Programs & Activities
The Potrero Hill Model demonstrates the types of services and activities a community-led resiliency program can create. Our programming models the 5 Factors at work. Each program helps families to experience great nutrition, calm environments, non- toxic settings and positive play activities. Parents and caregivers attend with their children enjoying the activities in an emotionally supportive environment; they have fun together!
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HGP Workshop
The HGP Workshop is offered each January to introduce the HGP’s core concepts, focusing on the effects of trauma and stress on young children, particularly those under 5 years of age. The workshop is a fun, interactive experience open to all residents of Potrero Terraces and Annex. We learn about how Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) can predict cognitive, emotional and even health problems in childhood and well into adulthood. We explore how the 5 Protective Factors build resilience in children and how HGP’s model works to create change in the community.
The workshop is offered to the community at large at the beginning of each year and lasts for 8 weeks. It is prerequisite for any community member who would like to apply for a job as a Community Health Leader (CHL). Participants are given a stipend if they attend 7 of the 8 workshops. CHL candidates must complete a written exam testing their knowledge of the 5 Protective Factors and how they help to protect children exposed to Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs).
Community Health Leader Training
Community Health Leaders (CHLs) are peer workers from the community who are selected based on Workshop attendance, the scores on the post-HGP Workshop exam, and personal interviews. We select 2-3 per year and usually hire by the end of Spring of each year. Upon hiring, the CHLs are put through a 12 week training, including on the job training. The curriculum includes basic work skills, codes of conduct, HGP rules and procedures and extensive training in leadership skills and critical thinking. We continue our training year round offering conflict resolution, goal setting and group counseling.
Parent-Child Activities
Each Summer HGP offers a new Parent-Child Activity to its existing repertoire. In the summer of 2013 we introduced our Play and Reading groups. The summer of 2014 introduced Family Laid Back Night.
Family Reading Group and Dinner
This activity also begins with a meditation period. Children and parents then are invited to sit down to fully set tables, including table cloths, and enjoy a mindfulness exercise as we pause to bless our food and time together. We enjoy a pleasant dinner together where parents and children interact with each other as well as their neighbors and friends. After dinner we read stories. Before the families leave the CHLs say a loving good night to and children and remind the children that it is time for bed.
Family Play Group and Dinner
The activities begin with a mediation period for children and their parents. This activity begins with a healthy meal that consists of plenty of vegetables, healthy grains and low fat proteins are provided to families who sit together with their children to enjoy the meal and time together with neighbors. After dinner the CHLs present the families with a play activity. Activities include art projects, storytelling and music. Our time together ends with a good night song and special story. Before children leave the CHLs go around the room and say a loving good night to parents and children and remind them that it is bedtime.
Family Laid Back Night
This fun activity is joined by our partners Leah’s Pantry, who have hired 6 peer leaders from the community to learn catering and cooking and prepare our Laid Back Night Dinners. FLBN is about enjoying a healthy meal, one that is often lighter and more healthful than a typical dinner. Families are welcomed to the tables that have been prepared by the HGP CHLs and the Leah’s Pantry catering team. After dinner, the families are led to activities that promote family together time, such as playing board games, making puzzles, watching an educational fun cartoon with their children, song time and play acting.
Walking School Bus
The Walking School Bus (WSB) began August 2013 and continues to walk close to two dozen school children to local schools each school day. Our CHLs are the bus “drivers” who get the children to school on time for breakfast and offer supportive and safe companionship and mentoring to the elementary school children as they navigate the risky route to school.
Route to Daniel Webster Elementary
7:30 AM 25th St & Wisconsin St
7:30 1095 Connecticut
7:40 25th St & Dakota St
7:45 Bldg G16 - Dakota St
7:50 911 Missouri St
7:55 Missouri St & Watchman Way
8:00 Missouri St & Turner Terrace
8:05 AM ARRIVE at DANIEL WEBSTER
Route to Starr King Elementary
8:00 AM Missouri St & Turner Terrace
8:05 Missouri St & Watchman Way
8:10 23rd St & Dakota
8:15 23rd St & Wisconsin
8:20 Connecticut St & Wisconsin
8:25 AM ARRIVE at STARR KING
(CAFETERIA)
Every school morning CHLs lead the Walking School Bus (WSB). The WSB follows a specific route and stops to pick up over 23 children to make sure they have a safe walk from home to Starr King or Daniel Webster Elementary Schools. Once a month, we provide the children with incentives to stay focused in school and continue to participant with the WSB to get to school on time for a healthy school breakfast, and go to school every day. The incentives include school supplies, back packs or fun books to read and study materials. Route below.
Public Awareness Campaign
In the fall of each year we launch a public awareness campaign that highlights a theme of our work and helps to incorporate the community at large. We believe our overall goal is to create a more “Child Friendly Zone” community-wide. This year’s theme was school attendance and in order to help everyone feel connected with the importance of getting children to school every day, we created the “I have choices, I choose to go to school” message on t-shirts distributed widely in the neighborhood (design featured on the right).
