvement services.
- Coordinated YouthEPA efforts to intensify ongoing substance abuse prevention work by implementing the highly successful Overnight Retreat for youth on August 3-4, 2018 and EPASAPC’s community-wide retreat, “Moving Toward a Substance Free Community” on September 15, 2018.
- Engaged 67 young people in year-round substance abuse/use prevention leadership work in weekly after school workshops conducted by the YouthEPA initiativ.
