OUR PROGRAMS
PROGRAMS
Intensive Life Coaching
For nearly a decade, CYO has provided intensive life coaching to youth and young adults in Oakland at the highest risk for violence. CYO’s model of Intensive Life Coaching involves maintaining close, constant contact with young people to establish strong relationships, provide support, and, ultimately, connect them to services and opportunities.
CYO employs Life Coaches who share similar life experiences as the young people we serve and have a deep connection to the neighborhoods where our young people live. Life Coaches establish trusting relationships with young people; work with them to develop detailed Life Plans addressing their individual risks and needs; connect them to services, supports, and opportunities; and help keep them safe, out of the justice system, and successful.
Violence Reduction Coordination
CYO’s Violence Reduction Coordination involves three key steps: Identify, Locate and Engage. Violence Reduction Specialists identify individuals at the very highest risk of being involved in gun violence, locate those individuals using their knowledge of and connection to the community, and engage them in intensive life coaching. CYO establishes a strong presence in Oakland’s most under-resourced neighborhoods. Trained Violence Reduction Specialists interrupt impending acts of violence on the street, mediate brewing conflicts, and provide hope and direction to the highest risk young people most in need.
Healthy, Wealthy and Wise (HWW)
Young people enrolled in CYO’s services have the opportunity to participate in weekly culturally relevant and trauma-informed cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) groups through CYO’s Healthy, Wealthy & Wise (HWW) transformative mentoring program. HWW guides at-risk young people through a series of facilitated group sessions addressing decision-making, identity, overcoming pain and trauma, and life skills development. Over the 14-week course, young people strengthen resilience and build capacity to avoid harmful behavior.
Collective Healing
CYO’s Collective Healing program creates opportunities to include the young people we serve in community-wide conversations and efforts to increase health and safety in Bay Area neighborhoods. CYO clients participate in a series of listening sessions with diverse community members, including law enforcement, faith leaders, business owners, and peers to share their perspectives and contribute to collaborative efforts.