Level Up offers a variety of programs, including outreach to hard to reach communities in the northstate. Historically difficult to reach through traditional means, we provide culturally appropriate outreach that is well received and understood. Our team shares the life experiences, language, roots and ethnicity of the communities we serve.
We are continuously adding to our programs and services. Contact us to learn more about our programs and how we can help you.
During times of need, Level Up is here to assist northern California’s most underserved communities. Where possible, we partner with local agencies and organizations to bring services to those who need it.
When the wildfires swept through our community, Level Up helped disseminate information on emergency services, preparedness, and evacuation. During the Oroville Dam crisis, Level Up reached out to the affected communities to disseminate information on services and evacuation.
During COVID-19, Level Up has helped disseminate information and conduct outreach to some of our most underserved and hard to reach communities. Level Up has created handouts in plain language translated to Spanish and Hmong, provided translation services, given out care packs filled with household essentials to help families, distributed over fifty thousand face masks and hand sanitizer to those in need, and has hosted vaccine clinics for first and second dose as well as boosters.
Level Up offers numerous trainings in cultural competency that can be customized for your region, industry and community.
Cultural competence is the ability to understand, communicate with and effectively interact with people across cultures. Becoming culturally competent is a lifelong process that will help you more effectively serve your consumers and increase your understanding of how the culture of another impacts them.
Level Up offers general and specific trainings in cultural competency, including trainings on how to work with and better understand the Hispanic/Latino and Southeast Asian populations in the northstate. Our training approach combines classroom learning with interactive modules utilizing meeting technology that engages participants and facilitates contributions with actionable takeaways that can be easily applied.
Level Up is committed to improving health equity for unserved and underserved populations. Health inequity for these communities often leads to disparities in service, access to service and quality of service. Marginalized communities and populations, in particular those with cultural and linguistic barriers, experience disparately higher rates of certain health conditions but often have less access to responsive health services.
Equitable access and equal access are not the same and Level Up works to help local agencies and organizations understand and recognize the difference, including efforts to improve the local workforce capacity to provide more culturally and linguistically responsive services. Throughout the pandemic, Level Up worked with local communities, agencies and organizations to improve vaccine equity for unserved and underserved populations.
Our aim is to encourage transformative system changes that strengthen local agencies and organizations to provide culturally and linguistically appropriate and responsive services.
Regional Centers throughout California offer a variety of free programs to help individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities lead independent and vibrant lives in their communities. If you have a family member or know someone that has an intellectual or developmental disability(ies), a regional center near you may be able to help.
CLICK HERE to learn more about regional center programs and services.
Level Up’s staff understands the unique challenges of immigrants and refugees because we lived it. Our staff is comprised of first and second-generation immigrants that are bicultural and bilingual, and are able to provide culturally appropriate outreach to difficult to reach communities.
Through outreach, education and advocacy, our team works to help immigrant and refugee communities to understand, access and obtain services and programs, including mental health services, disability assistance, food assistance such as CalFresh, rental and utility assistance, health coverage, citizenship, and more.
Level Up offers several programs for kids and youth from mental health and wellness to socialization and leadership development. Through the LUCKY Initiative or the Level Up Commitment to Kids and Youth, our hope is that the changes we make today will make for a better tomorrow.
Youth Leadership – Through the Youth Leadership Program (YLP) youths aged 11 – 17 are matched with community professionals in their fields of interest. Participants get the opportunity to learn more about a career and field they are interested in from someone in that career. YLP participants also have opportunities to develop and improve their communication, interpersonal and leadership skills through practical experience.
Socialization – Throughout the year, Level Up offers opportunities for socialization for kids and youth from 0 – 17 years of age. Past activities have included play groups, trampoline parks, Easter Egg Hunts, arts & crafts, gymnastics halls, museum outings, picnics, and more.
Mental Health & Wellness – Within many underserved communities, mental health is a sensitive topic with a large amount of cultural stigma attached–prevention and early intervention can make a significant difference. Mental health and wellness is often unrecognized and unacknowledged. Youth and young people in underserved communities are unlikely to have supports in place to help them through mental health challenges. Our mental health outreach initiatives create a safe space to talk about mental health and to seek help. We work with families to understand how mental health and wellness may affect them and the resources available to them.
Level Up provides resources and awareness on the impact of mental health in difficult to reach populations. Within many underserved communities, mental health is a sensitive topic with a large amount of cultural stigma attached–prevention and early intervention can make a significant difference.
Our staff are bilingual and bicultural, and are able to understand the cultural and linguistic challenges to seeking and obtaining support for mental health in these populations. Level Up staff are certified by the National Council for Mental Wellbeing to provide Mental Health First Aid to youth and adults experiencing a mental health or substance abuse challenge.
Youth – Latinx and Southeast Asian youth are already subject to isolating factors like language and cultural barriers. COVID-19 compounded this isolation with remote learning–negatively impacting the mental, social and emotional well-being of children and young people in particular. Youth in these underserved communities are unlikely to have supports in place to help them through the mental health challenges of COVID-19. Our youth mental health outreach initiative provides Latinx and Southeast Asian youth socialization opportunities for team building and rapport in a positive environment, enabling them to build relationships within their peer groups and with community members.
Older Adults – With COVID-19, older adults experienced an increase in isolation, anxiety and depression that have lingered even as everything re-opened. Our mental health initiative for older adults includes opportunities for socialization and interaction with each other and community members. Level Up offers a safe space for them to come together with others that speak and understand their culture and language, and participate in culturally appropriate activities that promote socialization and building peer supports.
Through outreach and education to improve and enhance understanding and the benefits of mental health services and programs, Level Up works to increase mental health awareness.
Level Up’s Promotora Program provides wraparound services for regional center consumers with cultural and linguistic barriers. Following the promotora model, our promotoras provide support to consumers and their families in understanding, obtaining and accessing services.
The promotora model is a proven and effective capacity building model in communities that are historically difficult to reach. Promotoras typically live in the communities that they serve, building relationships of trust and sharing information on local resources. Shared similar life experiences, values, language, roots and ethnicity let them deliver information with a cultural capacity that is well received and understood, enabling self-advocacy.
Promotoras provide culturally appropriate services and may assist families with understanding a program or service, with obtaining more information about a program, with research on services and alternatives, scheduling appointments, translation, completing forms and obtaining benefits, etc. Level Up is able to bridge the gap between diverse populations that are already underserved, unserved or inappropriately served.
Level Up has assisted consumers and their families with obtaining and/or retaining services and benefits for CalFresh, SSI, IHSS, Medi-Cal, etc.; obtaining emergency funds or services related to COVID-19 relief or wildfires; applying for citizenship; qualifying for programs that lower costs for utility, internet, rent deposit and relief; and much more.
To learn more about our promotora program, contact us.
Serving the northstate, Level Up provides verbal and written translation for a variety of languages, including: English, Hmong, Lao, Mien, Spanish, Tagalog, Thai, Vietnamese and more.
Our experience includes in-person, on Zoom, and over the phone translation at/for local agencies for various benefits and interviews, medical and law offices, counseling sessions, and local businesses. We work with local agencies and organizations to ensure that they can communicate with their consumers. Oftentimes, the consumer also prefers that an outside agency provides the translation service rather than an in-house translator.
Level Up offers traditional translation, simultaneous translation, online translation and translation using the whisper system. Contact us to find out what works best for your needs.
