“The Gardens” A Family Care Community Center, Inc.

Address: 2251 Florin Road, Suite #129 

City: Sacramento 

State: California 

ZIP:  95831 

Phone: 916-427-1593 Fax: 916-427-1843 

Website: www.thegardensfamily.org

Name of Executive Director: Ronald T. King Phone: 

916-410-6888 Email: thegardens@sbcglobal.net

Brief Summary of organization’s mission and goals: “The Gardens” mission are two-fold: To promote healthy lives through education, prevention, intervention, compassion and understanding and to address the social ills of our community with a diverse outlook, leaving no-one behind.  Organization Background: “The Gardens” began in 1999 as a grassroots, faith-base community effort to address the gang violence and the spread of HIV/AIDS epidemic facing vulnerable and marginalized African American and Latino youth in a South Sacramento neighborhood. In 2001, “The Gardens” incorporated as an independent 501(C) (3). 

“The Gardens” initiated community efforts with the implementation of Brothers and Sisters Stopping AIDS (BASSA) through a series of HIV/AIDS education and prevention workshops. These early efforts were built on a foundation of coalition development, community mobilization, community empowerment activities, and reaching out to underserved youth within the neighborhood.

Description of project: “The Gardens” PEOPL (Providing Education, Outreach, and Prevention for Life) Project is aimed to provide outreach, prevention education, STI and HIV testing, and pretreatment services to the most hard-to-reach and at-risk youth and young adults (ages 11 to 24). Located in the heart of South Sacramento, one of the most impoverished areas in Sacramento metropolitan region, “The Gardens” uses our well earned reputation of delivering social services to underserved communities of color and marginalized youth to act as a point of entry for youth who would otherwise be un-served or underserved. 

“The Gardens” has successfully used an evidence based curriculum that is interactive and teaches: 1) general social and personal self-management skills; 2) specific skills related to substance abuse risk reduction; and 3) specific skills related to HIV and STI risk reduction. “The Gardens” approach is based on an empowerment model that builds upon the assets of the community and the youth. A central tenet of “The Gardens” is that the youth are partners in the creation, delivery, and evaluation of our services. 

When youths’ capacities and strengths are the focus, rather than on their deficiencies, they are empowered to make dramatic changes in their lives and achieve their goals.  As a component of our youth and community empowerment, “The Gardens” outreach will utilize peer outreach workers and community volunteers. The program has been specifically designed to be taught in a neighborhood setting by community workers, supported by professional educators. This provides an accessible environment of trust and support that is in tune with the challenges that the youth face. 

Population Served: Adults, LGBTQ, Women, Men, Youth/Teen, Child

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