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From Solar to Safe Haven: Ten Years On, Rancho Cielo Continues to Grow

Krista Almanzan
Credit Krista Almanzan
This transitional housing village was built by Rancho Cielo students on the schools 100 acre campus in Salinas.

The Rancho Cielo Youth Campus in Salinas offers a fresh start for at risk youth.  As this non-profit educational institution marks its 10th year, it’s also celebrating the launch of two new programs. 

“What you see are five homes and one community room and laundry facility.  They built this lovely village,” says Susie Brusa, Executive Director of Rancho Cielo as she walks along a circular path which connects a cluster of freshly painted, single story houses.

This is Rancho Cielo’s new transitional housing facility, which was built by the students in the school’s construction academy.

For the past ten years, Rancho Cielo has been place where local, at risk youth can get a fresh start. They come here to earn their high school diplomas and get job training in the culinary arts or construction.

“Rancho Cielo is a beautiful place in northeast Salinas where young people who want to share our vision of self-sufficiency ready themselves for their future life either in college or employment or both,” says Brusa.

This village is one of the newest components of that vision.  The homes are for current and former students who are homeless or in need of a safe place to live.

“About 80% of our population is on probation, and many of them are former gang affiliates, and they are unsafe in their own neighborhood.  I've personally been to three funerals since January of our own students or relative of our students,” says Brusa adding that this program isn’t just about free housing.

“So the case manager works with a the young man to put together an individual success plan and that might look like you’re going to attend school every day this week.  You are going to look for a part time job.  And if you complete all of the tasks you’re supposed to complete for your individual success plan then that that enables you to continue to live here,” she explains.

The village has room for 30 residents, so far five spots are filled.  John Rodriguez is one of the first to live here.   He was expelled from high school during his senior year, now 22-years-old, he’ll finally earn his diploma next month and is looking forward to his future.

“College or hopefully, I get a job with a solar company or Don Chapin doing constructionand from right there just work with my career,” says Rodriguez.

He trained in Rancho Cielo’s construction academy and is part of another new program here, the Solar Crew.  It’s a new tract of classes in the construction academy, and its first cohort of students graduated this week.

“We learned how to put everything together. And how to install the solar panels,” says Rodriguez.

The students also learned how to start at square one: from calculating how much power the campus uses to figuring out the best location for the panels and getting the permits.

Susie Brusa says this inaugural class worked on the first of eight solar projects that students will install at Rancho Cielo over the next two years.  Eventually the whole campus will solar power.

“Each one of those will be a separate installation, so that we can train more kids. The whole objective of it for us is workforce development, as well as, helping the earth,” says Brusa.

It’s an industry increasingly in need of new talent says Tony Tesoro of Applied Solar Energy, which supports KAZU.  Tesoro taught the solar installation class at Rancho Cielo, and even hired one of his students.

“Now he’s working in our office.  So he’s done everything from initial analysis.  He’s helping draw plans. He’s worked on the roof.  So everyone has some basic skills at this point, but like anyone they have to get into a work environment,” says Tesoro.

And like all things that have happened at Rancho Cielo of the past ten years, this project was very much a partnership with other community businesses and non-profits, all which have the shared goal of helping at risk youth find brighter futures.  

Krista joined KAZU in 2007. She is an award winning journalist with more than a decade of broadcast experience. Her stories have won regional Edward R. Murrow Awards and honors from the Northern California Radio and Television News Directors Association. Prior to working at KAZU, Krista reported in Sacramento for Capital Public Radio and at television stations in Iowa. Like KAZU listeners, Krista appreciates the in-depth, long form stories that are unique to public radio. She's pleased to continue that tradition in the Monterey Bay Area.