Robert Florez doesn’t mind talking about his troubled childhood, or his run-ins with the law as a young man that struggled to be heard.
When he was a freshman at a high school in Grass Valley, living in Nevada City after years of causing a ruckus in his hometown of Watsonville, he stole a car with some friends and lit a small fire on school grounds. The local school board was ready to expel them, but the superintendent stuck his neck out and went against the board, granting him one final chance, he said.
Three years later at graduation, as Florez arrogantly shook the superintendent’s hand onstage, telling him that he “made it,” the district leader calmly replied, “I always knew you would.”
Florez, 49, credits that relationship as a driving force on his nearly 25-year journey to the Petaluma nonprofit Mentor Me. He stepped in this month as the new executive director of the organization, which provides one-on-one mentorship and specialized advocacy services for at-risk adolescents.
“Over time I was able to articulate two basic premises in the work I do with youth,” Florez said Tuesday during a meet-and-greet at the Cavanagh Recreation Center. “No. 1 is everyone wants to feel valued, and No. 2, that if somebody doesn’t feel their story is heard, they’ll act it out – and I was acting out.”
Florez takes the reins with a background in mental health, restorative services and gang prevention programming throughout Sonoma, Napa and Marin counties.
To read the full article written by Yousef Baig, click HERE
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