Sunny Hills is pleased to announce the opening of a new program in Sonoma County designed to serve gang-affiliated youth who reside in Santa Rosa. Project PRIDE is modeled after Sunny Hills’ successful ACT program and draws upon lessons learned from our work with gang-affiliated youth through the agency’s CEYD program, a an initiative launched in early 2009 designed to prevent youth involvement in gangs, and intervene swiftly when they do.

Project PRIDE works specifically with Santa Rosa juveniles on probation who have known or suspected gang affiliations and who also struggle with mental health issues. Currently, the Sonoma County Department of Juvenile Probation has two dedicated probation units serving approximately 120 gang-affiliated youth each year (70 percent of whom reside in Santa Rosa). During this pilot year, Project PRIDE will work with approximately 12 to 18 youth at any given time. Services are delivered over a period of six to eight months with the ultimate objective being to support the youth to meet the conditions of his/her probation and also address their mental health issues.

Project PRIDE is “wraparound program,” meaning services are highly individualized and delivered in a range of community-based settings, as opposed to a more traditional office environment. “Our experience from the CEYD program demonstrated to us the need for specialized services for this un-served population, impaired youth with serious gang affiliations,” said Barry Feinberg, chief program officer. “What we found is that many youth were resistant to traditional office-based treatment, whereas community-based settings – whether it be shooting hoops at the park or sharing a soda in a cafe after school – were disarming and the youth are much more receptive to working through their challenges.”

Project PRIDE is a collaboration between the City of Santa Rosa’s Measure O initiative, the Sonoma County departments of Juvenile Probation and Mental Health, and Sunny Hills Services. For more information contact Bob Florez, program director, at (707) 560-0877 ext. 24 or email him at bflorez@sunnyhillsservices.org.