Local fashion show raises awareness for child abuse prevention

Although April is known for bringing warmer temperatures and pollen allergies, it also signifies National Child Abuse Prevention Awareness Month. Yolo County Children’s Association (YCCA) has been fundraising throughout the month and held their most recent and largest fundraising event, Project Prevention, on April 15.

This was the seventh annual Project Prevention, a fashion show that gives real-world experience to 30 local Yolo County youth volunteer models.

“We had seen other nonprofits do fashion for causes and we thought it would be a fun way to raise awareness and money at the same time,” said Katie Villegas, executive director of YCCA.

In 2014, YCCA collaborated with Project Runway contestant Timothy Westbrook to bring in fashion expertise, helping the show to become the event it is today.

“In our first years, this event featured Yolo’s local celebrities, such as elected officials and community leaders,” Villegas said. “It’s been so fun watching this event evolve over the years.”

In recent years, the fashion show has featured original designs from past Project Runway contestants. This year, 16-year-old Zachary Fernandez, third runner-up on Project Runway Junior season one, designed and showcased a collection. The collection was modeled by the local youth volunteers.

“Project Prevention approached me about doing the show, and I just thought it’s such an amazing cause, and just a great way to shed light on such a serious matter,” Fernandez said. “It’s a really great way to use art as a positive message to encourage teens.”

His collection included looks he designed over his past four years in the fashion industry.

“It’s just a mixture of everything I love and we’re doing almost 20 looks,” Fernandez said.

Fernandez, who showed his collection at New York Fashion Week, was excited for the opportunity to help teens gain confidence through fashion.

Richard Hallmarq, Project Runway season 11 contestant and Sacramento resident, also joined to help the cause.

In addition to teens designing and modeling at the event, students of Bryte Garden Café in West Sacramento helped to prepare and serve culinary creations. The training facility teaches culinary arts and farm to fork education to students of River City High School.  

Adult guests could also enjoy a wine bar courtesy of Clarksburg Wine Co. and Carvalho Winery.

Money raised from the event was donated to YCCA programs that help prevent child abuse. At the event, YCCA Board Chair Jim Provenza explained the benefits of Project Prevention and the importance of donating to the organization.  

“Because we know the harm that child abuse and neglect can cause, we want to prevent children from ever experiencing it,” Provenza said at the event. “We think one of the reasons we are making an impact in preventing child abuse neglect in Yolo County is because of the child abuse prevention programs you are supporting here tonight.”

Written By: Samantha Solomon – city@theaggie.org

Local organizations, projects celebrate volunteers in the community

On Saturday, April 23, the City of Davis will be hosting a Community Day of Service in which various projects and organizations will come together to encourage volunteer participation. The city hopes to promote the active involvement of volunteers in the community by hosting a fun event for everyone.

This year will be the third year that the city will host the event. Previously, a similar event, Helping Hand, was hosted by the Davis Latter-day Saints Church. The church approached the city with hopes of a partnership in order to encourage more community groups, faith based organizations and community members to participate in a community-wide day of service.

Kellie Vitaich, volunteer coordinator for the City of Davis and Davis Police Department, believes that the event is effective in promoting volunteers to be active in the community.

“I’ve worked with the city for the past two and a half years and they have been working on expanding their volunteer efforts and utilizing more volunteers. This is a really nice way to have a community day to celebrate volunteers and the community and partner up with different departments, city entities, schools and nonprofits that wanted to have volunteers come out,” Vitaich said.

This year, the city is excited to have a variety of groups and projects involved, exposing the people of Davis to different ways of contributing to the community.  

According to Carrie Dryer, community engagement and cultural service director for the City of Davis, the event will begin with a kick-off pancake breakfast where participants will first come together to get excited about the event and create the spirit of giving back to the community. People will then go out to different projects.

“We’re excited this year to have a large variety of projects working in a couple of our parks, working with the Center for Land Based Learning on the farms that’s incorporated next to the new Cannery buildings. We also have never worked before with the Yolo County Libraries. We’re very excited for that partnership, to actually have volunteer opportunities for folks who might not want to be out in the sun all morning,” Dryer said.

The organizations involved, including the Yolo County Library, also look forward to being part of a community-wide event that will celebrate volunteers.

“We’re always looking for volunteers. We consider the library as a community center, a community meeting point, so anytime we can join in with or partner with any type of community event, we try to accommodate it,” said Glen Uno, co-volunteer coordinator of the Yolo County Library.

Dryer explains the success of the event comes from bringing so many community members together on one day, facilitating a sense of pride and ownership over the community. She states that last year about 225 volunteers participated, with a very wide age range.

“Many families came out, moms and dads with their kids. Last year one of the projects I was at, there were kids just as young as two out there picking up leaves and putting them in bags. It was really fun. And we ask if people are under the age of 14 they bring an adult with them,” Dryer said.

Vitaich adds that the intentions behind the event prove to be extremely beneficial for everyone involved and that only positive effects result from a Day of Service.

“It’s always nice to just kind of celebrate volunteers and the community,” Vitaich said. “There’s obviously volunteer activities going on everyday throughout the year so it’s nice to come out and celebrate that and see a lot going on in one day.”

Written By: HADYA AMIN- city@theaggie.org

Davis City Council implements entertainment permit ordinance in place of previous moratorium

The Davis City Council held a meeting on Tuesday, April 5 to discuss lifting a moratorium put on new and existing nightclubs and bars in Davis. At the meeting, the council, who originally voted 4:1 in favor of enacting the moratorium, voted to lift the moratorium and enact the Entertainment Permit Ordinance (EPO).

The moratorium, which prohibited any new venues from opening and existing bars from expanding, was put in place late last year after the stabbing at KetMoRee downtown. In addition, the council saw an increasing number of violent incidents taking place downtown.

The council and several Davis residents felt that the murder was the last straw in a string of incidents occurring in the town. The moratorium was put in place to allow the council time to draw up a solution to violent occurrences downtown.

“We put a moratorium on any new or expanded bars in the city but we didn’t shut the existing ones down,” said Davis Mayor Dan Wolk. “[Existing businesses] still operated but I will say that […] because of what happened and because of the moratorium, there was a heightened awareness of these problems.”

Once the moratorium was put into effect, the number of instances downtown declined as businesses voluntarily implemented security precautions. Taking these voluntary measures into consideration, the city council created the EPO, which was voted on and passed at the April 5 meeting, replacing the moratorium.

The ordinance requires bars and restaurants to obtain an entertainment permit for their businesses. The conditions for each permit will be tailored for each specific business, at the discretion of the Davis police chief. The EPO applies to both existing businesses as well as any other new or expanding venues.

“Any business engaged in entertainment, live music, concerts DJs, dancing — they will have to apply to the police department to get an entertainment operating permit,” said Davis Police Chief Darren Pytel in an interview with KCRA.

City councilmember Brett Lee feels that the safety in Davis should be greatly improved by the new ordinance.

“In general, what’s going to happen is there will be security screening at the door,” Lee said. “The goal is that no one will be able to bring any weapons inside the bars. In addition, security personnel will be required to meet a much higher standard.”

In addition, bartenders and servers will undergo more thorough training on appropriately dealing with a variety of situations. This includes making sure those who are already intoxicated do not drink more than they should, preventing instances of sexual harassment or assault and ensuring people get home safely.

“One additional thing that we are looking at […] will probably be enacted in a good number of bars, [it] is the idea of soft closure,” Lee said. “That’s the situation where the bar may close to new people entering at say 1 a.m. but the people who are already there are able to stay inside and continue to drink if they choose.”

The council would like to emphasize that they still want Davis to have a fun downtown nightlife. They recognize that many UC Davis students enjoy going downtown on weeknights and weekends to have fun and the council does not want to prevent that from occurring.

“We just want to make sure it happens safely, and that’s what this has been all about,” Wolk said. “We are really just ensuring that it’s done safely and I think that’s what this will exactly do.”

Written By: BIANCA ANTUNEZ – city@theaggie.org

Board of Education discusses current programs, prepares for district-wide strategies to address achievement gap issue

On April 7, the Davis Joint Unified School District (DJUSD) Board of Education met to discuss ways to close the achievement gap in Davis Elementary Schools. Despite having high Academic Performance Index (API) scores, DJUSD still has an achievement gap, or a performance disparity between low-income minority students and students who come from higher-income families.

According to Clark Bryant, associate superintendent of Instructional Services, about 19 percent of the students in the district qualify for free and reduced lunch, a service offered to students from families of low socioeconomic status. Additionally, 11 percent of the students are English learners.

The principals from Marguerite Montgomery Elementary School (MME) and Birch Lane Elementary School spoke to the board and explained the programs they have implemented at their schools to address the achievement gap issue. At Birch Lane Elementary, out of the approximately 600 enrolled students, 23 percent qualify for free or reduced lunch and 15 percent are considered English learners.

Birch Lane Elementary School Principal Jim Knight said staff have implemented Social Emotional Learning (SEL), which consists of a three-tier support system for students.

“Sometimes we get so focused with the academic side or social emotional side and we don’t realize how intertwined they are with each other,” Knight said at the meeting.

Knight explained that school-wide procedures work for about 80 percent of the students but about 15 percent need intervention, such as small group counseling or behavior contracts. Still, about 5 percent may need intensive intervention in the form of supported re-entry or crisis intervention.

“No learning takes place if a student is in crisis. When we have students that come to us with needs in one way or another we have to be able to support them for them to be able to be successful academically,” Knight said.

At MME, out of the 430 enrolled students, 58 percent qualify for free and reduced lunch, and 43 percent are English learners.

MME Principal Sally Plicka explained that their programs focus on literacy and reading. Staff developed a Summer Reading Program (SRP) and implemented the Two-Way Bilingual Immersion Program.

SRP consists of two facets that aim to enhance reading skills. One of the methods under SRP is “Bags Full of Books,” which provides targeted students with 10 to 12 books, of their choice and at their reading level, to take home on the last day of school and read over the summer.

“We know that over the summer our students lose about three months and sometimes about six months worth of their reading achievement from the prior year. When this happens year after year, the research shows that by sixth grade, they’re two years behind in their reading,” Plicka said at the meeting.

During the summer, students tracked their reading time, set goals and discussed their progress with school staff over the phone.  

Out of the 70 students who were selected to participate in the Bags Full of Books  program, 52 students provided useful data that allowed staff to evaluate the effectiveness of the program.

“88 percent maintained or improved their reading level over the summer [and] 12 percent experienced the typical summer slide,” Plicka said.

MME also implemented the Two-Way Bilingual Immersion Program to close the achievement gap for English language learner students. Students enrolled in the Two-Way Bilingual program are in classes are taught in both English and Spanish. In first grade, classes are taught 90 percent in Spanish and 10 percent in English, and by sixth grade, instruction is divided equally between English and Spanish. At MME, 220 students are enrolled in the program.

According to the research found by MME staff, the Two-Way Bilingual program not only closes the achievement gap at an early age, but also ensures that students excel academically.

“A well-implemented Two-Way Bilingual program brings students up to the level of their other English language learner peers who are in English-only programs by the third grade. By the sixth grade, it generally closes the gap completely, and by the twelfth grade, they are excelling and exceeding the expected outcomes for all of our students nationally,” Plicka said.

Plicka emphasized the importance of valuing bilingual students and balancing the number English and Spanish speakers in the program.

“These students who are Spanish-speaking natives are not coming to school with a deficit of not knowing English; they’re coming to school with a gift of knowing Spanish,” Plicka said.

DJUSD board member Tom Adams congratulated both schools for their unique approaches to closing the achievement gap.

“There is no one curriculum, one tool, one technology […] It’s really a community effort and the community is more than just the teachers and the students but it involves the parents and the entire town,” Adams said.

The board will continue to discuss the issue during the first meeting of every month. At the next meeting, the board will address the junior high and high school achievement gap goals and strategies.

Written By: CARLA ARANGO – city@theaggie.org