Roots of RAP part 3: Mitchell Salazar, Loyal to the Soil
In a three-part episode series, we begin to tell the story of Mitchell Salazar, the Real Alternatives Program’s Executive Director from 1984 to 1999. We cover Michell’s story from the blocks of San Francisco’s Bernal Heights as a young hustler with a deep entrepreneurial drive, to the legacy in the Mission District through his You & I dances, to the young community leader who led RAP at the young age of 24. We cover his tenure at RAP and the level of youth services that were expanded under his leadership, which also included starting a four year high school and a teen clinic.
Mitchell passed away in 2022. His story is a complex one filled with twists, risks and opportunities. We follow a handful of events that not only help shape one of San Francisco’s Mission District’s most effective community leaders, but also show what his heart and intentions were for the actions and decisions he made.
eXtra Bio: Orlando Torriente
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 (RAP) and the challenges of healing from trauma.
eXtra Commentary: Roberto Ariel Vargas
In this RAMA Blueprints Podcast eXtra, we hear commentary about The Roots of RAP: Mitchell Salazar, Loyal to the Soil from one of San Francisco’s Mission District true sons, Roberto Ariel Vargas, who was the Executive Director of the RAP Collaborative in the early 2000s. He talks about the parallels between his and Mitchell Salazar’s life.
eXtra Herstory: 2 Women of CALLES in Platica Donna Safiori Johnson & Michelle Alvarez Campos
In this extra for the RAMA Blueprints Podcast Series, we hear from two 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, lead to effective street outreach support services in response to community violence.
We talk with Donna Saori Johnson, the “Condom Lady” who began working at Horizons in March of 1988, and Michelle Alvarez Campos, practicing licensed clinical social worker who previously worked as a case manager with the CALLES program at RAP.
The Last Harvest - Preview
In this episode, we explore the Real Alternatives Program (RAP) in the 1980s and its various services in full bloom to its unexpected closure in 1999. We speak with former Board of Directors members, senior staff, administrative and line staff, as well as participants who contributed to the legacy of RAP and its impact on the Mission community and SF city wide. RAP found itself in a financial crisis, the facts are the facts, the RAP leadership knew that they had a responsibility to secure services for the 500 youths and their families that were involved through street outreach, the school, case management, substance prevention abuse, tattoo removal, and other services.
We recognize the organization’s history, journey, successes and challenges. In this episode, we capture the true raw emotions, heartbreak and disappointment of the difficult and momentous decision to close down the organization. In the end, RAP, as it was known, closed, but continues to live on to this day, although the original programs have been reconfigured or renamed. Today, RAP’s energy still exists with the same resilience and strength which grew from RAP’s foundational principles of youth self-determination and the ever present battle cry of “love and serve the people.”
This episode was produced and edited by Darren J. de Leon and Host Socorro Gamboa.