Michael Texada was born in San Francisco’s Western Addition neighborhood and learned about life on the streets at an early age. His involvement with gangs and drugs lead to several encounters with San Francisco’s juvenile justice system and the realization that he was headed down a path with little likelihood of a good outcome. It was during a time of incarceration that Mike, missing his family and friends, came to the conclusion that he needed to change the direction his life was taking. Mike began working with Casey Clark of the City’s Drug Diversion program and Julie Shannon of the Children’s Art Factory. Julie gave Mike the opportunity to start working with and mentoring youth.

Mike had long been a good friend of Shawn Richards, founder of Brothers Against Guns, and the two started working together shortly after Shawn’s brother was slain in 1995. It was also about this time that Mike lost 5 close family members to interpersonal violence over a two-year period and decided to dedicate his life to helping others avoid similar situations.  During his tenure at Brothers Against Guns, Mike worked extensively in the school system as well as juvenile detention facilities to provide mentoring and case management to at-risk youth.

Wanting to facilitate change at the citywide level, Mike began working with the Wraparound Project at San Francisco General Hospital in 2005. Started by Dr. Rochelle Dicker, a trauma surgeon at SFGH, the Wraparound Project strives to reduce injury recidivism among the city’s at-risk youth through placement into a comprehensive array of services. The cornerstone of the program is the case-management team, of which Mike is an integral part. He works closely with employers to create opportunities for long-term, stable employment, facilitates client enrollment in appropriate mental health services, navigates complex legal issues and advocacy efforts, and promotes relevant violence prevention education. By quickly providing culturally competent mentoring and assistance in accessing services to victims of interpersonal violence, Wraparound fills a need not currently met by existing agencies.

The Wraparound Project maintains numerous local and national partnerships with government and community agencies and networks, for which Mike acts as a key liaison. He regularly engages with the National Network of Hospital-Based Violence Intervention Programs (NNHVIP), working with the network to identify best practices and approaches to addressing urban violence as well as to facilitate cross-trainings on violence prevention with healthcare providers, administrators, and communities. Mike also attends weekly meetings at San Francisco City Hall with stakeholders and community partners aiming to unify the city’s response to violent trauma within communities and families.

In collaboration with San Francisco Juvenile Justice, Mike is a primary facilitator of the Weapons in Minor’s Possession (WIMP) Program, an educational initiative teaching at-risk youth in San Francisco about the dangers and consequences of using weapons and violence. The program hopes to prevent these youth from participating in acts of violence and to instill a sense of agency and ownership of the direction of their futures.