Coachella Valley Housing Coalition

The Coachella Valley Housing Coalition’s after-school programs play a vital role in providing safe and accessible programs for children who need it the most. Recognizing that while a stable, safe, and decent home provides enormous advantages for low-income families, striving to chart a more secure and hopeful future, children need more than housing to overcome barriers to success. CVHC offers a subset of more than 1,200 children residing in its low-income housing developments access to enrichment opportunities that enhance their academic readiness. They include tutoring, homework assistance, STEM-infused Lego Robotics, access to computer technology and instruction, organized physical play activities, and arts & crafts. CVHC’s after-school program is facilitated at 4 sites throughout the Coachella Valley region of Riverside County, and they operate Monday through Friday from 3:00pm to 6:00pm, during the academic school year (36 weeks).

Contact: Fabiola Valenzuela

Email: fabiola.valenzuela@cvhc.org

Coachella Valley Housing Coalition (CVHC) is a nonprofit community development corporation serving farmworkers, their families, and other low-income residents of rural and desert communities from Riverside to Imperial Counties. Founded in 1982, CVHC's mission is to improve the living conditions of low-income individuals and families by constructing and operating affordable housing infused with community services programs and other opportunities that enrich, build, and grow their lives.

The proposed project will bring “Cultural Enrichment through Music and Dance” through Ballet Folklorico and Mariachi classes for youth. The programs are focused on increasing the community's cultural development. Through these programs, we will increase the children’s, their family’s and the community’s sense of identity and pride through this cultural programming. By promoting and encouraging engagement in the arts through music and dance, we help young people express themselves while building confidence and skills.

Coachella Valley Housing Coalition (CVHC) is a nonprofit community development corporation serving farmworkers, their families, and other low-income residents of rural and desert communities from Riverside to Imperial Counties. Through Mariachi Music and Ballet Folklorico Dance we will help children grow physically, emotionally, socially, and cognitively by learning many intrinsic and extrinsic skills. Anderson Children’s Foundation supported this program in 2013, but because of COVID-19 and other urgent community needs, we had halted these beloved programs in 2020. With the support of ACF, we will relaunch this program and continue to empower students to grow in music and dance knowledge, skills, and appreciation and help them develop a lifelong love of music and dance, appreciating and understanding the cultural heritage and history behind each movement and note.

Coachella Valley Housing Coalition (CVHC) provides afterschool programming to low-income children in the Coachella Valley. Children will receive a minimum of 780 hours of afterschool programming in the areas of education, recreation, cultural and leadership activities. Services are provided Monday through Friday, from 3:00PM to 6:00PM in the cities of Desert Hot Springs, Palm Springs, La Quinta and Indio. CVHC's afterschool programs play a vital role in providing safe and accessible after school programs for children who need it the most.

While a stable, safe and decent home holds enormous possibilities for low-income families striving to chart a more secure and hopeful future, children need more than housing to overcome barriers to success. To that end, CVHC offers the more than 3,000 children residing in its housing, access to after-school programs that provide tutoring, homework assistance, STEM-infused Lego robotics, financial capability, access to computer technology and instruction, organized physical play activities, arts, crafts, tennis instruction, and other enrichment opportunities that enhance their academic readiness.

The school-age children served by CVHC's after school programs are from farmworker, very low- or low-income households, face language-based difficulties, and have limited afterschool support resources in the communities where they live. The populations of children served by CVHC's after school programs are also much more disadvantaged than their more affluent peers as they come from low-socioeconomic and language-minority backgrounds (more than one in ten families served by CVHC lives below the Federal Poverty Level). CVHC's Afterschool Program is facilitated at 10 of our 34 housing community sites throughout Riverside County.

The Coachella Valley Housing Coalition hosts Art Classes for Youth, which are designed to serve children and youth who reside in CVHC's six multi-family housing developments in Coachella Valley. The art program's curriculum will target beginners, and small class sizes will allow opportunities for one-on-one instruction that addresses students' individual abilities.

Classes meet weekly on Tuesdays from 4pm to 6pm during the month of October through May. Classes are facilitated by several instructors who are experienced in art instruction and creative activities for children's programs. CVHC collaborates with the Crisalida Community Arts Project in partnership with the McCallum Theater, which provides instructor referrals to facilitate the classes; and the YMCA, which administers the program at each housing site.

Experienced artists will teach the basic skills of their discipline, provide its historical context, and help students develop visual art projects to be featured in a public display at the end of each quarter. Each month is dedicated to a particular theme which is focused on historic figures and events to include Martin Luther King Day, Valentine's Day, Cesar Chavez Day, Earth Day, National Volunteer's Day, and National Banking Month. Classes consist of fun and exciting arts and craft activities that include painting, drawing, sculpting and use of mix media. Children use their individual skill and talent to create imaginative art, crafts and objects using various recycled materials such as wood, canvas, clay, construction paper and plastic. Students will discover the emotion and freedom of self-expression by developing unique artistic styles, and individualized instruction will also give students the opportunity to learn skills at their own pace.

Arts-integrated school curricula improves academic performance and student discipline. The arts revitalize neighborhoods and promote economic prosperity. Participation in the arts improves physical and psychological well-being. The arts provide a catalyst for the creation of social capital and the attainment of important community goals. This program will make the arts available at no cost to every school-age child in the Coachella Valley.

Through grant funding support from the Anderson Children's Foundation, the Coachella Valley Housing Coalition (CVHC) will bring high-quality arts experiences to many children of disadvantaged households by launching a new Multi-Digital Media Arts Program for Youth. Through this unique program, underserved children throughout the Coachella Valley will have an opportunity to learn 'multi-digital media arts' which will include: digital photography, film-making, video editing, computer animation, and music production. The program will be offered at 10 CVHC housing community sites in the communities of Mecca, Coachella, Indio, La Quinta, Desert Hot Springs and Palm Springs.

The Coachella Valley Housing Coalition aims to provide computers and Internet access to children living in poverty. Digital literacy is a prerequisite for professional and academic success; students need computers to complete assignments, parents need the Internet to check grades, and job applicants must go online to secure employment. Yet many disadvantaged children in the Coachella Valley area lack computer access and face negative repercussions of this "digital divide."

CVHC's Computer Technology Instruction Program will provide computer access and instruction to over 2,500 children. These children will engage in activities that reinforce six instructional areas: Technology Operations and Concepts, Digital Citizenship, Communication and Collaboration, Research and Information Fluency, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving and Decision-Making, and Creativity and Innovation.

All children who participate in the Computer Technology Instruction program will develop technological literacy to enter college, become productive members of the workforce, and succeed as citizens.