Individuals like Angulo - who have lived the cycles of violence and incarceration in urban communities and come out on the other side - are some of the best to break those cycles. But often their work is informal and unpaid because of their criminal backgrounds. Agencies are hesitant to put them on payroll, or they may lack resources to market and fund their outreach.
An eight-week course at Alliant University called the Community Mentors Program is trying to help. Its fourth cohort just graduated, including Angulo.
"We knew that if this work was ever going to be respected, ever going to be valued to the degree that it should have been valued at, we were going to have to create a professional standard,"Β said Aquil Basheer, one of the course instructors. "We were going to have to create professional protocols."
That means "getting people to speak the same language,"Β said Basheer. The Community Mentors Program brings together people interested in outreach work, future and current service providers, academic researchers and law enforcement to find common ground and build competencies together.
Regular participants include county health and human services and probation, the National Conflict Resolution Center, Union of Pan Asian Communities, San Diego Compassion Project, SAY San Diego, Project AWARE and members of the faith community.
The course covers concepts mental health practitioners and social workers use, such as restorative practices and trauma-informed care, and professional standards and practices for street outreach.
To read more of Megan Burks' article, please click here.
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