PARLIER – Nestled in the Parlier Branch Library’s quiet room, a weekly community group has been working to address the needs of local youth while setting them on a path for success.
Since January, the Youth Empowerment Group has been meeting in the library every Wednesday, connecting the youth of Parlier with adult role models who can offer guidance and raise awareness for local resources. Led by Sergio Coronel and Francisco Orozco of the Community Justice Center, a Fresno-based nonprofit centered around restorative justice, the group aims to address drug use and gang violence through empathy rather than enforcement.
“The more support we can get for (restorative justice programs) the better, because I think it’s very much needed rather than locking people up and throwing the key,” said Orozco in an interview. “I know it does not work, because it doesn’t address the underlying issues, and you’re not solving anything.”
Leading by example
Orozco and Coronel shared that when they speak to local youth who grapple with drug use and other risky behaviors, it’s coming from a place of experience.
Orozco spent time in juvenile hall at age 17, then went on to serve more than 14 years in prison in the Bay Area. During his incarceration, he set himself on a different path by earning his Associate of Arts degree, and by working as a mentor in the Youth Offender Program, which connects young offenders to rehabilitative and educational resources.
Today, he attends Fresno Pacific University where he will soon earn his Bachelor of Social Work degree, and he is already applying for a masters program of the same vein. Having confronted many of the challenges that children still face today, he aims to be the role model he didn’t have.
“Going through all of those hardships as a kid, I know what it was like to not have someone there for me, and I know what it was like to not have these kinds of programs in place to help me,” Orozco said. “Now that we’re in a capacity where we can be that for these kids, to me that’s meaningful because I see myself in them.”
In addition to his work with the Youth Empowerment Group, Orozco works at local schools alongside Michael Carmona as a restorative justice mediator.
In an interview, Coronel shared that he grew up in Parlier as the child of Spanish-speaking Mexican immigrants. As he got older, he said many of his friends got involved with drugs and gangs, and due in part to the negative influences around him, Coronel would later be expelled from middle school and high school.
Through an intervention from local educators, however, Coronel said he was motivated to go back and get his diploma, which sent him on the journey to earn his bachelor’s degree in history and criminology, pursue research and complete his master’s program.
“A group of teachers got ahold of me, and they’re the ones who showed me a different path and a different avenue in terms of where I was heading,” said Coronel.
Today, Coronel continues his mission as a restorative justice advocate through his work with the Fresno County Juvenile Justice Coordinating Council, input as a local gang consultant and more.
Having both experienced the impact of restorative justice programs firsthand, Coronel and Orozco eventually came together to act on a longtime idea amongst Community Justice Center staff to start a new program in Parlier.
Giving youth a voice
The group meets every Wednesday from 1:30-2:30 p.m., and the format that each meeting takes can vary based on individual attendees’ needs. Coronel explained that some meetings are more conversational, while others will center around presentations done by students on topics like the juvenile justice system, changes they want to make in the classroom and more.
The group also works with a curriculum focused on developing leadership, communication and coping skills.
According to Orozco, attendance varies week-to-week based on students’ availability, with smaller meetings seeing attendance in the low single digits, while others go upward of 15 kids. Over the course of the group’s development, Orozco said they’ve gotten to know a handful of students who regularly attend.
At every meeting, the pair bring coloring supplies and toys for attendees to play with. The meetings are open to youth of varying ages, but Coronel shared that even for some of the older kids, having a space to simply color and play presents a valuable opportunity to tap into their “inner child.”
“Sometimes they grow up too quick in the home or wherever they grew up, and sometimes they didn’t even get the chance to be a kid and color or play with some of these things,” Coronel said.
At a recent Youth Empowerment Group meeting, a young source, whose name has been omitted from this report to maintain privacy, attended for the first time after being encouraged by teachers to give it a try.
In an interview, the source said he was interested in the group because drug use is an important issue to him. He opened up and shared that he grew up with an abusive father who smoked cannabis and did other drugs, which eventually caused him and his mother to stay at the Marjaree Mason Center.
The source also said he’s seen many of his peers begin smoking at an early age, which served to further normalize drug use in his life. He shared that he tried smoking cannabis when he was in middle school, but after a single bad experience, he swore it off.
“Most of the people I know started smoking since I was in seventh grade, and growing up seeing my dad use it, I decided to try it in eighth grade,” said the source. “I didn’t know I had anxiety, so I had a really bad panic attack and for a long time, I couldn’t walk. I was scared, so I decided cannabis wasn’t for me.”
Speaking on other risky behaviors he’s witnessed amongst his peers, the source said he hopes local leaders will push gang prevention even harder, sharing that he’s seen kids get involved with gangs as early as middle school.
After the meeting, the source admitted that he’s currently unsure if he will continue to attend because “it’s not really something I do,” but he said he sees the value of a group like this existing within Parlier.
One of the group’s most consistent attendees is Lyonel Garnette, 19, who also grew up in Parlier and was formerly incarcerated. In an interview, Garnette shared that he began smoking weed as a coping mechanism at age 12, and although he was able to stay clean during his probationary period, he said it’s a habit that he’s still trying to break for good.
Garnette said he met Coronel through probation counseling, and lightheartedly recollected how resistant he was to the process at the start.
“At first, since it was part of my probation, I was like ‘(Screw) this, I’m just gonna tell him what he wants to hear,’ and it was the same thing with counseling,” said Garnette.
After learning that Coronel grew up in Parlier, experienced similar hardships and still made it through, Garnette said it opened his eyes to the opportunities he still had. Through counseling and mentorship, Garnette said he’s come to see Coronel as a father figure, and hopes to pay the kindness that was shown to him forward.
Garnette is currently enrolled in the automotive program at Reedley College, but said he wants to pursue social work once he finishes the program and continue to work as a youth counselor. Getting a head start on his ambitions, he has been attending the Youth Empowerment Group to bring another level of relatability for those who show up.
By sharing his story and unique perspective with attendees, Garnette said he aims to show others that change is possible just as Coronel did for him.
“Sometimes you’ve got to go down the wrong path to get to the right path, but if there’s someone who can help them not go through that, then I’d rather do that,” Garnette said.
Outside of the time he spends with the Youth Empowerment group, Garnette said he attends events organized by other restorative justice groups in California. Just a few months ago, he found a new platform for change after being voted onto the Juvenile Justice Coordinating Council Realignment Subcommittee, where Coronel said he will provide input on state plans for juvenile justice.
Visions for the future
Coronel said that the group is funded through a grant from the Board of State and Community Corrections that is good for about another year-and-a-half. In that time, he said he aims to connect with other cities in Tulare and Kings county to either expand upon Parlier’s Youth Empowerment Group, or at least serve as a template for others to follow.
“I think the seeds we’ve planted here at the library could be a model for Reedley, Sanger, Selma and everywhere, because if it can happen here, it could happen at any library,” Coronel said.
Looking beyond the grant’s lifespan, Coronel added that he would love to work with library staff to develop young leaders who can work with local youth later down the line if the group comes to an end, possibly even turning it into an internship opportunity.
As a more short-term goal, Coronel and Orozco both expressed excitement in the possibility of bringing a TV and video game console into the meetings, giving kids an opportunity to hold tournaments and play with one another.
As the group develops week-by-week and their ambitions grow, the pair also take pride in the positive changes that have already begun to reveal themselves in Parlier. Orozco said that in the years before the Youth Empowerment Group’s formation, Parlier Unified School District had already begun implementing restorative justice practices, such as the mediations he and Carmona do for instances of student conflicts.
According to Orozco, the district’s suspension rates have dropped by around 40% since implementing some of these practices.
The group will continue to meet every Wednesday in the library for as long as they can, and aim to grow the safe space that library staff have helped them curate. Garnette said that at an age where many kids feel like they need to put on a tough exterior to get through life, the library has come to be known as a place where people can breathe.
“When you walk out those (library) doors you’ve got to put up a wall, but as soon as you walk into those doors, that wall can dome down,” Garnette said.
