Media & Events

Our team had the opportunity to go to Anaheim to attend the Southern Region Student Wellness Conference 2023 -- which was at the Disneyland Hotel! Our main takeaways centered around cultivating a safe environment for our students by learning about different ways to regulate mental health and trauma, being culturally appropriate, practicing mindfulness to manage stress, being gender and sexuality-inclusive, and uplifting students' voices and experiences. All of these are important to keep in mind as we navigate an ever-changing global environment to make sure our students feel safe, secure, cared for, and heard -- both in and out of the classroom. Our team had a blast learning and visiting Anaheim together!

We tabled at the 2nd annual Elk Grove Pride event hosted by Sacramento Filipinx LGBTQIA+! This event centered LGBTQ+ Pride, and their theme this year was "Embodied Liberation." This event celebrated Pride while also bringing awareness to the struggles and experiences we still face to this day as we pursue our collective liberation. Although they don't have a website (yet), check out Sacramento Filipinx LGBTQIA+ on Instagram via @sacfilipinxlgbtqia 

At this event, many local organizations, vendors, speakers, artists, performers, and educators came together to foster a fun and warm event for the Elk Grove community. The Youth Development Office did multiple stations for kids to unleash their creativity and affirm their identities, including arts & crafts, affirmation cards, and face-painting. We also hosted a few games! YDO is committed to making our students feel safe, heard, celebrated, and affirmed. 

We marched at the 2023 Sacramento Pride March in June! The Youth Development Office organized the participation of any/all EGUSD employees who wanted to be part of this march. We march for our students and ourselves whose identities and voices should be heard, respected, affirmed, and uplifted!

The FACE Department at EGUSD hosted a Community Block Party on May 10th to celebrate the work of the different departments at the district. There were kid-friendly activities, informational booths, food and drinks, gift raffles, and people dancing as fun music played admist it all. We were also grateful to have student performances from different schools at EGUSD! It was a fun time.

YDO's first-ever Youth Action Project (YAP) this past April took months of planning and preparation. With inspiration from previous Middle School Conferences, YDO curated an event centering youth empowerment and action to cultivate better school environments for themselves. With this year's theme being "Swipe Away Stigma," middle school students were encouraged to identify how social media and screen time have both positive and negative effects, and they learned how to mitigate the negatives through collaboration and discussion with their peers. By putting the power and agency in their hands, students feel driven to make their school environments better for themselves and others.

LGBTQ+ Youth Summit is a celebration for EGUSD’s Genders and Sexualities Alliance clubs (GSA) and LGBTQ+ student members and allies from all middle school and high schools. We use this space and time to uplift LGBTQ+ student voices and bring awareness to community resources and organizations supporting LGBTQ+ folks, mental health, bullying prevention and drug prevention. 

YDO brought back the LGBTQ+ Youth Summit event after being on hiatus due to COVID-19 this past April 2023. With the theme "Let's Grow," our team focused on empowering and uplifting EGUSD students with activities and resources focused on wellness, trauma- informed healing, and queer joy. By giving visibility and support to our LGBTQ+ youth and their allies, we can move towards removing stigma and creating safe learning environments for them to thrive!

A HUGE thank you to the community organizers and speakers who were part of our LGBTQ+ Youth Summit this year. Below, you can see a few of the community organizations who were present at the event pictured with their tables! 

In honor of Filipinx-American and Latinx-American history month, the October Resource Faire in 2022 celebrated diverse cultures while keeping the spirit of the Halloween season. With a variety organizations representing diverse cultures and sharing resources for students, students were able to explore their interests -- all while having fun in their Halloween costumes.