Civic Engagement and Advocacy

Civic Engagement is geared towards Santa Ana residents who are interested in increasing their knowledge about policies that impact their community. With the newly gained knowledge, we hope that residents invest their power to organize and create positive change for their community. This program focuses allows for residents to learn what qualities make is needed to create change. The trainings will be focused on team building and instilling leadership qualities to the community members that we serve. The programs aim to strengthen the residents’ ability to become the next generation of leaders to create policy and systems change.  Throughout the program, residents will be equipped with the skills needed to network with existing community organization, meet with legislative officials, and be a part of community forums. Within the program, there are Community Leadership Advocacy Trainings that will emphasize on awareness, team building, and creating a vision. The training is offered to both adult residents and youth residents to grow and develop as local community leaders.

This program offers:

  • Santa Ana Building Healthy Communities collaborative work
  • Community Ambassador Leadership Training
  • Cultural Competency Training
  • Federal, State, and local legislative education
  • Voter Registration Education
  • Health Advocacy through Health4All campaign participation
  • Working with statewide coalitions
  • Team building workshops
  • Networking with community residents, nonprofit organizations, public institutions, and student lead organizations.

Our formal civic engagement work began with The Community Ambassador Leadership Training (CALT) program, founded in 2013 at The Cambodian Family. The original CALT cohort was made up of older adult & elder community members who desired to be community advocates, who turned their experiences with healthcare navigation, mental health, refugee migration, and language access issues into an advocacy platform to improve conditions for all community members. For more information about our Civic Engagement Program Director , please contact Sophia Chhoeng at sophiac@cambodianfamily.org