PAUL’S STORY
Get to Know Paul…
Paul Figueroa grew up in a violent home. After an incident that happened when he was seven years old, he decided to become a police officer. He decided at that young age that he wanted to help people live better lives than he was, and he figured that police work would be the way to do it. He was hired by King County Sheriff’s Department at twenty-one years of age, and he began his twelve and a half year career in law enforcement.
After graduating from the academy, and successfully completed his field training, he worked out of Precinct Four. This station served Burien, White Center, Skyway and SeaTac. He worked several years in Reactive Patrol responding to numerous “in progress” calls including: Domestic violence, person with a gun, people attempting suicide, drive by’s, robberies, assaults and shots fired … you name it.
After three years on patrol, he was promoted to Detective in the Burglary / Theft unit. There he would investigate and file those cases along with misdemeanor assault and other non-felony domestic violence cases. He also learned how to write and obtain search warrants.
He was then offered an assignment in the Proactive / Street Crimes unit for the precinct, which he accepted. There, he worked plain clothes and worked on high profile cases for the precinct. He also received training in controlled substances, their use and methods of conveyance. He worked with confidential drug informants, obtained and executed subsequent search warrants which included high risk, “no knock” warrants.
A Street Gang unit was later formed and he was offered a position there. In that unit, he became a Street Gang Expert and was one of two lead detectives responsible for all Gang related cases (short of homicide, which he assisted on) in unincorporated King County. He later worked directly with Street Gangs as a Proactive Detective.
It was while he was in the Street Gang Unit that Paul decided to reach people in a different way. He wanted to reach them before he was seeing them in police work.
He left law enforcement, created his Peace Enforcement Violence Prevention / Self Esteem Curriculum™ and created a 501 (c) 3 non-profit called The Village Project.
There, he wrote grants to obtain funding, provided his twelve lesson Violence Prevention / Self Esteem program for children in their classrooms and provided ongoing support groups for children identified as “at risk.” Through The Village Project alone, Paul has helped tens of thousands of young people lead happier and healthier lives.
Three years after creating The Village Project, he started getting asked to support people of all ages. He was asked to provide ongoing support groups for parents at Seattle Low Income Housing, which he ran for several years. He then was asked to provide ongoing parent support to parents at the Tulalip Tribes through the Parents as Teachers.
Shortly after, Snohomish County Head Start and Early Head start brought him in for multiple years. There he provided his trainings and workshops to all of their site’s staff all across Snohomish County, and he provide workshops for parents in the program as well. In the mid 2000’s, Paul became a M.E.R.I.T. approved trainer, providing trainings for child care educators and staff all across the state of Washington.
Paul’s Peace Enforcement Violence Prevention / Self Esteem curriculum was nominated for the “Golden Apple Award” by P.B.S., and he was nominated for an Outstanding Mentor Award by the Y.M.C. A.. He received the State of Washington’s “Governor’s Child Abuse Prevention Award” for his work with children and families in Washington State.
Over ten years ago, he was awarded a contract to provide training for any of the 17,000 staff for the State of Washington. Around that time, he became an approved trainer for UW Alliance for Child Care Excellence, training Foster Parents and Kin.
He recently was also awarded a contract through Alamo WorkSource in Texas, where he’s been providing education for child care workers, and he’s appeared at numerous conferences as usual. They include Region 9’s (California) Head Start / Early Head Start Annual conference – where he provided the closing keynote to close to three hundred participants – and their manager and directors conference.
He also presented at the National Head Start Association conference in New Orleans, Louisiana and was called and asked to present again at the National Native American Human Resource Association’s annual conference.
Paul has authored two works of inspirational fiction: “Listen, your life is calling – The Journey Home” and “Listen, your life is Calling – The Journey to Purpose,” which are available on his website and on Amazon.com. He’s appeared on Radio Disney several times and the Today Show.
His unique blend of humor creates an engaging, dynamic, and interactive event for his listeners. Paul custom tailors each presentation with his core curriculum and often does it on the fly. It truly is, “How I can serve you and your clients / staff the best.”
