Projects

C A L I F  CAFÉ

The CALIF CAFÉ is envisioned to be an independent living skills center for the promotion of mental health as well as a venue for the prevention of secondary mental health conditions.

CALIF, the independent living center is currently conducting every Wednesday from 1 pm to 5 pm, such initial activities as Peer Mentor Program meetings and Recovery, Inc. group sessions, a self-help mental health method where coping techniques are learned in a group setting. The CALIF CAFÉ project will encompass the expansion of these programs. In its quarterly report of February 2006, out of 499 active CALIF consumers, 43 consumers have cognitive disabilities, and 78 consumers have mental/emotional disabilities. An additional 42 consumers who have multiple disabilities include depression and other emotional problems. In the month of April, 2006 alone, 6 new consumers coping with depression, anxiety, fear, trauma and even slow learning disabilities have participated actively in the Peer Mentors Program launched on April 19, 2006. The consumers readily signed up to be Peer Mentors and Volunteers after easily identifying these meetings to have provided them with a safe place and surroundings other than their homes or private rooms where they have isolated themselves for long periods of time.

In a world designed for able-bodied individuals, people living with disabilities, physical or mental, struggle to find a secure place offering a welcoming and understanding environment for them. The CALIF CAFÉ will be a secure place where persons coping with physical and mental disabilities meet with their peer and mentors. While in an atmosphere of a café, the CALIF CAFE would also be a library, and conference center for educational forums, health and fitness workshops, nutrition seminars, and support groups providing a relaxed atmosphere for serious and / or otherwise fun-filled activities.

Adding to the factors of poverty and language barriers, the disability population of individuals coping with mental and emotional disabilities, face the daunting task of even attempting to get out of their homes since there is no other alternative safe haven to spend the rest of their day. The CALIF CAFÉ, through the LA Care grant, is expected to offer a beginning solution to this dilemma. After addressing the urgent and important need for a safe place to learn health and nutrition, HMO, healthcare right programs, the CALIF CAFÉ atmosphere will in itself be one of the solutions in the prevention of secondary mental health conditions like severe depression, neurosis, psychosis and other more critical mental health conditions.

To create a welcoming atmosphere, the CALIF CAFÉ will provide bilingual services for its educational forums. CALIF ILC is staffed with 3 bilingual advocates speaking Spanish. The Executive Director, Peer Counseling and Independent Living Skills Advocate, Administrative and Program assistants speak Filipino dialects.

Among the 499 active CALIF ILC consumers, there are 248 Hispanics or Latinos, 57 Asians. The center is growing in consumer population from the Philippines, Korea and China. The independent living spirit will be the guiding philosophy for the building of CALIF CAFÉ as a program that helps achieve the following purposes:

1. To organize an independent living skills project, called CAFÉ (Consumers Advocacy and Friendship Enterprise) in the relaxing and welcoming atmosphere of a café that will provide the venue for multi-lingual educational forums on health maintenance, healthcare systems and the health care rights of the disability community served by CALIF.

2. Through CAFÉ, organize a multi-lingual package of health care and recreational services for the prevention of Mental Health Secondary Conditions that people with emotional and mental disabilities tend to develop when staying too long in isolation. The CAFÉ project will provide supportive, relaxing, and fun activities like games, movies, crafts, and self-help support groups.

3. To build a “CALIF CAFÉ LIBRARY”, a multi-lingual library of healthcare resources and materials, including recreational services and activities through the peer mentoring and sharing model, in different media forms, that will be managed by the Peer Mentors of CALIF-ILC, who are themselves individuals with mental, physical and emotional disabilities.

homepage | contact | html | css | © 2007 C A L I F | Design by www.mitchinson.net | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License