Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "sierra health foundation"

Winter Sanctuary, Sacramento’s Interfaith Homeless Shelter, Experiencing Critical Funding Gap

2011-11-21T18:59:39Z

Winter Sanctuary, Sacramento’s interfaith, rotating homeless shelter, is currently facing a substantial gap in its budget. The program, which nightly shelters 100 homeless adults, is set to open on December 1st and run through March 31st. However, the program will not be opening on December 1st if the funding gap is not significantly narrowed.

Christie Holderegger, Vice President of Volunteers of America, spoke of the urgent need for this program, “Our neighbors are experiencing homelessness for a variety of reasons and many for the first time. They are looking to us, all of us to help them out of this desperate situation. As a community we can reach and uplift them. We saw hundreds of lives changed last year through Winter Sanctuary, both homeless guests and volunteers.”

Winter Sanctuary began in winter 2010 as a collaborative effort between Sacramento Steps Forward, Volunteers of America and local interfaith congregations. The program brought together local faith congregations, 24 to be exact, who stepped up to host their homeless neighbors and provide shelter, meals, and a welcoming community.

From December through March, a total of 550 unduplicated guests were served through the program, 24 congregations participated and over 2,000 community volunteers lent a hand.

“Winter Sanctuary is truly a successful model of community collaboration at its best. This program demonstrates how constituents from many different areas of our community can come together to help our neighbors,” said Ben Burton, Executive Director of Sacramento Steps Forward.

A volunteer from St. Mark’s United Methodist Church remarked on their experience as a host congregation, “The media constantly bombards us with statistics of the millions of persons in pain and hurting and we have a tendency to throw up our hands and say we can do nothing to make things better. But we had an opportunity in the two periods hosting Winter Sanctuary to affect the lives of a few people in a profound way.”

Yet the funding gap remains, and if not off-set will have an immediate, negative impact on the program’s start date, as well as the 100 homeless folks who could have come inside to escape Sacramento’s cold, wet and rainy winters.

HOW TO GIVE:

Sacramento Steps Forward is encouraging the community to donate. To make a tax-deductible donation, visit their website at SacramentoStepsForward.org and click the red ‘DONATE’ button to be taken to their secure Pay-Pal site.

*We would like to thank the following foundations and donors for supporting Winter Sanctuary: Sacramento Region Community Foundation, the Sierra Health Foundation, the Winn Foundation (with help from Supervisor Phil Serna), the River District, the Downtown Sacramento Partnership and the Teichert Foundation. Individual donors have graciously contributed almost $4,000, and Fremont Presbyterian Church contributed $1,500. The Wal-Mart Foundation donated 300 sleeping bags.

Disclosure: Kate Towson is an Americorps VISTA serving with Sacramento Steps Forward.

Mutual Housing raises nearly $65,000 at breakfast

2011-06-20T17:00:57Z

Sacramento|Yolo Mutual Housing Association recently raised nearly $65,000 at their second Building Up Breakfast in one-time donations and multi-year pledges. As expected, attendance was higher this year than at the inaugural event in 2010.

Thanks to the sponsors, Bank of America, U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo Bank, Roseville Bank of Commerce, Sierra Health Foundation and Vital Networks, the nonprofit will be able to use all the money donated by individuals for programs, services and operations

Mutual Housing develops and operates well-designed rental housing for modest-income households in Sacramento and Yolo counties. The communities are home to some 2,600 residents, nearly half of whom are children.

Through Mutual Housing’s focus on leadership, the nonprofit also provides training and mentoring as well as educational programs, community-building activities and services for residents and neighbors.

For more information, visit http://www.mutualhousing.com..

Disclosure: A former journalist, Dell Richards runs Dell Richards Publicity, a Sacramento public relations firm. Sacramento|Yolo Mutual Housing Association is one of her clients.

Sesame Street shows support for Sacramento families

2010-10-26T23:51:59Z

Mayor Kevin Johnson and "Sesame Street’s" Elmo met with parents at the Oak Park Community Center to promote Families Stand Together, a Sesame Workshop initiative that provides families with local resources to help them through tough financial situations.

“Families Stand Together is an initiative that will have a lasting impact in our community,” Johnson said. When he introduced Gary Knell, president and CEO of the Sesame Workshop, Johnson pointed out that Knell was from Sacramento.

Knell joined the stage to explain how "Sesame Street" began in the early days of television when it was quickly becoming a surrogate teacher for children. "Sesame Street" now reaches hundreds of countries and always aims to promote community spirit and health, he said.

“Television began by feeding children sugary cereals, and we wanted to feed them numbers and letters,” Knell said.

For the children, this event was meant to show that they are not alone in this time of economic instability, and that having parents who had lost their jobs is not uncommon. Johnson and Elmo began the presentation by talking about the difference between “wants” and “needs,” which Elmo understood as the difference between wanting a new toy and needing to eat healthy.

Lisa Adams, whose 8-year-old boy was painting a piggy-bank, said, “This is great to let the kids hear 'Sesame Street' characters talk about the economy. I think it reaches them in a way that parents sometimes can’t.”

Shelly Kaufman, a grandmother of two, came from Elk Grove simply “to feel reassured that there are people who are paying attention to the children.”

The focus of the event was the resource fair. Local organizations were given tables around the edge of the gymnasium where they were able to share information with around 100 parents and community leaders who attended. The Sierra Health Foundation was giving away toothbrushes while Sacramento Community Gardens was distributing free packages of seeds. There were representatives from Red Cross, Sutter’s Children Center, Sacramento Library, and First 5 California, among many others.

“This is a great way to bring awareness to community programs that many didn’t know were there,” Olga Lockett of the Women, Infants and Children program, which offers nutrition assistance to families.

The children were seated at tables where they were encouraged to decorate porcelain piggy-banks as a life-size Elmo walked around in costume to take photographs with parents and kids. Not even Johnson could deny a photo-opportunity with Elmo.

For more information about Families Stand Together, click here.

Mayor's group, other agencies house 1,168 families

2010-08-25T02:23:26Z

A group he formed to address homelessness surpassed its target to work with agencies and provide housing for 800 families this year, Mayor Kevin Johnson told the media Tuesday morning.

The group, Sacramento Steps Forward, formed last November and worked with other agencies to set up housing for 1,168 families this year.

“We’re making a difference in people’s lives,” Johnson said.

By 2012, Sacramento Steps Forward hopes to work with its partnering agencies to house 2,400 families.

Sacramento Steps Forward works with Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing of Sacramento County (HPRP). The Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency administers HPRP, which is a federal stimulus program.

Additional groups affiliated with Sacramento Steps Forward include the Sacramento County Department of Human Assistance, the Sacramento Region Community Foundation and the Sierra Health Foundation.

Kyomi Jones told the media that the HPRP helped her when she nearly became homeless.

“They helped me find a job,” Jones said. “I was able to keep my home, able to keep my kids. And I just thank God for them and everyone that helped me.”

Private citizens and religious groups gave $400,000 during a “One Day to End Homelessness” effort held in March. The effort successfully brought $1.6 million in federal funding to Sacramento County’s HPRP.

A press release from the mayor’s office noted that $4 from the federal government were matched to each local dollar, totaling $1.6 million.

Johnson praised religious groups for their involvement in the fundraising effort. “You have to give the faith community a round of applause,” he said.

In response to a question after the press conference, Tim Brown, director of Sacramento Steps Forward, said there are still waiting lists at local shelters, but the lists “have gone down somewhat” because of the HPRP program.

Sacramento County has 2,800 homeless people, according to the most recent statistics, which were calculated in January 2009, Brown said.

Of the 2,800 homeless people, 1,200 people are living on the streets, he said. The remaining people are living in shelters or transitional housing, he said.

The next count of the county’s homeless will be in January 2011, he said.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Local organization aims to empower youth through poetry

2010-04-19T17:40:41Z

A youth mentor for a local educational program said he used poetry to see himself through a difficult past.

Coon, a 15-year-old high school sophomore, was walking home when he was shot three times. One bullet hit his spine and ricocheted into his lung.

"I was hanging out with somebody who really wasn't my friend, and I pretty much took on their beef, their issues, and I was guilty by association," he said. "I've never been in a gang or anything like that. You don't have to be (involved) in a gang for something bad to happen to you."

Asking to be referred to only by his last name (and stage name), Coon channeled the pain from his wounds and started taking his writing and poetry seriously as soon as he left the hospital. He joined a musical group and, with his friend TroubleSin, became part of a spoken word team called E-legal Tag Team.

The two are now poet mentors for Sacramento Area Youth Speaks, which uses innovative methods to help Sacramento-area kids learn. Since last year, SAYS, part of the University at California at Davis School of Education, has empowered youth by giving them a voice through poetry.

SAYS will inaugurate its poetry slam season Wednesday night at the Roberts Family Center, and the season will culminate May 7 at the 2010 SAYS Youth Summit at the Mondavi Center. Youth ages 13 to 19 are invited to participate, and the preliminary rounds, held at a different venue each night, will be open to the public.

"We can all talk about pipelining youth into college, but that's empty unless their hearts are here," said Dr. Vajra Watson, founder of SAYS and a former Bay Area high school teacher. "I saw firsthand the perils of education as well as the opportunities, and I became an advocate for young people to seek insight into their own lives."

So in January 2009, Watson founded SAYS, which partners with the Twin Rivers and Sacramento City school districts as well as the city's Office of Youth Development and the Sierra Health Foundation.

The program holds an assembly at a participating school, a writing workshop and eventually, after-school programs. During the school year, a poet mentor, who has gone through a six-week training course, pairs with a class, making lesson plans, mentoring students and helping the teacher engage with students in "living literacy" programs.

"The underlying philosophy is reaching and teaching the youth," said Watson. "We underestimate young people. They're ready to grab the mic. Are we ready to listen?"

Demand from students led to the poetry slam season. The program, which began in January 2009, grew to 350 people by May. Its popularity brought the first annual SAYS Summit, drawing youth from five school districts.

After attending a day of workshops with alternative educators and local poets, the youngsters participated in a poetry slam, competing and showcasing their stories. SAYS had to turn away poets. Teachers also received training at the summit.

Charday Adams, Grant High School senior, won the slam.

"Youth Speaks gave me an opportunity to write, discover who I was and define some emotions I had," she said. "I found myself wanting to read more books and explore more sensations; it gave me a better view of myself."

Watson said the program also employs youth as poet mentors because they can connect more deeply with students, making their work more relevant.

Coon agreed. The 20-year-old explained how he thinks of the students at Elinor Lincoln Hickey Junior-Senior High School, which he described as a charter school with mostly juvenile delinquents.

"I'm not an authority or an adult, I'm just like (them)," he said of students, adding, "I'm just trying to give (them) a way out. Sometimes it's the hardest to get them motivated because they've been institutionalized, but I let them know that I graduated from a continuational school."

Coon, who is also taking classes to become a juvenile probation officer, said he wants to get more school districts involved with SAYS because there are a lot of "silent poets" out there.

Adams wants to write for film and television and will attend the University of Southern California next year on a full-ride scholarship. "I definitely want to incorporate everything I learned," she said, adding, "a lot of people in spoken word are in screenwriting as well."

Poetry slam season will run from Wednesday to Saturday at a different venue each night. Semifinals will be held April 30 and May 1 at La Raza Galeria Posada, 1022 22nd St.

Finals will be May 7 at the Mondavi Center in Davis as part of the SAYS 2010 Youth Summit. It also will feature Def Poetry Jam poets Dennis Kim, Ise Life and Queen GodIs. UC Davis will host the professional development segment of the summit on May 15 for teachers.

More information on SAYS, the poetry slam season and the 2010 SAYS Summit is available at www.says.ucdavis.edu.

Photographs courtesy SAYS.

Young artists transform communities

2009-07-03T01:07:54Z

For the past three months, young people from 10 to 21 years of age have come together in Sacramento once a week to discuss their role in their physical environment.

As part of the Youth Voices for Change initiative, the group called the Sactown Heroes collaborated with UC Davis scholars, artists and graduate students to explore their community, what they like about it and what could change. The culminating event on Tuesday was a presentation of their findings to the community.

14-year-old Bradly Palmer said he would change "where youth are welcome and where they are hired for jobs. Some places discriminate against youth because they think they're trouble-makers."

He is a student at West Sacramento Early College-Prep Charter School, and is able to explore his surroundings with cameras, video and audio equipment that he is trained to use.

"I set up a lot of the Google maps, the graphics, and I took videos of my favorite places and what I dislike about the community," Palmer said.

The Google maps have digital, color-coded thumbtacks on local businesses and parks that the students have explored with their equipment. They are later able to add audio commentary about what they like and dislike about the areas.

"They are the people that are using the spaces the most often. It's really important what those people using the spaces think about those places," said Patsy Eubanks Owens, an associate professor of landscape and architecture.

"I think what's key about this is you have young people who care enough about their communities to spend every week learning what's out there," said Diane Littlefield, a senior program officer with the Sierra Health Foundation. She continued to say that students are "willing to roll up their sleeves and take action and improve the environment in which they live."

Jessica Rice, a future ninth-grade student at River City High School, recounted a beautification project she took part in, "We planted flowers in front of the preschool, we decorated the benches with decorative rocks and it's really nice."

The Youth Voices for Regional Change is part of a larger crusade called Healthy Youth Healthy Regions program at UC Davis. Jesikah Maria Ross, director of the UC Davis program the Art of Regional Change, said the program poses the question, "How is the impact of how youth perceive their places related to the well-being and prosperity of the region?" She concludes, "By studying this, we can give policy makers some recommendations for change."

The Sierra Health Foundation and the California Endowment are funding this program as part of a policy program. "What we're hoping to do is understand better the conditions that affect young people in terms of their health, economics, environment and education," said Littlefield.

West Sacramento Mayor, Christopher Cabaldon, was also in attendance and he encouraged students, "Make Facebook comments on my page," to further stimulate dialogue on their insights.

The program is funded as part of a two-year study with findings projected to be public in fall of 2010 that will inform grant making and the allocation of resources. Littlefield emphasized, "This is real data, this is research done by young people."

After the two-year study is completed, the students and program advisers hope to continue the spirit of this organization in other neighborhoods, and even nationally. "It kind of might change the social norm by looking to young people for some of the solutions," said Littlefield.

For more information, click the following links:
The Art of Regional Change
Healthy Youth/Healthy Regions