The mission of Youth Services at Catholic Charities is to build a strong awareness on issues that affect young people and provide the necessary resources to empower youth to take ownership of their own lives and to accept responsibility for themselves and their world We offer programs that provide avenues for collaboration and participation among young people and their comm unities.

Our Youth Relationship Violence Prevention Program trains young people and/or youth advisors to develop community awareness of violence and violence prevention. By building consciousness, our hope is to reduce and/or prevent the amount of violence that affects young people today.

Youth Services at Catholic Charities also provides Social Justice 101 workshops, which are designed to raise awareness among young people about the injustices and inequalities present in their local community, their nation, and their world.

It provides a conceptual overview of "social justice" and emphasizes the rights and responsibilities that we, as human beings, have for ourselves and for one another.

Finally, it encourages young people to investigate the different causes of social injustice, educate themselves on one or more specific issues, advocate for social change, and involve themselves in making a difference in their community via community organizing, community service and/or policy advocacy directly. affecting them.

Catholic Charities has successfully facilitated four previous murals throughout the Central Valley in both the rural and inner'city communities. Community murals challenge youth to take on an active role in their community, develop valuable technical and communication skills, and provide both a positive media experience and a voice for youth to increase awareness of the realities within their communities. The project provides a safe and creative outlet for young people's ideas and emotions.

Desperately needed and in its infancy stages, we will be developing both a Teen Pregnancy Program and a Healthy Relationships Program .We are aiso researching the needs within Juvenile Hall and Juvenile Boot Camps to determine an effective transitioning program and Arts and Cultural Program.