Story and Video by Tech. Sgt. Stefany M. Leyva
California National Guard Public Affairs

Aug. 9, 2023

LOS ALAMITOS, Calif. – The California National Guard's Drug Demand Reduction Outreach team based out of Southern California partnered with Sunburst Youth Academy, a military training program for at-risk youth, to teach "THRIVE Resilience Program for Teens" at the end of the 2022-2023 school year, Joint Forces Training Base, Los Alamitos.

THRIVE is an evidence-based program that educates students on risk and protective factors and empowers them with the tools they need to lead with a resilient mindset. The program was developed by Arizona-based Ted Huntington and is taught in schools across the United States.

Cal Guard's DDRO team is comprised of citizen Soldiers and Airmen who have mastered resiliency training and have partnered with Sunburst Youth Academy over the last two years to facilitate leadership, effective communication, active accountability, and other critical life skills.

"Unfortunately, a lot of us are born into a family that already embodies many of the things we want to get away from, " said U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Fernando Lopeziniguez, DDRO civil operator and THRIVE facilitator based in Los Angeles. "So responding well to these pressures is ultimately the best lesson the students can learn."

The DDRO team has collaborated with several schools and community-based organizations over the last year, teaching substance-use prevention education and highlighting the opportunities that can arise when staying on the right path.

Once the cadets completed the THRIVE curriculum, they were commemorated with a resiliency training graduation hosted by Lopeziniguez.

As a thank you, Sunburst Youth Academy leadership extended a formal invitation to the drug prevention team to attend Class 31's official end-of-session graduation ceremony, which concluded the cadets' 5.5 months of training.

Sunburst is one of three National Guard Youth Challenge Programs run in collaboration between Cal Guard's Task Force Torch youth and community programs directorate and local school districts. A fourth program, California Job Challenge, serves as a follow-on site for Challenge graduates.

Cal Guard's highly-trained drug demand reduction civil operators reached over 128,000 students in 2022 and continue to spread their inspiring messages of resiliency throughout the state.