Central American Youth Leadership Conference 2016

Youth Seeking Peace and Prosperity!

Date: Friday, December 2nd, 2016
Time: from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm

Homies Unidos Report of the 2015 Conference

Location:
California State University Los Angeles,
Inauguration & General Assembly
Student Union U-SU Theater 106

Workshops:
Third Floor – Los Angeles Room and San Gabriel Room
5154 State University Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90032

Registration Packet

Parking: $6.00*

Last year’s successful conference provided services to close to 250 youth and families. We felt the need to do it again. This year’s conference will address today’s structural violence and the status of our refugee youth through workshops engaging youth, their families, and educators. During the conference a resource fair with a diverse range of resources for refugees and their families will be provided. We will have workshops on, extended education, violence prevention, know your rights, health and integration will be provided during the morning and afternoon. We will culminate with a musical performance that exalts the mixing of cultures: refugees, communities, schools, and the families receiving them.

Unaccompanied minors from Central America Series 08/07/15 /LOS ANGELES/ Unaccompanied minor from Central America Jose Rivas speaks to La Opinion during a youth leadership training at St. John’s Well Child & Family Center in South Los Angeles. The program provides Central American youth leadership training and advocate to gain support. (Photo by Aurelia Ventura/La Opinion)

08/07/15 /LOS ANGELES/Event Page:

Students participating in the educational workshops will be briefly introduced to some basic themes in Social Science, U.S. and World History, Culture, Geography, and Health Education, and Arts and Music Content Standards. CAR youth will learn leadership development skills by actively participating in our organizing committees and as co-facilitators in the development of this conference.

Thousands of these refugees migrate daily struggling for their life and future. Although they are fleeing the structural violence in the form of gang violence, drug trafficking, and poverty, we unfortunately still do not recognize their refugee status,. From October 2013 to date, according to data published by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), Unaccompanied Minors total 123,353 and counting. A 13% (15,458) have been relocated with relatives or guardians, in our state of California. In the last 9 months 2,893 of these youth have joined Los Angeles County.

They embarked on a dangerous journey through Mexico and ended as detainees in detention centers in the U.S. Once released to their parents/guardians, their dreams and hopes of starting a new life free of violence has not been easy due to the complex transition and integration within their families, community, and schools. This only adds to their anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Many of them are also victims of crime in the communities they are now calling home. Homies Unidos is working to help these youth integrate into their communities, homes, and schools, but there is much more work to do. This is the reason we are having this conference for the second time. We want to provide opportunities for those who are struggling academically or dropped out of school by connecting them with educational alternatives. Our conference promotes: academic achievement, critical thinking, a responsibility for learning, self-motivation, self-discipline, collaborative work, community and environmental responsibility, cultural awareness, and positive change in our diverse communities.

We invite you to come and learn about the work community organizations are doing to protect these youths and how you can be a lending hand to help these youths feel welcome in a new country.