Comadres Retiros/Retreat
Soon after its formal founding in 2019, the Comadres Advisory Committee began visioning and planning for activities that would support the healing and leadership development of women and girls. To this end, two major programs are offered; the annual healing retreats and the development of intergenerational regional CĂrculos (kinship circles).
Annual Retiros/Retreats: The Comadres held their first formal gathering in September 2013 to plan the first retreat for women and girls in August 2014.  Every year since, the Comadres have held weekend-long retreats at Mission San Antonio in Jolon, California. The retreat focus is to provide healing spaces and ceremony for women who are working as activists, healers and community organizers all across California.
The primary role of the Comadres, in addition to developing and planning the retreat, is to ensure the retreat is held and facilitated in a way that honors cultural traditions and ancestral ways that have been passed on from generation to generation. To this end, the Comadres meet regularly to prepare for hosting the retreats as well as to reflect on past retreats to ensure they are hosted in a good way.
The Comadres host on average of 30 and 35 women and girls from across California and the nation for one weekend in Jolon, California. As the Comadres continue to develop their capacity over time, and given the overwhelming need for the retiros, the hope is to increase the frequency of the retreats. For more information about the Comadres Retiros, please call or email Valerie Garcia.
Virtual Support Circles
Monthly virtual support circles for women are a safe environment where women nationwide come together to share their gifts and baggage’s. This is a confidential space where women can share their current struggles and challenges in a non-judgmental and validating circle of support. It is understood that when we come together in the circle, we are encouraged to make room for healing and transformation in our lives. For more information about Virtual Circles, please call or email Valerie Garcia.
Ameyalli Health, Healing, Leadership for Women and Girls
Ameyalli is a Nahual word meaning, Natural Spring Water. The Women and Girls Health, Healing and Leadership support services provide intergenerational safe spaces and opportunities where culturally based ancestral wisdom can be shared. Through healing informed traditions addressing historical trauma, inequity and injustices, Ameyalli, focuses on acknowledging and validating the sacred wisdom of womanhood as the basis for women’s health and the fulfillment of one’s sacred purpose. It furthermore promotes the development and support for girls and women identified leadership to challenge and counter arrest systematic inequities within communities of color and society in general. For more information about Ameyalli, please call or email Christian Jaimes.
Girasol Intergenerational Rites of Passage Curriculum Training for Girls
The Girasol training is designed to support educational institutions and community-based organizations goal to develop and implement a culturally based, trauma informed, healing based program for adolescent young women. This promising practice curriculum incorporates a healing informed, culturally responsive philosophy to embrace, engage and assist female youth to face life’s challenges in a healthy, pro-social way. It also focuses on reducing school suspensions and expulsions, increasing academic achievement and school completion and improving health outcomes for youth in general and creating a nationwide sisterhood of support. For more information about Girasol training, please call or email Mario Ozuna-Sánchez
Young Women’s Warrior Project Community Program
The Young Women’s Warrior Project seeks to enhance the character and leadership qualities of all female and femme-identifying youth under 25 years old that enter the justice system to serve as teachers and guides for other young women in their community. The curriculum is based on NCN’s Girasol curriculum (above). For more information about the Young Women’s Warrior Project, please call or email Xitlali Jimenez.