The California Partnership to End Domestic Violence, a coalition representing over 1,000 survivors, advocates, organizations and allied individuals, honored Lumina Alliance’s Bilingual Client & Justice Systems Relations Advocate Fatima Cervantes with the Planting the Seeds Award. The award celebrates people who have engaged in intergenerational domestic violence prevention education, contributing to healthy relationships and communities. The Partnership recognized Cervantes for building strong relationships with justice-impacted youth in San Luis Obispo County, as well as providing innovative lessons for discussing healthy communication and setting boundaries.
“Receiving the Planting the Seeds Award is deeply meaningful to me, as it reflects the power of prevention and healing across generations”, said Fatima Cervantes upon receiving the award. “This award honors the seeds of change my dad planted when he broke the cycle of abuse he experienced as a child, empowering me to carry that healing forward in building a safe, thriving and equitable community”
Cervantes works at Juvenile Service Centers, providing a weekly group called Healthy Boundaries, where discussion topics with youth include healthy communication and navigating how to set healthy boundaries. Her dedication to the youth and strong relationships have garnered record attendance.
Cervantes has fostered collaborative relationships with facility workers that have modeled healthy working relationships to youth. During group sessions, she includes officers to show different perspectives to conflicts. She has brought innovative lessons that include movie discussions, speaker panels and Family Feud style games where participants identified healthy and unhealthy signs in relationships from a movie they watch. Cervantes’ approach fosters social-emotional learning, which is key for developing healthy relationships and preventing teen dating violence.
Lumina Alliance received feedback from facility staff that the youth love Healthy Boundaries. Staff members have seen the difference in many participants, but shared one particular story about a youth who was angry and prone to outbursts when he first arrived at the Juvenile Services Center. After attending Healthy Boundaries, the staff started to see a difference in his communication. When an officer said that his time was up for a phone call with a loved one, the youth did not get confrontational–he expressed that he would have liked to have a five-minute warning before the call ended so he could have said goodbye and ended the call on his terms.
Reflecting upon Cervantes’ work, Assemblymember Dawn Addis said, “Earlier this year, I had the honor of recognizing Lumina Alliance as one our Women in California Leadership grant recipients for their life changing work to end intimate partner violence, and I am thrilled to see Fatima Cervantes now receive this well deserved statewide recognition. Her leadership and creativity embody the spirit of prevention and empowerment by building bridges across generations and inspiring healthier, safer communities. Fatima’s work reminds us that lasting change begins with compassion, education and courage.”