Homeland Security and Disaster Preparedness: Our Partnership with Bienestar

San Diego City College has been a service-learning community partner with Bienestar for several years now. Students taking Health and Sociology classes make up the majority of service-learners there, and the campus has a strong partnership with this agency. Antonio Munoz, Regional Lead at the mid‐city San Diego branch of Bienestar, shared the following observations: The partnership between the Latino community service and advocacy organization, Bienestar, and San Diego City College benefits both the organization and City College students. The collaboration between these two entities has allowed students to reach out to the community and gain awareness of issues that apply to them as young citizens in the United States. Involving City College students in Bienestar is also a useful outreach approach for the organization, because the demographics of City College students make up an important part of the Bienestar's target population. Young people of college‐going age become infected with HIV at a higher rate than other age groups. The involvement of college students has given Bienestar greater access to the college campus. [author]