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About The Center for Multicultural Cooperation About the Center for Multicultural Cooperation
The mission of the Center for Multicultural Cooperation (CMC) is to provide quality youth leadership and service experiences that connect generations, cultures and communities. Founded in 1982, CMC has redefined its enrichment programs in the 21st Century to use participatory media as a teaching and communication tool to encourage youth civic engagement and empowerment.
With offices in Fresno and Sacramento, and hundreds of young people involved at schools and community centers in the San Joaquin Valley and the greater Sacramento Metropolitan Region, CMC is expanding state partnerships to extend program benefits to young people throughout California In 1981, John Minkler and a partner led a dozen delinquents from Fresno Juvenile Hall on a 320-mile two-month backpacking trip. This was the first activity of a new non-profit corporation, called the Sierra Wilderness Experience School. In 1992, the corporation was renamed the Center for Multicultural Cooperation (CMC). Throughout the organization's history, youth empowerment and civic engagement have been at the core of a variety of community efforts. CMC has redefined its enrichment programs in the 21st Century to use participatory media as a teaching and communication tool to encourage youth civic engagement and empowerment. CMC's efforts in the 21st Century have in large part grown out of a community response to a tragic series of events that took place seven years ago. Eight Hmong teenagers committed suicide in the period of several months in Fresno in 2002. The Hmong are an ethnic group that allied with the American government during the Vietnam conflict and the "Secret War" in Laos. They were violently exiled from the highlands of Laos in 1975 when the country became a communist state, and many made the central San Joaquin Valley their home. While the Hmong represent only 3% of Fresno County, they accounted for 60% of the teenage suicides during this period, and it was a shock for the entire community. When the Hmong and other community members came together to discuss this epidemic, the obvious question was: why? The answer soon surfaced: Hmong youth felt a sense of disconnection. The stories of their past were shrouded in the silence of the Secret War, and their American peers lacked knowledge of who they were or where they came from. What was needed was increased intergenerational dialogue among Hmong youth and elders, and multicultural understanding among the general population. 1.5 and 2nd generation Hmong American youth needed to realize their story, and to understand how this story interconnected with the American story. During the summer of 2004, CMC guided a group of young people as they interviewed a dozen Hmong elders who shared their stories of being foot soldiers in the Secret War; the Pathet Lao Relocation Camps; and their forced migration out of the high country of Laos. One young woman interviewed her father, and for the first time discovered that he: was recruited into the Secret War at 12 years old; was one of 30 people to make it across the Mekong River out of an original refugee group of 90; and lost his son to disease in the refugee camps of Thailand. At the Director's Screening, this young woman got up in front of a small crowd to introduce her father's story. The emotion was overwhelming, and as the tears ran down her cheeks, there was not a dry eye in the crowd of people who had already watched several of these personal narratives. By the time this series of short digital stories, entitled "Hmong Voices", reached the Tower Theatre, over 1,000 community members of all backgrounds came out for a standing-room-only screening of the Hmong story, told for the first time on the big screen, and created by local youth and elders. Since 2004, CMC has applied the principles of Hmong Voices to many other projects that have involved thousands of people. California Voices was created with the simple idea that giving youth participatory media opportunities results in their transformation to empowered young leaders. Whether they are responding to issues in their own communities and expressing their perspectives, or preserving the stories of unsung heroes from underrepresented groups whose voices are seldom heard, these young people are no longer passive consumers of media, they are creating messages and preserving stories that influence others. California Voices is now packaged into a comprehensive curriculum, a series of trainings for adult facilitators, and a new beta website, CaliforniaVoices.org, that will facilitate networking and dialogue among all participants. The Fresno story is becoming a California story, as a dozen new schools and community centers are now implementing the program in the Sacramento area, doubling the number of California Voices sites in the state to 25. In Fresno, the critical mass of young media producers created by California Voices has resulted in the creation of the Fresno Youth Empowerment Studio (FresYES). Young people involved in FresYES have responded to the public sector's need for reasonably priced and reliable technical assistance by developing FresYES Enterprises. Through FresYES Enterprises, they are employed as Youth Media Consultants to develop social media solutions for non-profit, government, and educational organizations that seek to bring their message to the greater public. As California Voices continues to expand in Sacramento, they may enact a Youth Empowerment Studio or Enterprise model, or they may tackle a different problem that is specific to their region. The important thing is that they will reach a critical mass of empowered youth leaders who are trained and willing to create positive change in their communities. CMC continues to hold civic engagement as a core principal in the ongoing effort to prepare young people for the incredible challenges they will face in the 21st Century. Through projects such as the Fresno County Youth Service Council, and the Youth Development Network for Region 7, CMC has guided young people to practice leadership and civic participation, and has facilitated the sharing of best practices and collaborations in this field. CMC is currently addressing the youth dropout crisis with several new civic engagement initiatives. Efforts such as the Youth Graduation Empowerment Project, which engages students statewide to become researchers, organizers and advocates to meet the challenge of improving schools and communities so more students will graduate, has led to youth empowerment opportunities such as the Fresno Youth Graduation Empowerment Summit, which brought together a group of 75 culturally diverse youth to respond to the dropout crisis with policy recommendations and initiatives that encourage Fresno County stakeholders to address this challenge. CMC continues to adapt its programming to remain innovative and relevant to the youth of today. As additional regions of California join this effort, it is our goal to create a state model which can be expanded across the country to help young people in their transformation into empowered youth leaders. To find out more, please contact the Center for Multicultural Cooperation: CMC CENTRAL VALLEY REGIONAL OFFICE - Fresno Youth Empowerment Studio (FresYES) We are located in beautiful downtown Fresno on the 2nd floor of the Fresno Veteran's Memorial Auditorium at the following address: 2425 Fresno Street, #201 Phone: (559) 445-0015 Brandon Wright, Deputy Director MaryJane Skjellerup, Central Valley Director Ue Yang, Hmong Voices Coordinator Ernesto Guevara, Veterans Voices Coordinator Armando Valdez, Carver Middle School California Voices Coordinator CMC SACRAMENTO REGIONAL OFFICE 1331 Garden Highway
Sacramento, CA 95833
(mailing address is the same)
Phone: (916) 285-1816
Fax: (916) 285-1801 Nicole Jarred, Sacramento Director Jeanine Gaines, California Voices Manager Rodolfo Vazquez, Latino Voices Coordinator David Gaines, Native Voices Coordinator Colleen Beach, VISTA/Digital Arts Service Corps Member |
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