1,341
benefited from
funded
programs
15 Youth in
funded
programs
SPBCSI at
Richmond High
School
The City of San Pablo granted program funding to one community-based organization, Familias Unidas, to provide direct services at Richmond High School.
Familias Unidas
Familias Unidas counselors facilitated one-on-one mental health and case management services to students at Richmond High School . The two therapists at the school offered bilingual and bicultural support to Spanish-speaking students.
Richmond High School
2023-24 School Profile
Violence Prevention and Intervention Grantee Agency: Familias Unidas 100%
of youth surveyed feel
safe in their program
100%
of youth report in
their program the
adults care about
them
100%
of youth say they can go
to an adult for advice if
they have a serious
problem
SAN PABLO BEACON COMMUNITY
SCHOOLS INITIATIVE
San Pablo Beacon Community Schools Initiative Page 2
Richmond High School Profile
About Richmond High School
Richmond High School is the designated high school for youth in San Pablo. In the 2022-23 school year, the school served 1,431 students, about half of whom are San Pablo residents. Richmond High School’s graduation rate has increased in the past decade from 80% in the 2010-11 school year, to a high of 89% from 2013-15, followed by a decline to 81% in 2022-23. The change in graduation rates over time largely mirrors the district and county trajectories.
Figure 1: Richmond High School graduation rates have increased and followed Contra Costa County (CCC) and District (WCCUSD) trends over time.
Source: 4-year Graduation Rate data retrieved from: http://data1.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/ July 2024.
The City works to support the District’s Positive School Climate Policy, which includes efforts to reduce suspension rates. Over the past nine years, suspension rates across Richmond High School have decreased from 13% in the 2011-12 school year to 5% in 2019-20.1 This decrease generally follows grade nine through twelve trends at the county level. There were zero suspensions in the
1 Suspension data retrieved from: http://data1.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/. Graduation data for the 2023-2024 school year is not currently available.
0%
50%
100%
12-13 13-14 14-15 15-16 16-17 17-18 18-19 19-20 21-22 22-23 CCC WCCUSD Richmond
San Pablo Beacon Community Schools Initiative Page 3
Richmond High School Profile
2020-21 school year due to pandemic-related distance learning. From 2021 -2022 to 2022 -2023, Richmond High’s suspension rate rose from 9% to 12%.
Figure 2: Richmond High School’s suspension rates have kept pace with Contra Costa C ounty (CCC) and District (WCCUSD) trends over time.2
Source: Suspension rate data retrieved from: http://data1.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/ July 2024.
The City’s Violence Prevention and Intervention programming at Richmond High School seeks to help improve school culture and climate, which was assessed across the District by the California Healthy Kids Survey in 2023 -2024. According to 43% of all students, they felt safe or very safe at Richmond High. Nine percent reported feeling safe or very unsafe, while 49% felt neither safe nor unsafe. Overall, 64% experienced academic motivation, and 60% knew a caring adult at their school.
However, less than 50% of students felt school connectedness.
Figure 3: Richmond High School’s students felt they had academic motivation and caring adults during the 2023-2024 school year.
Source: Richmond High School’s California Healthy Kids Survey 2023-2024 retrieved from YSCP September 2024.
2 Suspension data for the 2023-2024 school year is not currently available. 0%
50%
100%
12-13 13-14 14-15 15-16 16-17 17-18 18-19 19-20 21-22 22-23 CCC WCCUSD Richmond
49%
60%
64%
0% 70%
School connectedness
Caring adults in school
Academic motivation
San Pablo Beacon Community Schools Initiative Page 4
Richmond High School Profile
City Investments
The City of San Pablo directly contracted with community-based organizations to provide Violence Prevention & Intervention services at Richmond High School . The City of San Pablo recognizes when students have interpersonal and personal challenges, they may not perform well in school.
This program contributed to the school’s overall efforts to reduce violence.
Program
Youth Matters/Proyecto Bienestar
Mental health services to Richmond High School students including individual, family, and group therapy. Case management advocacy and crisis intervention services were offered as needed. 15 Youth served
Grant Strategy: Violence Prevention & Intervention
Agency: Familias Unidas
San Pablo Beacon Community Schools Initiative Page 5
Richmond High School Profile
Youth Outcomes
San Pablo Beacon Community Schools Initiative programs are rooted in positive youth development practice. Youth survey data from Richmond High School suggests programs are helping youth build personal and social competencies.
Figure 3: Youth felt empowered and supported.
Figure 4: Youth developed social competencies.
Figure 5: Youth demonstrated commitment to learning.
Source: Youth Surveys (N=32), 2023-24. Surveys are from programs directly funded by the SPBCSI. This represents a subset of the total programs offered at the school. These figures represent a subset of the items included in the survey. 100%
100%
100%
100%
I like this program.
In this program the adults care about me.
In this program I feel safe.
In this program I can go to an adult for advice if I have a serious problem.
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
This program has helped me to try harder in school.
This program has helped me to say “no” to things I know are wrong.
In this program I am better at setting goals.
This program has helped me to care more about my school.
This program has helped me to stay away from violence and fighting.
100%
100%
100%
100%
This program has helped me to care more about my school.
In this program I am better at taking care of problems
without violence or fighting.
This program has helped me to participate more in class activities.
Because of this program I am better at planning ahead.
San Pablo Beacon Community Schools Initiative Page 6
Richmond High School Profile
Program Description
Familias Unidas
“It’s about knowing that change is within [the students], but then providing that sense of safety, support, helping them regulate by regulating myself, right, I'm calm, you're calm. So it's a back and forth kind of thing. So that is practiced during that hour, helping them process and then creating an awareness of personal and community resources.”— Familias Unidas Counselor Familias Unidas has provided services at Richmond High School for more than a decade. Given the ever-increasing need for social-emotional support for youth, two Familias Unidas therapists were available to students this past school year. The two counselors provided one-one-one mental health counseling, group therapy, and case management services. They helped students to navigate resources and connect them with support. Violence prevention was a heightened need this past year at Richmond High. The counselors were able to provide space for those struggling with aggression and anger, identifying their emotions, and seeking healthier outlets instead of resulting to violence.
During the year, the Familias Unidas counselor connected more with newly immigrated students and families to aid them with acculturation issues. These students struggled with language barriers inside and outside the classroom. They also needed more support in navigating new school systems and building more peer connections. The bilingual counselor was able to connect with the Newcomer students and learned how to better support them over the school year. “There is a lot more mental health need and there's a lot less staff and bilingual clinicians continue to be a rarity. And so with myself being a rarity, I find myself being pulled in different directions. The environment of the school continues to be and I feel like it's heading into a better direction, but it continues to be people or students walk in with emotional difficulties and an inability to regulate.” — Familias Unidas Counselor
The Familias Unidas counselor also hosted a Girls Group for the second year in a row. This group helped adolescent girls who experienced past trauma or violence to share their emotions and experiences while building coping skills to self-manage anger. It helped these students not feel like they were alone. Students also learned how to self-regulate, build self-confidence, and identify growth areas in their wellness journey.
“[The Girls Group] was aimed for young women. When I started doing individual therapy, I started noticing that young women felt alone with all these emotions and feeling alone, they didn't feel normal and they felt like something was wrong with them. So I felt like maybe a group would help or they can all talk as adolescents and have an adult therapist facilitate. Helping them identify their own ways of coping with whatever they're feeling, but in a way where it's not so individual, it's group, it's global, where they can share and exchange.” — Familias Unidas Counselor
San Pablo Beacon Community Schools Initiative Page 7
Richmond High School Profile
Plans for Next Year
Familias Unidas provided support for some of the most vulnerable student populations at Richmond High School. For the following school year, they hop ed to secure funding to expand their days of service at Richmond High School and continue serving Helms Middle School . They hope to improve every year and continue providing high quality mental health support. “My job is to create a welcoming environment and to be like, look, I'm sorry this happened to you, but we can sit here in safety and if you want to talk to me, you can. But I will always find a way to engage where they can continue to feel safe following up.” — Familias Unidas Counselor