San Benito High, Hollister Youth Alliance: Indian Canyon Retreat

Joven Noble Retreat to Indian Canyon

Saturday May 25, 2013

Purpose of Retreat

In many Native American cultures, the youth participated in a Vision Quest/Retreat to symbolize their rite-of-passage ceremony. Traditionally, these rituals have been performed to mark significant life transitions or changes. Generally speaking, they are seen as both personal and collective events that are guided and witnessed with the community, and often involve the “quester” spending time alone in nature in search of a personal vision that becomes a vision to support the entire community. The youth participating in the Joven Noble program will participate in the retreat to symbolize the completion of their participation in the program and to reflect on how the lessons that they have learned throughout the year will help improve themselves and their community.

About Indian Canyon

Indian Canyon is the only land continuously held by the

Ohlone people, the first inhabitants of the San Francisco and Monterey Bay Areas. Indian Canyon is the only federally recognized “Indian Country” along coastal Northern California From Santa Barbara to Sonoma. 
In order to provide a place for Indigenous people who need land for ceremony, Indian Canyon hosts over five sweat lodges, beautiful arbor area for gatherings, and offers a round house area (site for our future traditional Village House) for special events. In addition to offering 30-40 areas for individual prayer and ceremony. Indian Canyon provides research and exchange opportunities for students and interns from throughout Northern California. 


All kinds of wildlife, flora and fauna, can be found in Indian

Canyon, including Coastal Live Oak, Madrone, Buckeyes, Sycamore, Pine and Cottonwood, Deer, Red-tail hawks, Stellar Jays, Owls, Hummingbirds, Foxes and Coyotes, along with the occasional visiting Condors (during ceremony visiting from Pinnacles Park who are reintroducing Condors to the area). Located south of Hollister, this private remote Canyon may be visited by invitation.  

Thanks to the Hollister Youth Alliance at San Benito High School for providing this inspirational experience to ten youth ages 12-17 years of age.


Mario Ozuna-Sanchez
Senior Program & Training Specialist
National Compadres Network/ National Latino Father and Family Institute

Thank You From Maryland!

In March of 2013, Montgomery County, Maryland Department of Health and Human Services took a major step in strengthening it's youth violence/ gang prevention and intervention efforts by training twenty Street Outreach Network workers--a cadre of prevention/intervention workers that engage and work with high risk, and gang involved youth, and provide them with positive, life-affirming activities.

The Montgomery County Department of Recreation Wheaton Sports Academy staff (a high school based prevention program that engages students in positive, life affirming activities, and the front-line staff from two Youth Opportunity Centers were trained in the Trauma-informed, Evidence Based Joven Noble Curriculum. 

This training and certification could not have taken place at a more important time for the county, as many of the programs listed have experienced a significant spike in serving younger aged youth that have experienced multiple traumas in their lives.  Most importantly, we believe that providing such a training for our front-line staff helps to set the standard for what all our prevention and intervention programs should have in place to best serve children and youth in the community.  We look forward to work closely with NLFFI/NCN as the county continues to improve its service delivery to children, youth, and families for our diverse populations and we give special thanks to Maestro Jerry Tello!  

Luis Cardona
Youth Violence Prevention Coordinator
Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services
401 Hungerford Drive, 5th Floor
Rockville, MD 20850 

Building up the Joven Noble (Noble Youth) in Maryland

Building Up the Joven Noble in Maryland

Joven Noble training was provided to three major components of Montgomery County's Positive Youth Development Initiative that provides prevention and intervention services to high risk and gang involved youth. The three programs that participated in the training were the following:  

• The Department of Health and Human Services 

• Street Outreach Network that engages and provides services to gang involved youth throughout the county.

• These services are intended to help gang involved youth heal from a life of violence, as well as intervene in cycles of violence that the youth are exposed to.  
•  The Montgomery County Department of Recreation Sports Academy Program that works in school settings to engage high risk youth in positive youth development programming that focuses on sports programs, but also encompasses academic enrichment, and life skills.

•  Lastly, the Crossroads and Up County Youth Opportunity Centers managed by Identity Inc., that provides a wide array of healing services to adjudicated and gang involved youth in the county.

Those services include: case management, mental health services, gender specific positive youth development youth groups, leadership development, job development, parental supports, recreational services, and tattoo removal services. The Joven Noble training was sponsored by these three agencies. All three programs stand committed to be a part of the National Compadre Network's mission of addressing the needs of youth of color and look forward to a long term relationship. We especially want to thank Jerry Tello for providing such an amazing, and sacred training as we move forward to implement the strategies taught from the training. 

This training represents a part of the Healing Generations project under NCN's National Boys and Men of Color Network.

-Luis Cardona

Regional representative for NCN and a nationally recognized expert in violence intervention and prevention services. was also provided as part of the Healing Generations project under NCN's National Boys and Men of Color Network.