GARDEN PATHWAYS INC

The goal of Garden Pathways is to connect people seeking a fresh start with caring mentors who guide and encourage. Participants include families transitioning from welfare and child protective services programs, families and youth impacted by gang violence and abuse, ex-offenders, emancipating/emancipated foster youth, pregnant/parenting youth, and other at-risk individuals. Through the power of relationship, young people and adults find lasting freedom from poverty and at-risk conditions as they discover dignity and self-worth, take responsibility for their choices, and develop life skills.

The programs of Garden Pathways provide a wide range of life-building services to the Kern County community, including comprehensive mentoring, licensed child care for infants and preschool children, and arts mentoring. These divers programs lead families to educational advancement, employment, family stability, self-sufficiency, healthy living, and improved quality of life.

Garden Pathways goals are to mitigate the effects of past trauma in the children, youth, and adults served, improve public safety, reduce recidivism, and provide opportunities for economic mobility for the most marginalized in our community.

While a number of opportunities for youth mentoring are offered in our community, Garden Pathways is the only established provider of comprehensive adult and family mentoring services.

Garden Pathways' strategies foster the healing process in participants to enable them to become healthy, productive community members growing in education, employment, leadership, and advocacy. Outcomes include: safe homes and communities, increased access to medical care, increased opportunities for education and meaningful employment.

Garden Pathways programs provide: (1) neighborhood clean-up and outreach, (2) a safe and trustworthy environment, (3) trauma-informed individual and group mentoring, (4) youth academic and social support, (5) employment preparation, and (5) mentoring through the arts.

Garden Pathways has learned that the barriers most difficult to overcome are the internal effects of experienced trauma and stress, not only external factors. Many programs focus on training, employment, or community advocacy which can surface new stressors and miss the need for the individual to first heal emotionally, spiritually, and mentally. Garden Pathways continues to build on its prior work of creating caring, encouraging, and trusting relationships that lead to the internal and external transformation of the participant.

Garden Pathways program components include:
1. Community outreach
2. Transformative education and skills enhancement;
3. Youth interventions for at-risk youth;
4. Engage in supportive relationship, assessment, and referral.
5. Trauma-informed approach group mentoring to address the root causes of trauma and stress;
6. Job readiness;
7. In partnership with WESTEC, certificate training for industrial work
8. Enrichment activities
9. Community service and restorative justice activities
10. One-on-one and group mentoring

Since 1998, Garden Pathways has been the program selected by the County of Kern to provide both family mentoring and youth mentoring services for its Department of Human Services clients.

Garden Pathways has provided mentoring and education services for over 17 years. Garden Pathways currently operates one federal and two county-funded mentoring projects, all of which have significant numbers of at-risk youth and adults. In 2014, Garden Pathways (staff and over 200 volunteer mentors) provided services to over 4,300 participants: 1,582 adults, 559 youth and children with over 237,000 hours of direct services.

Garden Pathways received State Corrections Department Female Offender Treatment and Employment Program (FOTEP) funds from 2002-2004, to provide post-release job search training.

In 2011, Garden Pathways received private funds to create a 52-week Batterer Intervention Program titled Breaking The Cycle for court-ordered male offenders.68% of offenders completed the 52-week pilot program − nearly double the national average.

Garden Pathways developed a partnership with WESTEC in 2012, providing participants with opportunities to earn certificates to work in oil, agriculture, and general industry. Over 500 individuals per year are served through this collaboration.

Youth mentoring projects consistently exceed contract performance measures. The youth mentoring program has resulted in 76% of youth completing the skills enhancement/ transformative education workshop, 85% continuing with one-on-one or group mentoring, 48% improving their grade point average, 40% improving attendance, and 93% displaying greater confidence as reported by survey of teachers, counselors, mentors, and parents. Currently, though a partnership with The California Endowment, Garden Pathways is developing a framework for a trauma-informed approach for young men in South Kern that will begin the healing process and enable them to become healthy, productive community members growing in education, employment, leadership, and advocacy.

In October 2013, Garden Pathways implemented the 34th Street Neighborhood Transformation project to address the root causes of crime, unemployment, poverty, and lack of education in that community by inspiring hope and dealing with the internal effects of repeated trauma, extended stress, and negative influence. The process is initiated through outreach and cleanup teams that develop trusted relationships with the residents while beautifying their neighborhoods. Since the project started, the outreach and cleanup teams have connected with over 1,000 residents and collected over 33 tons of trash. A partnership with Kern Adult Literacy Council provides participants with literacy and GED services. Garden Pathways approach to neighborhood transformation “Building Community from the Inside Out" can be replicated to other communities of high need.

Garden Pathways is on target or exceeding all of the indicators listed. Historically we have met or exceeded the performances measures for our funders.