The University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) was chosen to receive CHIP's 2018 Outstanding Partner Award which was presented to the team on Thursday, February 7, 2019 at CHIP's 45th Anniversary celebration in Chico, CA. CHIP's Resident Services Coordinator, Washington Quezeda, presented this award to the following individuals from UCCE Butte County; Jona Pressman, UC CalFresh and Expanded Food and Nutrition Program Manager, Sonia Rodriguez, EFNEP Community Education Specialist, Suzie Lawry-Hall, UC CalFresh Program Supervisor, and Rita Palmer, UC CalFresh Community Education Specialist.
From left to right: Suzie Lawry Hall, Jona Pressman, Washington Quezeda, Sonia Rodriguez, Rita Palmer
From left to right: Rita Palmer, Sonia Rodriguez, Jona Pressman
The Partnership: CHIP Youth Summer School Program
In 2018, UC CalFresh partnered with CHIP to design and implement a comprehensive youth educational summer camp in the counties of Butte, Sutter, Yuba and Glenn. The program was made up of 85 participants (72 youth campers and 13 adult resident camp counselors) at 8 public housing sites which participated in an 8-week Youth Summer Camp School Program.
For two decades CHIP has partnered with UC CalFresh and EFNEP to meet the educational and enrichment needs of youth, adults, and families residing in various CHIP Public Housing sites. CHIP assists low-income and rural disadvantaged residents, seniors and others who may lack the financial resources and/or knowledge to provide adequately for their household. This year, CHIP partnered with UC CalFresh to coordinate and implement CHIP's first comprehensive Youth Summer School Program. CHIP was awarded with a grant to host a youth summer intervention to provide youth the opportunity to maintain their academics and activity levels during summer break. The CHIP Youth Summer School Program (CHIP-YSSP) used a combination of Healthalicious and the CATCH curricula at 8 sites in 4 counties reaching 72 youth. Math and reading standards were met through weekly lesson including cooking activities from the Healthalicious curriculum. Students actively participated in weekly CATCH activities which were led by the resident camp counselors. To enrich the summer camp experience, UC CalFresh offered various 4-H kits to participating sites as an additional resource that could be utilized as part of their summer school program.
Many factors were taken into consideration when designing the CHIP-YSSP. The extender model and the adult-youth mentorship model from UCCE's 4-H Youth Development Program were utilized. UC CalFresh and CHIP recruited resident Camp Counselors to co-facilitate the weekly lessons and recruit youth campers. The program was implemented for 8 consecutive weeks and food was funded through the grant award. The food budget allowed for meals to be offered to participating youth and adults, and also provided the opportunity for residents and families to join their children for lunch or take the food home to their families for a meal later that day. In a retrospective self-reporting survey, CHIP housing managers reported that they either agreed or strongly agreed that as a result of participating in the CHIP-YSSP, they gained new skills and they now feel more confident in delivering the program. In addition, the housing managers reported an increased interest in volunteering more in their community. CHIP also decided to enroll two of their housing communities in the 4-H Robotics Program which offers hands-on activities for youth to learn how to build robots, computer programming, engineering and math.
CHIP Youth Summer School Program Testimonials:
1) “The best part would be the look and excitement of the kids each day that they came to camp. Just walking into camp hey all had smiles of gold!” Rancho De Soto, Glenn County
2) “The summer program has taught me how to communicate better with children. I do little things with them in the weekends”- Shotover and LaPalmas, Glenn County
3) “I felt closer to the children in my community”- La Viste Verde, Butte County
4) “I thought working with a youth would be harder, but I enjoyed it-” East of Eaton, Butte County
