Luz Academy

Luz Community Development Coalition

“Academia Luz” “Luz Academy”

Luz Academy is the educative arm of Luz Coalition in which we provide trainings,  education,  and  research in order to apply sound prevention theory and practice, be culturally competent in working with the Latino community and to build capacity within Luz coalition as to be able to disseminate this knowledge into the Community. Luz Academy also promotes, problem behavior prevention; Recognizing Community Norms; Assessing communities needs. Classes are offered to work with statistical data, in order to document project activities and outcomes, while keeping current with newly developed campaigns, in order to connect Prevention theory and Practice using current Research and program models Having cultural sensitivity/ competence class with tailored education and skill development to meet the needs in developing a foundation, dissemination information and training on the “Te Necesitamos” Campaign.

Their trainings and other capacity building activities were customized for four different groups: Luz staff, professionals (in prevention and other related fields), community members, and youth.

The Coalition offered basic prevention education training, as well as other related issues for example: Becoming a 501c3 English, Becoming a 501c3, History of Alcohol in the Latino Community, Introduction to Grant Writing (English) , Introduction to Grant Writing (Spanish), Substance Abuse Prevention Specialist Training (SAPST), Working with the Latino Community Training, Leadership & Resiliency Training, Substance Abuse Prevention Specialist, Training  for youth(SAPST), Suicide Prevention Training, Anáhuac life skills: School and Community Engagement, Résumé Writing, CPR English, CPR Spanish, HIV 101, Human Development 4 in attendance, Priority Risks, Media Literacy, Leadership.

Classes were offered not only at their offices, but at other sites as well, and hosted “lunch-n-learn” presentations to accommodate professionals with limited time. They also found innovative ways to engage community members, such as partnering with local agencies to offer a variety of classes aimed at the non-professional members of the community such as Resume Writing, Managing and Preventing Stress, and Toastmasters. By offering these “Luz Academy” classes to members of the community and encouraging the use Luz’s computer lab to conduct job-search related activities a comfort level with Luz and its personnel is established. This trust and buy-in from the general community, but the emphasis on the Latino community is the key to their participation in coalition events and trainings.