Precinct Reporter Group News

Top Menu

  • Precinct Reporter News
  • Food
  • Subscribe
  • Privacy Policy

Main Menu

  • Home
  • About
  • Contact Us
  • Read Our E-Edition
  • ADVERTISE
  • Subscribe
Sign in / Join

Login

Welcome! Login in to your account
Lost your password?

Lost Password

Back to login
  • Precinct Reporter News
  • Food
  • Subscribe
  • Privacy Policy

logo

Precinct Reporter Group News

  • Home
  • About
  • Contact Us
  • Read Our E-Edition
  • ADVERTISE
  • Subscribe
  • Black Rose Awards Set For Sat., February 4

  • OC Black History Parade & Unity Festival

  • LBCC Students Get Ready for Male Success Initiative

  • Advocates Address Rise in Suicide for Black Males

  • Cops Search Black Teens 6X More Than White Peers

Latest PRGNews
Home›Latest PRGNews›Begin From Within: Family Resource Fair

Begin From Within: Family Resource Fair

By Precinct Reporter News
August 8, 2019
2624
0
Share:

By Dianne Anderson

Fun gifts and prizes, kids contests and line dancing await the entire family to come out and enjoy for the upcoming 3rd Annual Family Matters Festival.

Diana Martin, founder of Begin from Within, said their family resource center draws hundreds each year, and there’s plenty of good eats for all.

“Bring the families out for the day. I got you on the hamburgers and hotdogs, I got you on the chips and the food,” she said. “Your kids are over in the kidzone, and adults can listen to music.”

Each year, the event turns out just the way she envisioned it four years ago when she felt compelled to do something more to help the youth get on a better track. She met up with area clubs, dignitaries, and partnered with the city of Fontana where she lives, to share her vision for how to bring empowering life skills and workshops.

On Saturday, August 17, the 3rd Annual Family Matters Community Festival hosted by Begin from Within-Youth & Young Adult Intervention Program, and the City of Fontana brings a full array of fun-filled activities, resources and tools that the community can use. The event will be held from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at Jack Bulik Park, located at Filbert Avenue in Fontana

Much of her inspiration for starting the program came from observing the need for youth to understand old fashioned concepts like respect and manners.

She wanted them to know there are other choices in life, especially in reaching the most impressionable ages from 8 to 25.

Through her diversion program, she gets referrals from the probation department of youth that commits minor offenses, where her goal is to give them ways to correct their actions. She also sees the result of complicated negative situations that they face, both in the streets and at home.

About 70% of the cases she sees involve some sort of drugs, prescription medication, use for recreational purposes, drinking alcohol, and taking alcohol to school.

And, they’re always thinking up dangerous ways to not get caught.

“They’re dipping tampons in hard liquor and inserting them vaginally and rectally.  You can’t smell it and it gives you a higher rush,” she said.

In other cases, kids clean out and put crushed pills or meth so they can use it while in the classroom or in public.

“It appears they’re rubbing something on their lips, but they’re snorting. They’re crafty,” said Martin, a commissioner with the San Bernardino County Probation Department.

In her work and programs, she reviews the kinds of issues that bind young minds from achieving success in school. To reach them, she mentors and coaches students, putting on workshops on things that some are already experiencing in their young years, like human trafficking, and prostitution.

The youth she helps are dealing with challenges, yet she doesn’t like the term at risk. She hosts intervention workshop into various group homes, facilities where her target audience is youth, including the Fontana Unified School District.

In her experience, everyone is at risk of something, not just those living in poverty.

“I deal with kids that are driving BMWs to school and their parents are wealthy; or the very poor, and they are both mentally challenged,” she said.

To date, she estimates she has reached over 5,000 students countywide through seminars, and workshops, normally in large groups. Recently she finished a workshop serving 331 students at A.B. Miller High School.

She tries to raise prevention awareness for youth and young adults, some of which may be caught up in substance abuse, or running from one negative situation to another. She said it’s important to let them know there are other options.

Martin said she started hosting workshops at schools and various locations to help a broader base of families and youths while trying to work a full-time job in a mental evaluation unit at the LAPD headquarters as a civilian employee, where she has worked 35 years.

She decided to gather the community together for access to county agencies, public and private agencies, resources and tools all in one place for a greater reach.

Now going into their third year, she said they have received good support and recognition by Assemblymember Eloise Gomez Reyes, and Sen. Connie Leyva.

This year, vendors, public agencies, supporters will be on-site providing a host of services, programs and products, including Lourdes Dental Office, Wells Fargo, Chaffey College, San Bernardino Probation Department, CASA of San Bernardino County, and the Institute for Behavioral Health, among many others.

“It allows the kids to have a fun-filled day, bouncers, learning activities, face painting, a festival, and live entertainment and performing arts,” she said. “Each year, it’s better and better and I believe that this year it’s going to be spectacular.”

www.beginfromwithinyouthprogram.com

TagsBegin From Withindiversion programFamily Matters FestivalFontanaprecinct reporterresource fair
Previous Article

FILM REVIEW: Brian Banks

Next Article

Great Harvest Offers Free Laptops, Low-Cost Internet

0
Shares
  • 0
  • +
  • 0
  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

Precinct Reporter News

Related articles More from author

  • Latest PRGNews

    African Americans Poorer Today Than Five Years Ago

    March 11, 2020
    By Precinct Reporter News
  • Latest PRGNews

    Charlottesville Struggles with Race, History and Survival

    August 16, 2018
    By Precinct Reporter News
  • Latest PRGNews

    Reparations: All Should Read Task Force Report

    June 9, 2022
    By Precinct Reporter News
  • Latest PRGNews

    Ariel Wiley: Aspiring Filmmaker

    November 21, 2019
    By Precinct Reporter News
  • Latest PRGNews

    To Commemorate Brown, Support Our Teachers

    May 16, 2019
    By Precinct Reporter News
  • Latest PRGNews

    Education in the Segregated South: A Determined Culture

    September 5, 2019
    By Precinct Reporter News

You might be interested

  • Latest PRGNews

    Gender Pay Gap Costs $78B: Disturbing Picture For Black Moms

  • Latest PRGNews

    Dynamex Law: Many Want to Remain “Their Own Bosses”

  • Latest PRGNews

    Rialto Music Pioneers J.J. Fad Honored

Ads

Advertise with us!

Ads ||

Ads |

ADS III

Find us on Facebook

Ads

Precinct Reporter News Group

Your local news resource for 50 years in the Inland Empire, Orange County, Long Beach and surrounding areas!

To subscribe or advertise, call 909.889.0597

About us

  • Broadcasting & Media Production Company
    357 W. 2nd Street
    San Bernardino, California, CA 92401
  • mailto:sales@precinctreporter.com
  • Recent

  • Popular

  • Black Rose Awards Set For Sat., February 4

    By Precinct Reporter News
    January 26, 2023
  • OC Black History Parade & Unity Festival

    By Precinct Reporter News
    January 26, 2023
  • LBCC Students Get Ready for Male Success Initiative

    By Precinct Reporter News
    January 26, 2023
  • IE/OC Prostate and Breast Cancer, Change the Menu

    By PRGNews
    July 16, 2015
  • Join our Recipe Competition!

    By PRGNews
    July 16, 2015
  • SB Budget Cuts CDBG

    SB CDBG Cuts Have Local Nonprofits Braced for the Worst

    By PRGNews
    July 16, 2015

Follow us

© Powered by Hotspotwebsites.net. All rights reserved.