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CYWD: From the Streets to the Stars
by Chris Hayhurst, 08.09.05
"The best way to learn was to go out on the streets and see for yourself what was there and what needed to be done." |
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When you're 15 years old, hungry, tired, and alone, the city streets are not a good place to be. Years ago, that's exactly where Marlene Sanchez found herself — wandering the streets of San Francisco, lost in a dead-end world of drugs, poverty, and homelessness.
"I'd been in and out of the juvenile justice system since the age of 13," she says. "I was hanging out at the Mission. That was my neighborhood. It's what I knew." For Sanchez, life seemed hopeless. But then, one day, her world changed forever.
A Way Out
One day, Sanchez was approached by some girls she had seen around the neighborhood. "They were doing outreach, recruiting people for jobs," she says. The girls worked for the Center for Young Women's Development (CYWD), and they hired her as a community health outreach worker.
Through CYWD, the local department of public health, and an organization that specialized in the certification of community health outreach workers, Sanchez enrolled in an intensive training course to learn the ins and outs of her job. She became certified as an HIV and STI counselor. She learned to be an effective public speaker.
Much of her crash course in outreach took place in the classroom, but Sanchez gained firsthand experience as well. "A lot of it was hands-on training," she says. "The best way to learn was to go out on the streets and see for yourself what was there and what needed to be done."
Once she was up to speed, Sanchez returned to the streets in her new capacity as an outreach worker. She taught the women she met about sexually transmitted infections, and collected blood samples she could later send to a laboratory for testing. She handed out condoms and hygiene kits. She'd been in their position, so she knew their situations and understood their needs. And now, as part of CYWD, she was doing everything she could to help.
By Women, for Women
Founded in 1993 to help San Francisco women in the juvenile and criminal justice systems, CYWD maintains a simple philosophy: Young women know the problems they face, so they have the knowledge it takes to run programs that help other young women.
Today CYWD serves as a model for other similar programs nationwide. It's run entirely by women age 26 and under, and its goal is clear: to help high-risk and low-income women live healthy lives and develop healthy communities. CYWD works to help women who've grown up in the juvenile justice system and on the streets develop rewarding lives that revolve around giving back to the community.
Word on the Street
CYWD recruits members to its various programs through visits not only to the streets, but also to local prisons and juvenile detention facilities. "No matter where you are, you're going to hear about the center," says Sanchez. "There are all these young women telling you about it, spreading the word. Everyone knows about it."
Those who join CYWD often begin in its employment program. For women aged 15 to 24, it consists of a nine-month internship. New employees make $10.50 an hour and learn the skills they need to be economically — and legally — self-sufficient. Many, like Sanchez — who now serves as CYWD's executive director — begin back on the streets as educators and recruiters. In the process, they learn about themselves. They also develop a tight bond with their fellow "sisters" — a bond that will hopefully last the rest of their lives.
"It's deeper than employment," says Sanchez. "It's about building a community of women who are going to develop skills but who are also going to fight and advocate for the rights of other women who are incarcerated and don't have a voice. It's important that they're organizing and working for a better life not only for themselves, but for their community."
Another CYWD program is the Girls' Detention Advocacy Project, which offers support specifically for those in the juvenile justice system. The project has fought for everything from anti-discrimination policies to protect LGBTQ youth in prison to improved visitation rights for the children of mothers who are in prison.
Ultimately, says Sanchez, the women of CYWD live by the last word in the organization's name: development. "They're developing skills, power, their political consciousness," she says. "They're developing a sense of community. It's a lifelong process of transformation. That transformation starts here, but it continues throughout your journey through life." |
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