Associated Press

The House of Peace opened a year ago and has 13 residents as well as four house coordinators who live together in a community. To be accepted into the home, residents who are formerly homeless have to volunteer five days a week for about 20 hours a week. Residents have to pass a drug test to show that they are not using, complete a background check that looks for sexually-related crimes and they agree to follow the house rules peacefully. When a room opens up, the residents vote on which applicants to accept into their community.

By Clare Noonan

On a beautiful winter Sunday, the street in front of Merced Lao Family Community Inc. was full of wondrous sound. Atonal yet haunting tunes were coming from the curved reeds of the qeej (pronounced “kang”) played by 25 boys and young men of Hmong ancestry.

The Alliance for California Traditional Arts, based in Fresno, thinks that practicing such traditions is a big part of community health – and they commissioned a study from UC Davis that suggests they are correct.

By Mary Flynn
The city of Richmond is attempting to pass a proposal that’s failed in big cities including New York City and Philadelphia – and if they succeed, their plan could encourage statewide changes in California.

Salinas is a small city with high rates of violence. Local leaders came together in 2009 to develop a comprehensive plan to save the lives lost from gang violence – and at the end of the process, found themselves without funds to put their plan into action. Now the city is pooling whatever resources they have to implement their violence-reduction strategies one neighborhood at a time.

By Jenn Walker Ysidro Avila rummages through a tote bag and begins spreading packets of seeds out on the coffee table. “One of my favorites is Salvia hispanica or Salvia columbariae, which is the chia seed,” he says. “I have a winter spinach, which is an organic giant version of spinach.” The list of the bag’s contents continues. Blue hopi corn seeds, organic alfalfa seeds,

By Genevieve Bookwalter

The lone shelter for domestic violence victims in one of the state’s poorest counties has turned away a growing number of mothers and children over the past three years, reflecting a state and national trend as demand for services grows but funding becomes harder to find.