Message from the President of the Board of Directors ♦ Volunteer Extraordinaire ♦ Astounding Generosity! ♦ Graduate's Corner ♦ Success Stories ♦ Fiscal Year Statistical Report ♦ A Special Thank You to Our Donors ♦ Breaking News: Packard Grant ♦ archived newsletters

Message from the President of the Board of Directors

On behalf of the Clara-Mateo Alliance Board of Directors, the staff and residents, we want to share with our friends this Spring issue of our newsletter.

This edition of The Link is different and special for a couple of reasons:

1. It is devoted almost exclusively to our annual report that we hope you will find both useful and informative.
2. It marks the start of a year that sees us with a new person at the helm of the agency, while Angel Batt is on an extended maternity/leave of absence. We will all miss Angel's creativity, dedication, energy and drive. But we are lucky to have, as Interim Executive Director, Norm Robinson, who is an experienced and seasoned leader.

Angel went on leave on December 20, 2002, and, gave birth to her baby boy early in February. While she plans to take a full year off, she also intends to begin her transition back to CMA by working part time from home on selected projects.

The Board spent the fall of 2002 searching fro the right interim executive director for CMA, and we believe we have found him in Norm Robinson. Norm holds a BA degree from Bowdoin College, an MBA from Columbia University and a Ph.D. in counseling psychology from stanford University. For over 20 years, he served as the associate and acting dean of student affairs at Standford University. Since his retirement from the university in 1993, he has been the executive director or interim executive director of several community based non-profits in the Bay Area, including ARIS of Santa Clara County and the National AIDS Memorial Grove in San Francisco.

Norm faces some significant challenges as he takes over the reins of CMA. Not only has the economic bust hit home, in reduced funding from some of our previous foundation funders, such as Schwab and Packard, but also the state budget crisis will no doubt affect some of our city and county funding as well. As you all know, when economic times are tough, they are toughest of those at the bottom of the ladder.

Despite these looming hurdles, we believe we are in good shape as we enter the new year.

• We have hired a Clinical Director, Susan Montana, to supervise all our programs. She brings a wealth of experience working with the populations we serve, and in supervising staff.
• Our volunteer program is growing thanks to the enthusiasm and hard work of our Director of Volunteers, Lise Strom.
• Additional funding has enabled us to bring the dental van on site most Saturdays, rather than alternate Saturdays, and permits us to serve Santa Clara residents as well as those from San Mateo.
• Our Board Fund-Development Committee developed an outreach program for the holiday appeal, which brought in $10,000.
• The Elsa Segovia Center, which only opened in May, 2002, has almost met its initial goals of serving 500 clients within the first year.

These are just a few of the good things that have been happening, and that lead us to believe that, despite the gloomy economic forecasts, we are in a great position, not only to survive, but to prosper.

Regards,

Charlie Martin
President, Board of Directors

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Volunteer Extraordinaire

We knew the day she arrived that Dianne Regan would be an extraordinary volunteer. But it's nice to have our opinion validated. Dianne will be honored by the Junior League of San Jose at a Volunteer Recognition Luncheon on Wednesday, April 9, 2003.

Dianne came to CMA in August 2002, having retired after 22 years as a social worker in academic and community hospitals. She had retired in July 1999, and moved with her husband from Michigan to Palo Alto to be closer to their daughter and grandchildren. She realized, after 3 years here, that she was getting bored and wanted to keep feeling useful. Volunteering at CMA has filled that need.

Dianne works two full days a week. Her duties include answering the phones in the shelter front office, scheduling appointments for the Director of Admissions, screening applicants, as well as opening locked doors for residents, straightening the clothing closet in the Elsa Segovia Center - basically, whatever is needed. When asked what had surprised her the most at CMA, Dianne answered very thoughtfully: "I'm surprised by the number of women and children who are homeless. I'm also surprised by the basic decency of our clients, who are under the worst sorts of stress, yet treat each other with respect." She added that: "people need to know how fragile the idea of security is, and how big the holes in the safety net are. The loss of a job, particularly for someone earning minimum wage, has a cascading effect that leads to so much more than just the loss of a salary."

We are incredibly lucky to have this special volunteer working with us.

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Astounding Generosity!

The day of love, Saint Valentine's Day, lasted a whole month for Clara-Mateo Alliance this year. The generosity of our volunteer groups this February was astounding!

For starters, each Wednesday in February, Homestead Technologies employees provided our residents with a delicious dinner, culminating in a fantastic barbeque (despite the cold weather) on February 26. Saint Andrew's Episcopal Church served up a lovely supper on February 23 while students from the Stanford University Intervarsity Christian Fellowship made dinner on February 9. The group liked it so much they're coming back next month. And a very big thanks goes to our continuing suppertime supporters, General Electric and Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, whose generous members continue to cater one meal a month for our shelter residents and families. Thank you for feeding the hungry!

Also coming up: the Junior League of the Mid-Peninsula will be beautifying our shelter in April. Our transitional housing wing will get a fresh coat of paint, new furniture, and new area rugs while our kitchen facility will be outfitted with dishes, pots and pans, serving utensils, and other kitchen necessities.

If your group would like to prepare and serve a meal for Clara-Mateo's residents, please contact Lise Strom, at [email protected], or 650.853.7076.

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Graduate's Corner

CMA has always hired people who were formerly homeless as case managers to work directly with shelter residents. Not only can these employees mentor their clients, but they can recognize problems brewing, and know, from experience, how to address them. It is especially gratifying to be able to hire one of our own graduates, and to watch her grow in her job.

Paula Drew is a case manager in Children and Family Services, where her special responsibility is to connect CMA's clients with health care. Paula and her husband Randy arrived at CMA in the fall of 2000. After a series of family catastrophes, Randy's salary just couldn't keep up with the costs of keeping an extended family together. When they lost their Sunnyvale home, they sent their children to stay with other family members in Oregon, and began moving from motel to motel. Finally, worn out and frightened, they cam to CMA's emergency shelter, where they stayed in one of the couples rooms, and worked on completing their service plan. Randy had always been employed, but Paula got two jobs. They attended the house meetings, and did their chores. Then when a room in the family shelter opened up, they were reunited with their 8 year old dauther Megan. Soon, they had enough money saved to move to a one-bedroom apartment in Redwood City. Just before they left, the family shelter's program manager asked Paula to come to work for them. Paula began working swing shft, and during the past two years has worked every shift in every shelter program. She now works a day shift, and her special responsibility is to connect CMA's clients with health care. She is also a warm and wonderful human being, who mentors the clients she works with, and shows them that, no matter how bad it may get, it is possible to succeed.

Paula said: "Randy and I really hit bottom when we lost our house, and started moving from motel to motel. That was no way to live; there was no way to catch up. But it was only once we hit bottom that we could accept help, and know that getting help was okay. When we got to CMA we were really at the end of our rope, but CMA was truly a place where we could rest, and be safe. We were given a chance to save our money, learn from the program, and turn our lives around. Now I want to give that same chance to others."

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A Special Thank You to Our Donors

We thank all the foundations, corporations and individuals for their financial support during fiscal year '01-'02. We couldn't have achieved what we did without you.

Message from the President of the Board of Directors ♦ Volunteer Extraordinaire ♦ Astounding Generosity! ♦ Graduate's Corner ♦ Success Stories ♦ Fiscal Year Statistical Report ♦ A Special Thank You to Our Donors ♦ Breaking News: Packard Grant ♦ archived newsletters

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Clara-Mateo Alliance Inc. ♦ 795 Willow Road Building 323D, Menlo Park, CA 94025 ♦ Tel: 650.853.7065
Copyright © 2003, Clara-Mateo Alliance Inc. All rights reserved.