1 year ago
25
FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) - Mondays are afloat of pistillate vigor astatine the Chicano Youth Center successful Fresno.
Every Monday, Hija's de Tonantzin, a women's empowerment group, comes unneurotic to bask community, food, and antithetic workshops. This week featured a free self-defense class, taught by Kalina Goodarzi.
"It's important conscionable to person the tools truthful that mode you consciousness like, okay, if thing were to happen, past I could fig my mode retired of it," said Goodarzi. "Essentially, of course, we don't ever privation to find ourselves successful that situation, but it's better to cognize than to not know."
In the 1970’s Alfonso Hernandez launched the Chicano Youth Center which started arsenic a master's task at Fresno State. Today the halfway inactive offers an array of antithetic younker services for everyone, empowering young radical to flooded poorness and prosecute acquisition and careers.
"We connection everything from pack intervention, to literacy programs, to parenting programs, to cooking classes," said Irene Serrano, Program Director of the Chicano Youth Center. "We person a Hood to the Woods programme wherever we're taking families from Fresno who different wouldn't beryllium capable to instrumentality a travel to the redwoods retired there.”
Cielo Gonzalez has been a subordinate of the Chicano Youth Center for a fewer years. She says having a abstraction that represents her civilization and individuality allows her to consciousness safe, supported, and loved.
"Having the Chicano Youth Center has been a large portion of my ain identity," said Gonzalez. "Being a Chicana present successful Fresno, I deliberation it's truly important to person that practice specifically, but not exclusively for america Chicanos and Chicanas."
Serrano has been a portion of the Chicano Youth Foundation since its aboriginal beginnings. She hopes a caller procreation of young radical who locomotion done the doors consciousness the enactment that she had truthful galore years ago.
"We property our life's occurrence to the clip we spent astatine the Chicano Youth Center," said Serrano. "The love, enactment and the nurturing that we received portion determination saved my beingness and saved the lives of truthful galore others that were from this vicinity and beyond. It was our brushed spot and our harmless spot to exist."
To donate oregon go a volunteer, visit the Chicano Youth Center's website.
