RAMA Blueprints

We present an eXtra commentary from Dr. Salvador “Sal” Nuñez on the 5/28/26 live RAMA Blueprints episode “Nuestra Sagrada Salud: Community Mental Health,” recorded at Brava Women for the Arts in San Francisco’s Mission District. Dr. Nuñez, a licensed psychologist and founding director of City College of San Francisco’s Community Mental Health Certificate Program, praises the panel’s focus on La Cu...

RAMA Blueprints hosts its 6th episode of their live series "Tres Generaciones/Three Voices.” The episode titled “Nuestro Sagrado Salud - Community Mental Health" will take place on Thursday, May 28th at 7:00pm at Brava Theater's Cabaret. Supported by a Project Impact Grant from the California Arts Council and sponsored by BRAVA for Women in the Arts, this live event brings together three generatio...

Live from Community Roots Garden in Oxnard, California, this joint RAMA Blueprints/Que Madre podcaast. Co-hosts Socorro and Ana Rosa-Rizo Centino reflect on a February 28 stakeholder meeting about the garden’s transition and future. Guests include Fatima Chavez Lopez, a first-generation Chicana doula and traditional Mexican medicine practitioner, and Angela Flores, a third-generation Chicana activ...

In this episode, we welcome Dr. Sai Letutufu Burch, founder of SLB Strategies, to reflect on the discussion “From Invisibility to Visibility: the Rise of the Vasa, the Pacific Islander people of San Francisco.” Burch shares her experience growing up Black and Samoan, including early anti-Blackness in her Samoan household, exclusion tied to being “afakasi,” and later learning culture through elders...

CALL TO ACTION Join us to defend that spirit at the Community Roots Garden in Oxnard Saturday, February 28th at 11am: 1801 Joliet Place, Oxnard, CA. Welcome to this episode that brims with joy and growth! Today, we’re celebrating the untold stories of 2 Community Roots gardeners—those tireless caretakers of earth and beauty. United by passion and persistence, they create bountiful havens for flora...

This is Rama Blueprints Podcast's 5th live discussion live in their Tres Generacíones/Three Voices series from the Brava Women for the Arts Theater Cabaret in San Francisco's Mission District. This episode, From Invisibility to Visibility: The Rise of the Vasa People of SF, highlights the journey of the Pacific Islander Vasa community towards visibility and empowerment. Key community leaders, incl...

En este episodio del podcast, conversamos con el Sr. Ricardo Calderón, uno de los fundadores de CARECEN, una organización clave para la comunidad inmigrante en San Francisco. Ricardo nos cuenta su llegada a los Estados Unidos hace 39 años y su exilio forzado desde El Salvador. Nos habla sobre la creación de CARECEN en San Francisco, las necesidades prioritarias de la comunidad inmigrante y cómo ha...

In this eXtra Commentary, we delve deep into the creation and intentions behind 'The Last Harvest' episode. Join CARECEN SF's Juan Rivera as he interviews co-producers Darren J. de Leon and Socorro Gamboa about the making of this pivotal episode. Discover the rich history and impactful legacy of the Real Alternatives Program (RAP), a revolutionary community initiative born in San Francisco's Missi...

" They Didn't Know We Were Seeds " is a powerful episode from the RAMA Blueprints Live podcast, "Tres Generaciones/Three Voices." Recorded on February 27th, 2025 at Brava Women for the Arts in San Francisco, this discussion delves into resilience and nonprofit sustainability in challenging times. Host Socorro Gamboa leads a conversation with executive directors Mario Paz (Good Samaritan), Lariza D...

Discover the impactful journey of Gene Royale in this eXtra Bio episode of the RAMA Blueprints podcast. Gene Royale, a pivotal figure in San Francisco's Mission District community activism, shares his rich experiences from co-founding the Centro de Cambio, working at the Mission Coalition Organization (MCO), and consulting for RAP. As an educator at San Francisco State University and a dedicated c...

In this episode of the Rama Blueprints Podcast, we delve into the history and impact of the Real Alternatives Program (RAP) from the mid-1980s until its closure in 1999. The episode highlights the tenure of Mitchell Salazar, who became Executive Director at age 24 and led the development of over 20 programs aimed at youth advocacy and violence reduction. The discussions weave through personal stor...

RAMA Blueprints Podcast presents their Tres Generacíones/Three Voices live podcast series at BRAVA Cabaret in San Francisco. The panel addresses the intersectionalities of insider/outsider, invisibility, homophobia, resilience, migration, ethnicity, race, class, and gender, the impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and the history of social and political organization of LGBTQIA Latinos in the SF Missio...

On February 8th, 2024 we facilitated a discussion about the current state of Juvenile Justice in San Francisco as part of our Tres Generaciones/Three Voices conversations. In this eXtra Commentary we are joined by two frontline staff of Tia Chucha’s Trauma To Transformation team Elvia Aguirre and Freddie Chavez. They work and serve youth incarcerated in various juvenile detention centers throughou...

In 1969, the Real Alternatives Program called for the closure of SF’s Youth Guidance Center. 50 years later in 2019, the SF Board of Supervisors overwhelmingly approved the closure by the end of 2021. RAMA Blueprints hosts a live discussion with community members and leaders who were active in the Shut YGC down movement over the last 50 years. The discussion includes a lively intergenerational con...

In this extra for the RAMA Blueprints, we hear from three women who worked in the Real Alternatives Program's (RAP) CALLES Street Outreach program. We present this platica or dialogue to demonstrate how these two women, through consistency and relentlessness can lead to effective street outreach support services in response to community violence. We talked with Donna Saffioti Johnson, the "Condom...

In this RAMA eXtra, we hear commentary from Roberto Ariel Vargas, the Associate Director, Center for Community Engagement and Senior Staff for the Community Engagement Program and the Research Action Group for Equity of the Clinical and Translational Science Institute, of the UCSF. As a lifelong member of RAP's family, he talks about the parallels between his and Mitchel Salazar's life. You can do...

In this eXtra for RAMA Blueprints, we hear from one of the Mission’s beloved sons, Orlando Torriente, who as a young man found his way out of a problematic life filled with drug use and criminal activity. He talks about his life with the Real Alternatives Program and the challenges of healing from trauma. We thank all the private donors for their support of the RAMA Blueprints. To DONATE please vi...

In a multi-part episode, we begin to tell the story of Mitchell Salazar, the Real Alternatives Program's executive director from 1984 to 1999. We cover from the blocks of San Francisco's Bernal Heights as a young hustler with a deep entrepreneurial drive, to the legacy in the Mission for his You & I dances, to the young community leader who led RAP at the young age of 24, Mitchell's tenure at...

Fatima Ramirez, Executive Director of Accíon Latina and publisher of El Tecolote in San Francisco's Mission District talks about the role their Paseo Artisico program plays within building community. Accíon Latina and El Tecolote have been promoting cultural arts, community media, and civic engagement as a way of building healthy and empowered Latino communities. Please consider donating to RAMA B...

In this commentary, Stacey Powers Cuellar, Executive Director at Brava, continues to be a warrior for the arts and the community. In this commentary about the Live RAMA Blueprints discussion, Tres Generaciones/Three Voices, she shares with us her life's work as an arts administrator in the Mission District, the role of Brava in the community and the importance of stories and storytelling for futur...

RAMA Blueprints Podcast presents an intergenerational conversation on the theme “Sustaining the Work through Resiliency” with Dr. Concepcion “ Concha” Saucedo, Fatima Ramirez, and Oscar Grande. The live conversation brings to light the depth of challenges and approaches to solutions through the wisdom of an elder and former executive director, through the eyes of a rising leader that committed to...

In this eXtra of the RAMA Blueprints Podcast, we listen to Doctora Concepcion Saucedo- Martinez PH.d also known to many with respect and love as “Concha”, who is a Mexican Yaqui Chicana born in California and raised in traditional indigenous ways.  In the 1970’s, Dr. Concha Saucedo- Martinez was instrumental in co-founding Instituto Familiar de la Raza, a Latino mental health clinic in San Fr...

On the next RAMA Blueprints podcast, Dr. Concha Saucedo-Martinez, in her own words.

In this eXtra of the RAMA Blueprints, we speak with John Nauer who was trained at the Real Alternatives Program (RAP) under the tutelage of Mitchell Salazar.  He reflects on his life’s journey, the obstacles, and hurdles that helped shape his life, while contributing to his own transformation and commitment to fighting the good fight for the betterment of all people and more recently concentr...

Community Activist John Nauer reflects on his life’s journey, the obstacles, and hurdles that helped shape his life, while contributing to his own transformation and commitment to fighting the good fight for the betterment of all people and more recently concentrating his efforts to the Samoan / Pacific Islander people!  The full 33 minute interview is available for listening soon.