Core Partners

Camp Afflerbaugh-Paige
6621 N. Stephens Ranch Road
La Verne, CA 91750
LA County Office of Education

Contact:
Urban Fellow: (909) 607-8183

Faculty Liaison:
Susan Phillips - Professor of Anthropology

CCCSI operates a cultural enrichment program at Camp Afflerbaugh-Paige, a juvenile detention camp/high school in LaVerne. Since the program's inception, CCCSI has incorporated poetry and spoken word lessons into a continually developing literacy curriculum. We also offer enrichment programs in the visual and performing arts, as well as an outdoor classroom including organic gardening.

At the end of each semester, Pitzer College hosts an event in celebration of the work completed by the wards at Afflerbaugh-Paige. Entitled “Borrowed Voices,” the event entails Pitzer students and community members reading Camp students' spoken word poetry and other works during evening peroformances. The Borrowed Voices event is so titled because the youths that author these works cannot leave the camp to read them in public. This year (2007-08) will be the first year the young men will be allowed to have their voices heard along with their words. Our intent is to disseminate this more positive side of Camp culture to educate the public at large, in particular, the Pitzer student body about the lives of Camp youth. A community book drive to augment the Camp library's holdings will also take place on performance evenings.

HERO Program (Homework Enrichment & Reading Outreach)
1412 South Euclid Ave.
Ontario, CA 91762
Ontario Montclair School District

HERO has a community garden that was funded through a grant from the 3M Corporation. Urban Fellows worked with Pitzer volunteers to implement a garden curriculum. HERO students have hands on experience in learning about nutrition and agriculture while growing their own food.

Prototypes
831 E. Arrow Highway
Pomona, CA 91767
(909) 398-4383
www.prototypes.org

Contact:
Urban Fellow: (909) 607-8183

Faculty Liaison
Laura Harris - Professor of English and World Literature

Prototypes, Centers for Innovation in Health, Mental Health, and Social Services, is a nonprofit organization providing state-of-the-art services to over 10,000 women and children each year. Included among these women are those who are homeless, those addicted to drugs and alcohol, those living with and at-risk for contracting HIV/AIDS, those who are diagnosed with mental illness, and women who are victims of violence.

REACH LA
1400 E. Olympic Blvd.
Suite 240, Los Angeles, CA 90021
(213) 622-1650, ex107
www.reachla.org

Contact:
Urban Fellow: (909) 607-8183 

Faculty Liaison
Gina Lamb - Professor of Media Studies

REACH LA provides training in health education, media arts and technology to educate, motivate, and mobilize youth to maintain healthy lifestyles, to improve themselves and their communities and to help fight the spread of HIV/AIDS. In the summer of 2002, CCCSI interns Jose Calderon and Jorge Nava worked to create a web-based safe-sex presentation and gave media arts workshops at REACH. They also developed an assessment of the effects of REACH's website on sexual knowledge. Pitzer students also helped youth create personal documentaries and a youth magazine including their stories dealing with sexual identity, health issues, and peer education.

Pomona Economic Opportunity Center (PEOC, aka Day Labor Center)
P.O. Box 2469
Pomona, CA 91796
Tel: (909) 397-4215
www.pomonadaylabor.org

Contact:
Urban Fellow: (909) 607-8183 

The Pomona Economic Opportunity-Day Labor Center provides a safe, legal site for day laborers to gather and act collectively to ensure safe, fair working conditions for its members. Professor Calderon, faculty liaison, is a founding member of the organization and currently serves as secretary of the Center's Board of Directors.
 
An ambitious set of goals has been established for this core partnership. CCCSI and Center staff work together to:

1. Educate the day laborers still on the streets about the Center's services and benefits Train new volunteers to teach English as a Second Language classes. Develop a health care needs assessmment and a network for accessing health care services. Mediate conflicts and take action to prevent disputes between employers and employees, which includes wage claim disputes.
2. Create a community environment of shared leadership so that workers feel a sense of ownership in their Center.

The Pomona Day Labor Center recently relocated to a trailer in front of the Contractor's Warehouse on Mission Blvd. Under the guidance of Director Mike Nava and new Assistant Director Rosie Poitra-Chalmers, day laborers continue to work together to improve their Center.

Day Laborers are available to perform a variety of tasks from raking leaves and building fences, to laying tile or building walls. Workers are skilled and responsible. Staff is on hand to translate if necessary and to assist in salary negotiation and work arrangements. The Pomona Day Labor Center encourages you to support members of the Center and discourage those who loiter on the corner. For more information, contact CCCSI or the Day Labor Center itself from 6 a.m. to 12 noon.

An emergency fund was established to provide funds for laborers who may be unable to send money to their family due to an injury or illness. The establishment of the fund was the laborer’s idea and they are in charge of running any fundraising activities for it.