Day One
Established in 1988, Day One provides substance abuse education and prevention services to children, youth and families in Pasadena and Altadena. The organization, often working in partnership with other entities, offers an organizational structure to reduce the problems associated with alcohol, tobacco and other drug use. In 1994, Day One and the City of Pasadena partnered to develop Youth Month, a month of free and low-cost activities and services offered every August. Today, more than 60 local organizations sponsor Youth Month programs valued at over $60,000.

Young & Healthy
Founded in 1990, Young & Healthy provides access to free, quality health care for uninsured and underserved children from low-income families in the greater Pasadena area through community and professional health care volunteers. More than 270 medical doctors, dentists, mental health professionals, optometrists, nurses, pharmacists and others are coordinated and matched with students who have been referred by school nurses. Over a thousand students are referred and treated each year, receiving up to 15,000 units of service valued at more than $700,000. Young & Healthy also provides outreach services including case management and advocacy, translation, transportation, education and prevention programs in the area of dental and mental health.

After School Activities Project
In 1994, OCC began researching programs for children and youth in the Pasadena area that were available during the out-of-school hours and identified barriers to these programs for families in the community. A Youth Mapping project was launched and young people canvassed Pasadena and Altadena to map out programs and activities. In 1999, at the request of young people, OCC created the website schoolsout.org, which listed more than 300 local programs for children and youth.

CORAL Pasadena
CORAL (Communities Organizing Resources to Advance Learning) was an initiative of The James Irvine Foundation in five California cities aimed at improving the academic achievement of students through their involvement in quality after-school programs. In Pasadena, the Office of Creative Connections was asked to become the lead organization to plan, develop and implement CORAL. For six years, 500 Pasadena Unified School District students participated in CORAL after-school programs at neighborhood and school-based sites operated by community based organizations.

In 2006, after the conclusion of funding from The James Irvine Foundation, several of the sites continued to operate independently while we restructured two of the sites into one program, expanding it from elementary school students into K-12th grades in one location, the CORAL Innovation Center.