Member Directory

Since our founding in 1974, Cal Shakes has grown into an award-winning theater company, educational initiative, amphitheater venue, and scene shop. Today, Cal Shakes has served more than 50,000 youth from low income communities throughout Contra Costa and Alameda Counties.

Cal Shakes is more than a theater company. We are a community, from and for the community. We offer a safe space for kids and youth and adults to express themselves, to have difficult conversations, and to learn about the power of storytelling to drive systemic social change. Bringing people from diverse cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds together to partake in enriching programming.  

For more information click calshakes.org.

Viva el Español is a non-profit Spanish Language and Culture Center, teaching Spanish to toddlers to adults.

For pre-school and elementary school kids, our curriculum is designed to spark and expand children's interest in Spanish by engaging them in creative activities including music & movement, arts & crafts, interactive games, and literature.

Our methodology includes:

=       Full-immersion approach

=       Multi-sensory, content-based curriculum

=       Learning through fun and creative activities

=       Focus on comprehension and language production early on, as scaffolding to build reading and writing abilities in later grades

=       Resources that can be used to extend learning from classroom to home

=       Optional special events and cultural fieldtrips where language can be used in context

Through our total immersion approach, children learn the Spanish language naturally and easily – as they learned their first language. The immersion approach to teaching a second language maximizes the time students get to practice the language they are learning without being slowed down by having to translate what they hear and speak. 

The lessons are rich and varied, and use a multi-sensory approach to ensure that children absorb and remember the words and phrases they are hearing and using. During each theme, vocabulary and phrases are presented using a variety of visual, auditory, kinesthetic activities – there by appealing to children with different learning styles, and reinforcing through various means the target vocabulary.

Ample opportunities for oral participation and peer interaction are provided.  Classes are structured to make fun and creative activities part of an educational process that targets effective language acquisition. We give them the opportunity to hear, speak, create and move while using Spanish.