Yvette Walker
With KVCR News, I'm Yvette Walker. This is IE Latino Voices where we invite representatives from Latino led and Latino serving organizations to share their stories and their impact in our region. Joining me today is Yvette Abreo, Agency Life Coach at Family Assistance Program. Yvette, thank you so much for being with us here today.
Yvette Abreo
Thank you for having me here today.
Yvette Walker
Tell us a bit about the Family Assistance Program and its mission in the community.
Yvette Abreo
The Family Assistance Program, first of all, not just because I worked there, is an amazing agency. We've been around for 40 years, and it started off very small with the domestic violence shelter, but grew from there because we found out that there was overlapping gaps of trauma affecting our community. So one of those was runaway youth. And so we opened up a youth shelter, and then we opened up another program, which was for human trafficking. And then when I came to the agency, one of the programs that the target audience that hadn't been hit was a community that I've come from, which is the reentry population. And so our director says, you know what, let's open up a reentry program. That's where it started.
Yvette Walker
That is so exciting. And it sounds like survivors supporting survivors is basically the work that you're in. So tell us, how did you become an Agency Life Coach at the Family Assistance Program.
Yvette Abreo
Originally, I started the Family Assistance Program, the reentry program, and I did it for about seven years, and it was flourishing. We had like, six homes. We were helping the ladies going back into society and being successful in that. And I can tell you that the reason why I fell in love with working with the agency is the way the culture ran. It was run by survivors. It's survivor led, and for me, that makes them the experts. And from there, we open up a shelter for the reentry population for females. I've come from that population. I did a 17 year term, and I was released at 40 years old, so I someone understand what they go through. You know, when I had gotten out, there were pagers, and then I came out to a world of technology, and I ran across a lot of stumble blocks. The thing is, I don't give up. And so from those, I grew but I realized quickly that there are people that may need a little bit of help, may need a little bit more motivation. And after speaking to the executive director, Darryl evey within the Family Assistance Program, he thought it was a great idea to open up a reentry program. And so we started getting women from probation, and we grew from there, because we had so many positive outcomes that women were getting back in to housing. They were getting their children back. Family reunification was happening. A lot of drug addictions were being overpowered, you know, and they were just gaining sobriety.
Yvette Walker
Yvette, can you share some of the key areas that you do focus on when serving these women reentering into the population?
Yvette Abreo
My main focus is in NLP, which is Neuro-Linguistic Programming, or reprogramming. And what I do is I aim to help individuals restructure the brain patterns in their head, those brain patterns that tell them that they're not good enough, they don't deserve this, that that's not their place. They're not smart enough, things of that nature. And I help them restructure it to say it's okay. You got this. Take your time. You can do this. When you conquer the darkness within, you become master of yourself and your outer world.
Yvette Walker
Are there ways the community can learn more about you and support your efforts? Do you have any fundraising events coming up?
Yvette Abreo
Actually, Family Assistance does accept donations. We look for volunteers to help us in all different areas. We have a domestic violence shelter, youth shelter, and a reentry program, so volunteers are needed everywhere. Also, we have a gala coming up. You can find the information at familyassistance.org.
Yvette Walker
Yvette, thank you so much for your work, for your dedication and your commitment to serving our community and those that are most underserved.
Yvette Abreo
Thank you.
Yvette Walker
Yvette Abreo is Agency Life Coach at Family Assistance Program. Join us again next week for IE Latino Voices. You can find this story and others on our website at kvcrnews.org/IELatinoVoices. IE Latino Voices is produced by KVCR Public Media and is funded by generous support from the CIELO Fund at IECF, uplifting and investing in the IE's Latino community. For KVCR News, I'm Yvette Walker.
