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Community Corner

Jovenes Saños Bite Into Advocacy

The afterschool program in Watsonville raises awareness about childhood obesity and the health risks that comes with it.

Editor's Note: This is part of a series of stories about local youth-centered programs in Watsonville that work to give kids and young adults skills to succeed. Patch is focusing on these positive efforts in the wake of gang violence that claimed the life of a Watsonville High freshman and injured a second teenage boy earlier this month.

Jovenes Saños is an afterschool youth program that advocates healthy eating and physical activity to the youth of Watsonville. The program is a part of United Way For Santa Cruz County, an organization of community-based volunteers that provides support, education, and leadership opportunity to residents in the area.  

A project of Go Health!, Jovenes Saños (which means “healthy kids” in Spanish) helps and educates the youth of Watsonville by implementing long-term policies and working in the three sectors of the community to increase awareness for healthy diets and physical activity: city planning, schools and market. 

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The program is made of high school students in Watsonville who are eager to gain leadership skills as well as an opportunity to work with their community. These young adults put in two days a week for a couple hours to strategize how they can raise awareness for their cause. 

Kymberly Lacrosse, the program’s coordinator, adores and is impressed by the teenagers working in the program.

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“They’re so amazing. I love them and I appreciate them. I always say, I work for them, I admire them," Lacrosse said. “We goof around a lot, but they are very committed to the work they do. They are inspired to be involved and they’re willing to work hard. They really are role models.”

The program emphasizes youth leadership and advocacy by working in the community with the community. The primary goal of Jovenes Saños is to work towards raising awareness about childhood obesity.

“We make it fun. We interact a lot.” Said Lacrosse. “The kids are often running around the community doing surveys so it’s good to have a party sometimes and just hang out.” 

Juan Molina, a freshman from Watsonville High School says he loves being a part of a program like Jovenes Saños.  

“I’m involved because I want to make a change in my community," Molina said. “Because when I go out in the streets, I see a lot of kids that are obese. There are too many fast food restaurants, you go to every corner around town and there’s usually a fast food restaurant.” 

Molina also notes that, despite the clubs and the health classes offered at , the kids are still getting bigger—especially the upperclassmen. 

“I see lots of juniors and seniors gaining weight," Molina said. “Once they take their two years of P.E. and like they get their cars, they start driving around town eating at restaurants.” 

As an athlete, Molina understands that he needs to eat healthy if he ever wants to play sports in college.

“I used to eat a lot of junk food," Molina said. “I used to, right after school, go to the store and buy an Arizona (ice tea) and some chips. But then I started looking at the bags and the calories in the bag. I was eating a lot of things that weren’t good for my body.” 

Jovenes Saños sees a lot of siblings going through the program. Daniel De Silva, a senior at Watsonville High School and has been an active member of Jovenes Sanos for three years. De Silva joined Jovenes Saños when his older sister invited him to one of the meetings. He too likes being involved with Jovenes Saños but on more personal level—he’s seen members of his family suffer from obesity related health conditions.

“My sister introduced me to this program three years ago, but she’s left for college," De Silva said. “I became involved with Jovenes Saños because I want raise awareness in the obesity in the community, particularly in the youth. I saw health conditions [related to obesity] affect my family members and I want to see this growing epidemic stop.

De Silva is a proud member of Jovenes Saños. He feels that being a part of a program that educates people about the risks of unhealthy eating will make people realize that they have so much to lose.

“We created a healthier community just by raising awareness and teaching the youth about the potential danger of the conditions of childhood obesity,” said Molina, “like heart conditions and type-2 diabetes.”

Jovenes Saños keep these teens quite busy. They meet twice a week—Mondays and Wednesdays—and are given assignments and participate in community events.

“We have research assignments, surveying the community," Molina said. “...Just things like that that allows us to put ourselves out to the community.”

Karen Serrano, a freshman at Cal State East Bay was with Jovenes Saños for four years.

“I was very involved. I liked going to meetings and doing everything,” said Serrano. “They teach you how to be a leader and they teach you how to take charge.”

During her time at Jovenes Saños, Serrano played an active role in the program advocating food and physical health in her community.

“We taught classes called 'Get Out, Get Fit' and it teaches the kids to be healthy," said Serrano. “We also worked with the local markets trying to get them to get healthier stuff in, and we worked with the city council to make the community a healthier place.” 

Serrano has been busy since starting college and has ceased taking a full part with the program, but she does check in with them as much as her schedule allows her.

“I like to come back sometimes and see how they’re doing,” said Serrano. “I like to keep in touch with them.”

The program hopes to create and promote an environment where people who don’t have the resources to eat healthy can still make a choice to eat healthy. One of the things they’ve done is have berry stands after schools so that kids can grab a healthy snack instead of a bag of chips. They are also working towards having healthier lunches in the schools around Watsonville.

Jazmine Hernandez, a senior at Watsonville and has been with Jovenes Saños for over six months. She notes that a program like Jovenes Saños is both fulfilling and rewarding because she has a chance to work with teenagers her age that has the same goals of making an impact in the Watsonville community. 

“Everyone plays the same role. I love it, it’s something I enjoy.” Said Hernandez. “I love helping the community.”

Hernandez also said that they are successful through the guidance of involved and supportive coordinators like Kymberly Lacrosse. 

“She tries to keep up with school and makes sure that we do our homework first before doing the program," said Hernandez. “She’s really helpful, even with stuff outside of the program.”

De Silva wants to attend UCLA in fall next year to study political science. He said that Lacrosse has given him the boost he needed to fulfill his dreams and achieve a higher education.

“She’s very involved right now, as I start my college admissions," said De Silva. “She has helped me understand who I am as a person and the asset that I am to this group by writing a letter of recommendation. She has made it evident to me that I’m a strong member of this group. I have a bright future.”

According to Lacrosse, Jovenes Saños teens have training throughout the year working with local organizations. The have a training on policies where they work in partnership with the Second Harvest Food Bank as well leadership training where they are taught about public speaking skills.

The teenagers also spend a lot of time in teen fairs and health fairs in the community. They wish to be able to accept more members. Unfortunately, their funding is limited. While Jovenes Saños have sponsors in charitable organizations, local growers in the area, as well as state funding—it still isn’t enough.

“We wish we have interviews once a year to have new youth,” said Lacrosse, “and we’ve had 70 kids come to our fair who wants to be a part of the group, but we don’t have the funding or the support to do that.”

The kids at Jovenes Saños are paid in stipend.

“A lot of them are involved in many other programs, they play sports and work hard at school," said Lacrosse. “We work very hard to support them to go to college, and I always tell them that one of the greatest way to get scholarships is to be involved in community services.”

The teens interview prospective members and weigh the values and diligence of each interviewee, because according to Lacrosse, the current members of Jovenes Saños have a long term goal: they want hard-working and self motivated teenagers who are willing to put in the work to improve their community and carry on the program even after they’ve long gone.

Last year, Jovenes Saños helped pass a city ordinance called, The Healthy Food Options Ordinance, the first of its kind in this country. Jovenes Sanos went to the City Council and shared with them information about childhood obesity and diabetes. The program constructed this ordinance, alongside the city and the restaurants in the area, which requires new and incoming restaurants, feature a certain amount of healthy options in their menu in order to get permits.

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