I have been conducting groups at CUPS2 for 2 years, at first it started as a Latino Male Group but now it is a Latino Group/Book Club. During the current group, we have discussed: Challenges of being a young Latino male in America; What it means to them to be Latino; Peer pressure; Decision making; Development of the adolescent mind; Being a role model to younger siblings/other youth. During the summer, the group is participating in reading “Throw” a novel by Ruben Degollado. I am currently in contact with Mr. Degollado to arrange a date that he can come in and speak with the group. Mr. Degollado created a fundraiser in order to donate 25 copies of his novel to my project. Mr. Degollado also sent bookmarks with handwritten motivational statements for the youth to have.
The first group consisted of 25 group members all Latino males. During this group, we had similar discussions as the current group. The group also participated and read “The Afterlife” by Gary Soto. After we read the book, I had Mr. Paul Guajardo (Lit. Professor from U of H) come in and help discuss the book and dive into the technical aspects of writing and expression. I had the youth write 2 questions to the author either about the book itself or a question to the author. I compiled the questions and forwarded them to Mr. Soto. Mr. Soto responded to all of the youth’s questions and I read the responses to the group during the following session.
In 2015, I started a small project called Young Warriors Reading Project, I reached out to authors, and publishing companies requesting books for youth. My project began with 7 books donated to me by my aunt and grew to over 300 books. I donated over 100 books to JDC when I worked there and I continue to reach out to authors for young adult books to share with youth on probation.
Youth Successfully Completed
Parents Participated
Recidivism Rate