Members of our Kern County Sheriff's Office Sheriff's Activities League attended the 18th annual California Police Activities League (PAL) Youth Leadership Academy in Anaheim. 12 outstanding kids from Kern Valley, Lamont and Wasco were selected by deputy sheriffs after meeting criteria for grades, hours of community service, and leadership qualities.
The Youth Leadership Academy provides unique training for SAL youth challenging and empowering them to rise to a new level of leadership not only in SAL, but their community, school, church and home. Deputies chaperoned and participated with the youth in rigorous sessions developing leadership, citizenship and moral reasoning; afterwards the kids got to experience Disneyland. For most of our kids this was their first time visiting the theme park.
There are over 400 PAL/SAL member chapters in law enforcement agencies servicing over 700 cities and 1,700 facilities throughout the United States, servicing more than one million youth ages 5 to 18.
The Leadership Academy is not looking to recruit young officers. It is based on the conviction that young people, if reached early enough, can develop strong positive attitudes toward law enforcement in their journey through life toward the goal of maturity and good citizenship.
The SAL program brings youth under the supervision and positive influence of law enforcement agencies and expands public awareness of the role of an officer and the reinforcement of the responsible values and attitudes instilled in youth by their parents. For more information about the four chapters of the Kern County Sheriff's Activities League visit www.kcsal.com
Our goal this year is to develop leaders through the conference held in Santa Clarita. Funding would provide the opportunity for 15 of our youth to attend the conference. The impact this conference has is huge. Youth develop coping skills, maturity, skills for resisting controlled substances, organization and time management skills, make plans for life after high school and gain self-efficacy and improve resiliency factors that ensure success as they go home to environments that don’t always promote success. The impact of this conference is lifelong and cannot be duplicated. Thank you for your consideration.
It is our goal to help prevent heart disease, diabetes, and obesity through our evidence based interventions for children who have survived trauma. Decades of studies have shown the link between childhood trauma and poor health. Deputies meet children in traumatic events such as automobile accidents, family violence, and when they are victims of various crimes. They refer these young men and women to the SAL program and begin the journey to a life change and recovery. Lamont is an extremely underserved community. Children here play sports without proper equipment, travel to and from school with holes in their shoes and don't have the money for basic hygiene. Teaching the youth about education, resiliency and a strong work ethic helps to break the chains of poverty and ensure they will have what they need to be successful. SAL prides itself on being available for the needs of children who have survived traumatic events and cultivating relationships that lead them to become healthy young people working toward the goal of being law abiding, respectful, responsible citizens. In addition to evidence based school groups SAL offers after school sports, healthy eating and cooking classes, yoga, CrossFit and academy style workouts and opportunities for community service at fresh food distributions. Education is the cornerstone of our interventions teaching the children to ask for help when they need it and about the resources to help them be successful in school and life. SAL is unique because each child and family has a different situation and we are able to tailor our program to the specific needs of the children in the program. The relationship between a law enforcement officer who helped a child through a traumatic event and the child cannot be duplicated and we realize how privileged we are to help these youth.
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