Today we’d like to introduce you to Yesenia Aceves.
Yesenia, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I am a first-generation immigrant. My parents were farmworkers from the time they were children. Due to life circumstances that included the need for their help to help support their families. Neither of my parents received more than a second grade education, which limited their understanding of its importance. They did, however, understand the value of hard work. which they instilled in my siblings and me.
By the time I was as 14, which is the age that my siblings were when they started working in the fields, the laws no longer allowed children under the age of 16 to work. That was a fortunate development for me because it allowed me to attend high school, and later, a college education.
Shortly after I graduated with a BA in Fine Arts with an emphasis in Graphic Design from San Diego State University, I began working as a graphic designer at Farallon Design, a local high-end corporate awards business. There, I helped build a program called “Rainforest Art Project (RAP).” RAP is a local organization based in Barrio Logan which brings Art to schools in low-income communities who would otherwise not have access to creative expression at their schools. RAP raises money to create large art installations in schools and the community to teach children the importance of teamwork, caring, and improving our community and giving back.
As I worked side by side with children, on art projects such as mosaics, I noticed that they also started to bring down their walls. I learned so much about the lives and hardships of the children in our workshops, without ever inquiring. It seemed to me that creative expression had a way of bringing their pain to the surface in a safe way and helping them let it go and discover other facets of themselves. I witnessed children who were considered “troublemakers” become the “class helper”; I heard stories of bullying and of families permeated by gangs. Through those experiences, I realized that creative expression facilitates conversations, connection, opens up hearts, and expands minds. During my time at RAP, I met Casey Gwinn, former San Diego City Attorney and co-founder of the Family Justice Center (FJC) movement. The FJC Alliance is now part of a larger organization called Alliance for HOPE International (AFH), which runs five programs which works towards fighting domestic violence and increasing hope in the lives of survivors.
I first met Casey when he hired RAP to run a 10-week art program for YWCA clients and their children, where he was working as CEO. The goal of the project was to create a stained glass mosaic representing Metamorphosis, the transition from caterpillar to butterfly. Through my work with YWCA families of participants, I was able to witness another powerful effect of Art: it didn’t just help bring down walls, it also helped bridge communication, bringing families together! During my time at the YWCA, I heard from parents how it was the only time that their teenage children spoke to them! I saw a mother rediscover that she had been an artist in the past. Our time at the YWCA awoke a new passion in my heart; I wanted to help bring families together and give them the tools to heal their trauma.
In the following years, I volunteered as an art instructor for AFH’s Camp HOPE America (CHA) program, during their Caregivers and Kids Weekend. CHA is the first evidence-based camping program in the country for children and teens impacted by domestic violence. After several years, I joined the AFH team and helped design and test Pathways, a pilot group-mentorship program focused on providing a year-round hope-centered community as well as supporting the participants in setting post-secondary education goals.
As the Director of the Pathways to HOPE Project, I have spent the past four years working with over 100 children and teens ages 11-17 who have been exposed to family violence. Pathways is helping develop and nurture a peer-focused community for the participants as well as introducing them to working professionals who act as adult mentors to provide real-life guidance. Along with the adult mentors, the camp counselors who were introduced to the participants during camp also join the year-round activities. My work with Pathways includes building partnerships with local organizations to help bring experiential learning opportunities to the Pathways participants, with the goal of helping them discover a passion which could turn into a career. Pathways also provides at least three large community events throughout the year, where caregivers and siblings join the Pathways participants. At these events, we are looking to build relationships among the families and the mentor and counselor volunteers. A couple of times a year, we provide resources such as trauma-informed parenting workshops for caregivers during our larger community events..
After four years in San Diego and Imperial Counties, Pathways has proven successful at maintaining high Hope Scores throughout the year. Pathways has also enjoyed successful family engagement, and the interest in the program keeps growing, not just locally, but also around the country. This fall, Pathways will be rolling out to other states around the country, and it will expand to include children and teens ages 7-17.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
My career path has been an adventure because I have mostly had to figure it out on my own. Even though I have a loving family, my parents and older siblings were unable to help me with school work or with education or career decisions, due to their lack of personal experience. Besides fumbling through educational choices, I also had to figure out a way to support myself and pay for college, causing me to take five years instead of four to graduate.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Alliance for HOPE International story. Tell us more about the business.
Alliance for HOPE International is an non-profit organization founded by Casey Gwinn and Gael Strack. Our mission is to create pathways to hope for women, children, and men who are victims of child abuse, domestic violence, and sexual assault through collaborative, integrated multi-disciplinary centers, teams, and initiatives to break the generational cycle of violence and abuse in families across the United States and around the world.
Alliance for HOPE International leads the Family Justice Center Alliance (focused on developing Family Justice Centers and other multi-agency approaches), the Training Institute on Strangulation Prevention (focused on the handling of near-fatal strangulation assaults in domestic violence and sexual assault cases), the VOICES Survivors Network (focused on empowering survivors of domestic violence to advocate for other victims and for systems change in their communities), the Justice Legal Network (civil legal services for survivors of trauma), and the nationally recognized Camp HOPE America, the first specialized camping and mentoring program in the U.S. for trauma-exposed children. Camp HOPE began in San Diego and now operates in 15 states. Alliance for HOPE International and its Allied Centers serve more than 150,000 survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault and their children each year in the United States. The Alliance supports multi-agency centers in more than ten countries and trains more than 10,000 multi-disciplinary professionals every year.
I am incredibly proud to be part of this organization, which helps increase hope in the lives of survivors of domestic violence.. I am especially proud of the work that I have done with Pathways, which has seen a 100% post-secondary enrollment rate in our high school graduates since the inception of the project. Now, the Pathways model will begin spreading around the country, changing the lives of at-risk youth. Recently, we finalized the prime iteration of the Pathways Toolkit, which will be disseminated to Camp HOPE America sites around the country to provide insight as they increase their services year-round.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
The Family Justice Center movement took off after our founder Casey Gwinn appeared on Oprah to discuss the model which developed alongside Gael Strack in 2002. After Oprah Winfrey endorsed the FJC model, President George W. Bush created the President’s Family Justice Center Initiative, helping the movement expand rapidly across the country and around the world. Today, there are more than 130 Family Justice Centers and other types of Multi-Agency Centers in the U.S. and hundreds of other agencies working to develop partnerships and models of co-located services.
With Pathways, specifically, we were fortunate to earn the support of the Verizon Foundation through a strong relationship with the Alliance which began with Verizon’s support of the Alliance’s work towards domestic violence mitigation. Verizon Foundation has helped expand the CHA program around the country as well as supported the pilot Pathways program in San Diego and Imperial Counties. Funding from Verizon enabled us to prove the concept and success of year-round group-mentoring within a peer-focused group, creating a hope-centered community.
Contact Info:
- Address: Alliance for HOPE International
101 West Broadway, Suite 1770
San Diego, CA 92101 - Website: allianceforhope.com
- Phone: 619-236-9551 x 706
- Email: yesenia@allianceforhope.com
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