Xavier Flores

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Program Director, Pueblo y Salud

Xavier helped found the first agency to deal with Substance Use Disorder in Oxnard, California in 1972. He was 19 at the time and was elected as the first Board president after being selected to work for El Proyecto de la Juventud as a community worker. The agency diverted youth from the judicial system. For years after, while holding jobs as a psychiatric technician, he continued working with youth through an organization he formed called Barrios Unidos. In 1979, they organized a 3,000-person youth convention with 300 teachers in attendance. In 1985, Xavier Flores went to work for Bridge A Way Across and came across a one-page leaflet that spelled out the basics of the Environmental Prevention Approach which he began to implement immediately.

In 1991 he met the authors Jim Mosher, David Jernigan and Larry Wallach, during a conference organized by the Latino Coalition on Alcohol Issues, of which he was the main organizer, to discuss the Environmental Prevention Approach in detail. In 1992, The Alcohol Drug Program Administration (ADPA) now known as The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Substance Abuse Prevention and Control(SAPC) went on to fund 24 agencies to implement the environmental prevention modality. This is believed to be a direct result of that conference. In 1992, Xavier Flores co-founded Pueblo y Salud, Inc. and has continued being an employee of the agency since serving as its executive director for the first 16 years. Since the early 90’s to the present he has been president of organizations like the Northeast San Fernando Valley Mexican American Political Association (MAPA) and the Antelope Valley League of United Latin American Citizens empowering the Latino community through civic engagement.