.:. CMA Newsletter Volume 5, Issue 1 Spring 2004 .:.

Connecting You to the CMA Community Volume 5, Issue 1 - Spring 2004

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Message From the President ♦ In Praise of Volunteers ♦ CMA Welcomes New Clinical Director ♦ Graduate's Corner ♦ Fiscal Year Statistical Report ♦ A Special Thank You to Our Donors ♦ archived newsletters

Message From the President

Let me wish all of you a happy 2004. We, at Clara-Mateo Alliance, Inc. are greeting the new year with anticipation and optimism.

This annual report covers two different years. The statistics and financial reports that you will find are for our fiscal year '02-'03, the period between July 1, 2002 and June 30, 2003. The year has now been audited, and we can report our financials with confidence.

The year covered by the stories is calendar year 2003. The statistical report is only a small part of the CMA picture. The people we serve and the folks who help us serve them are really the keys to who we are and what we do. The staff at CMA has undergone some changes in the past year. Most notable is the departure of Executive Director, Angel Batt, who has decided to stay home with her now 1-year old son Tanner, for a while longer. Doug Ford has succeeded Norm Robinson as CMA's Interim Executive Director. Doug brings a wealth of experience in the non-profit sector, as a consultant (concurrently working with the Community Working Group on the Opportunity Center) and as a fund raiser and grant writer. Shefali Desai, who was CMA's Chief Operating Officer, and who had been at CMA almost as long as Angel, has also left, in anticipation of her husband's transfer to a position overseas. Her assignments have been divided among existing staff. We also have a new Clinical Director, Steve Chapralis, who is providing excellent leadership and guidance to the direct service staff. For more about Steve, see CMA Welcomes New Clinical Director.

The community support that we have received has been remarkable. We have enjoyed the assistance of a cadre of incredible volunteers. These include The Kiwanis of Palo Alto, our fantastic volunteer web master, Hue Ng, the loyal group that continues to collect the spare change from the Another Way canisters, and the faith groups and others who continue to prepare and serve dinners to our residents (see In Praise of Volunteers).

What keeps us all going, though, is the knowledge that we are making a difference in the lives of the clients we serve: the residents in our shelters and transitional programs, as well as the women and families who use the Elsa Segovia Center in a variety of ways. The staff received a very timely letter, the morning of our last staff meeting before the holidays, from a former resident. It was the best present we could have received, and we are sharing it with you on Graduate's Corner.

Regards,

Charlie Martin
CMA Board President

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In Praise of Volunteers

So many individuals and groups have contributed their time, imagination and energy to Clara-Mateo Alliance over the past year that we cannot possibly list them all. A few are highlighted in the Letter from the President.

But the groups who have prepared and served meals deserve special mention; their meals are delicious and nutritious, and our residents especially enjoy eating "home-cooked" meals. In addition, each dinner prepared and served by a volunteer group saves CMA more than $300-- the cost of purchasing a catered meal. The generous groups who have brought meals to our shelter include: Holy Trinity Episcopal, Bethany Lutheran, Greater Friendship Baptist, St. Anthony's Padua Dining Room, St. Andrew's Methodist, Homestead Technologies, Castilleja High School, and Palo Alto Kiwanis.

Many of these groups have also participated in other projects and put on events and parties for our residents. Other groups that have helped to improve the lives of our clients include: The Junior League of Palo Alto, Stanford Florists, Nature's Alley, Community Impact, Menlo School, and Bain & Co.

A special mention needs to go to Gilda Mangold for bringing her "Breath, Water, Sound" relaxation and meditation program to CMA, to Elsie Leach for coordinating the St. Andrew's Methodist back-to-school backpack drive, and to Jim Bramlett for his role in bringing St. Anthony's Padua Dining Room to CMA.

Finally, we want to thank Kiwanis of Palo Alto for creating a "how to" manual for groups that volunteer to prepare meals for CMA. The manual, detailed and illustrated, is on the volunteer page of our website at: www.clara-mateo.org/vol_food_manual

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CMA Welcomes New Clinical Director

CMA welcomed its new Clinical Director, Steve Chapralis, in November 2003, and he is already having a very positive impact on the management team, staff, and residents as well.

Steve is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, and is a Bay Area native. He received his undergraduate degree from San Jose State University in psychology and his master's degree in counseling from Azusa Pacific University in Southern California. Before coming to CMA, Steve had most recently been involved in working with youth and young adults with mental health issues. Through his work with various mental health programs and board and care housing programs, he has had previous experience with people who have dealt with homelessness. He has been the clinical or program director of several different mental health programs including programs at Eastfield Ming Quong, Fred Finch Youth Center, and Starlight Adolescent Center.

Steve's goals at CMA include strengthening and expanding the services that can be offered. In coming here, he hopes that he can both create and further develop programs that will help Clara-Mateo Alliance make an impact and a difference in the lives of the local homeless population.

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Graduate's Corner

This letter came from one of our graduates, just before our last staff meeting of 2003. We could not have asked for a better present!

I was in Clara-Mateo for five months in the beginning of 1999. I came from Arkansas to start a new life and found myself very depressed and homeless. A social worker who had written an 18 page paper on the homeless in college now found herself homeless. That was something I never expected. I was so depressed I couldn't even look for a job but Angel and Shefali brought the job to me. ...

With the help of Shefali and Angel and a wonderful mental health case worker ... I was able to cope one day at a time. During the year I was moved to two other shelters and things looked bleak but they encouraged me and stood by me, always offering their help and wouldn't let me give up. Finally a program was started by the Emergency Housing Consortium and I was accepted and moved into a studio apartment in Sunnyvale. I spent five years there while I continued to work with my mental health case worker and deal with issues that had brought me to where I was. I was finally getting myself together. ...

Life has been a real rollercoaster for me but I am finally finding my way. I know that I will always have things to deal with... [but] I now have the skills to cope with whatever comes my way, and after five years of living on antidepressants am able to function without them. I would never have gotten to where I am today without the help of Shefali and Angel and all the people in the Homeless team in San Jose.

I just wanted to express my thanks to them for helping me find my way in life. I hope that many others are as blessed by that program as I was.

With Sincere Gratitude,

K.M.

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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 '02-'03. We couldn't have achieved what we did without you.

Government Funders
City of Menlo Park City of Mountain View City of Palo Alto City of Redwood City City of San Jose	City of Sunnyvale San Mateo County Santa Clara County U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

Foundation Funders
Atkinson Foundation Boston Scientific Foundation The Bothin Foundation Charles & Helen Schwab Foundation Cisco Foundation Community Foundation Silicon Valley David & Lucile Packard Foundation Dudley-Vehmeyer-Brown Foundation	GlaxoSmithKline Foundation John and Marcia Goldman Foundation Lucile Packard Foundation for Child Health Palo Alto Weekly Holiday Fund Peninsula Community Foundation Pfizer Foundation Matching Gifts Sobrato Family Foundation VanLobenSels/RemberRock Foundation

Individual Donors
Philanthropists ($1,000+) Butler Hine Sarah and Clay Jones Paul Kaplan Michael and Frances Hall Kieschnick Microsoft Giving Campaign Morgan Family Foundation James and Sonya Peters Dianne O'Malley Regan Roger Reynolds Nursery Vic Spicer Geoff and Colleen Tate Patrons ($500-999) Laurie Ackerman Bert and Linda Fornaciari Kim Harris Jan Kang Sol and Dana Kavy Wallace Mersereau Norma and Elmer Sandy Louise Schiller Marion H. Softky Erik Toomre Byron and Linda Wittlin	Sponsors ($100-$499) Lucinda and Hap Abbott Erica Agiewich Beverly Balanis Cliff and Zelda Barnett Paul Bauersfeld Dr. Marts and Suzanne Beekley Patricia Boyle Larry and Elizabeth Brown Kitt Caffall Jeff Carty Charles TC Compton Dave & Alisyn Crowder Margaret S. Dalziel Renee Danson Pat Davis Patti Deuter Carol and Daniel Dobberpuhl Eugenia Durdall Douglas & Christine Duszynski Francesca Eastman Catherine and Jon Foster Robin Quist Gates Elaine Grainger Stephen Guadio Judith Humburg Sabrina Huneke Katarina Jeanneau Douglas Kauppi Judith Kramer Jeff Leopold Trevor and Margie Macarewich Alan and Alison Marer Charlie and Susan Martin Carl and Susan McConnell Sue McCrary Peter & Trudy Minkler Julie Morris Norman Pascoe Dave and Valerie Powell Jonathan Propp Mr. and Mrs. John E. Reiter Jeff Rensch Blake Sandy Maya Escudero Selby Susan Sheppard Mr. and Mrs. Robert W. Simpson Jefferson Stone Elmer Strehly Carol and Carlos Tinsley Arthur and Loretta Traum Roger & Wendy Von Oech Tom Wasow Rachel Williams Christina & Jeremy Wire Lifang Yan George and Elizabeth Young	Supporters ($1-$99) Rachel Bakker John and Patricia Baptiste Scott and Barbara Barnum Stephen Bellumori Marie Bergstedt Eleanor G. Bullis Jim and Wileta Burch April and Clifford Chin George and Ruth Chippendale Ryan Coe Melinda Conrad Svetlana Cooke Bill Copeland Snehal & Matangi Desai Robert and Deanna Dooley Michael A. Duncheon Herb and Alice Fischgrund Thomas Floyd Doug Fraser Michelle Gabrie Paul Goldstein Stacie Groll Roy and Maura Harvey Robert Herold Hank and Nancy Heubach Mark Heyer Susan Hyder Charles Kohs Nancy Kramer Don Lindt Joan Merdinger Jean Metcalfe Jorene Moore Anne Goodenough Moser Elsbeth Newfield Allan Newlands Ernest and Aileen Norback Olivier & Lynn Pieron Marcia Pugsley Richard and Joan Raiter Dan Rich Stephanie Richman Paul and Mary Ann Robbiano Myrna and Leon Rochester Stephen Rogaway Walter and Helen Roosli Deborah Rosenberg Gustave and Elizabeth Schwarz Joyce Shefren Sandra Shimizu Evelyn Shiro Jeremy & Carolyn Alton Siegel Alan and Marilyn Simon Lina Taskovich Eugenie Taylor Clifford Terrell Larry Tesler Tina Vu Lanie & David Wheeler Anthony Vaianisi Edwin Wright

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