Neighborhood streets and intersections in Portland, Ore. have become public gathering places and people have reported that they’ve felt much safer in their communities, a testament to community building through the City Repair project – the topic of Mark Lakeman and Marisha Auerbach’s presentation on Permaculture in an urban context Wednesday night, hosted by the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op. City Repair is a small grassroots nonprofit organization, founded in 1995 in Portland by a group of neighbors, that facilitates multiple “placemaking projects” geared toward reclaiming one's neighborhood and inspiring alternative ways to think about what it means to have a community gathering space

Taking into consideration the results of the 2011 Homeless Count conducted in January, Sacramento County would need to provide about 1,000 beds in emergency homeless shelters to ensure that everyone has a roof over their heads this winter. Thursday morning, members of the local media, Loaves and Fishes community, Sacramento Housing Alliance and the homeless community gathered for a brief press conference at Friendship Park – the heart of the program and community center for the homeless community, providing multiple services for its guests – and discussed the lack of public allocated funding for emergency homeless shelters this winter. In what is expected to be a cold and wet winter sea

Jennifer Lystrup, a teacher of social justice at Christian Brothers High School, tackled the ongoing issue of homelessness among youths in her first documentary, “Beautiful Youth.” “Beautiful Youth” chronicles the individual stories of several homeless transition-age youths – youths between the ages of 18 and 24 – in Sacramento told in their own words. “A lot of them were optimistic or at least willing to try to talk about what’s going on. They want to be heard as much as anyone else,” said Sonny Iverson, lead outreach worker for Wind Youth Services. Wind is one of the few programs in Sacramento that deals with ties between homelessness in youths and sexual trafficking of minors. The 47

The nonprofit organization Ubuntu Green is literally planting seeds of change within the Sacramento community, nearing completion of the first year of its Home and Community Gardens Project. The project seeks to provide low-income families in the Building Healthy Communities target area with healthier access to food and to create a greater sense of community in the selected neighborhoods. For more information on BHC, click here. Building Healthy Communities is a coalition comprised of many different community-driven organizations that are all funded by California’s largest foundation--The California Endowment. The BHC seeks to implement a ten-year plan to renew the health in children an

Residential communities in Oak Park and South Sacramento are in good hands under the umbrella of the Sacramento Building Healthy Communities coalition for funding programs and collectives geared towards making Sacramento safer and healthier. Several projects funded by the BHC are underway to create healthier food access for low-income families, better transportation, and safer neighborhoods by engaging youth in community service and leadership training. Projects already initiated include an EBT dollar-for-dollar match incentive at the local Oak Park farmer’s market, assistance in building a home or community garden, and teaching youth the basics of news writing and reporting on issues in

  WELL KNOWN ROCKLIN COSMETIC DENTIST GIVES BACK A SMILE FOR MOTHER'S DAY PURE Dentistry, the family cosmetic dental practice of Darce Slate DDS, is the hub of great activity as it accepts nominations for a smile makeover that will change the life of one Sacramento area mother forever. “Project Smile Again Sacramento-Mother’s Day is another piece of the pro bono work I have been doing quietly for years,” said Dr. Slate. “A healthy smile radiates openness, confidence and joy. Without that ability, people tend to feel shame and have lower self esteem. At PURE Dentistry, we have chosen to celebrate Mother’s Day in our way by allowing the community to be involved in selecting one great mom

VSP® Vision Care partnered with Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson and former Sacramento Kings player, Bobby Jackson, to provide no cost eye exams, eyewear and school supplies to students at Herman Leimbach Elementary in South Sacramento this past Sunday, September 20th. VSP provided a fully-stocked 45 foot mobile eye exam clinic where volunteer VSP doctors conducted full comprehensive eye exams with students in the two state of the art exam rooms. “This event was a natural fit for VSP, Mayor Johnson and Bobby Jackson,” noted Cheryl Johnson, VSP’s Vice President of Provider Services. “Together, in the spirit of giving back to our community, we were able to help more than three dozen kids wit

From the City of Sacramento Department of Neighborhood Services newsletter The Bridge. By Derrick Lim, Area Manager serving all Council Districts Neighborhood Services has engaged in a great deal of community outreach this year. Upon reflection, several themes come to mind in relation to levels of service and customer service. Neighborhood Services can do a better job of articulating outreach levels of service, which in turn results in better customer service to the public. Using Olympic medals as an analogy, outreach can also be categorized into three major categories: gold, silver, and bronze. Gold is the highest level because the objective is not only to get the word out, but to als