GONZALES — The Gonzales Community Collaborative recently met to discuss what role it would play for the upcoming year and where they wanted to be next September.
“It’s really about all of us coming together to do some really good work for our town, our community, and most importantly our youth,” said Liz Modena, superintendent of Gonzales Unified School District.
Michelle Slade, facilitator for the Collaborative, said one of the things the group wanted to see is tangible results that the group had worked on together to bring about for youth in Gonzales.
“There’s been some exciting developments around after-school program partnerships,” said Slade. “There’s about 200 more kids now as a result of the city and the school district collaborating that have a safe place to go every day after school, from elementary to middle school.”
Slade broke the members up into several groups to discuss why they come to the collaborative.
“We have strong ties to the town because two of the people in our group grow up in South County,” said Angie Ramirez, area manager for Community Action Partnership Head Start Programs. “My family’s been here since 1960. For our group it is that caring piece, wanting to be a part of something that’s better.”
Group members were asked what they were going to focus on this year, which included more parent engagement in the high school, letting them know what the graduation requirements were; Sun Street Centers wanted to work more with the Gonzales Youth Council; to have more males become spiritual leaders and become role models; and expanding bilingual parent trainings from the high school to bring more awareness to the importance of early learning.
Gonzales Community Collaborative meets once a month at the Gonzales Police Department.
