Recently in Charity and Social Services Category

The California Wellness Foundation announced that Kim Carter, executive director of the California Wellness Foundation, was one of eight nonprofit leaders who received a $35,000 Sabbatical Program Award.

"Executives responsible for nonprofit health and human service organizations in California have been working under challenging conditions for a number of years, in a climate that doesn't appear likely to markedly improve anytime soon," said California Wellness Foundation president Gary L. Yates said in a news release. "The Foundation developed the sabbatical program to prevent burnout, promote the health of these executives and provide an opportunity to strengthen these organizations. We are pleased to recognize these eight dedicated individuals with the 2009 TCWF Sabbatical Program Award."

The award is intended to allow Carter to take a break or so of three months. She has not decided how she will use the time off.

"I hope San Bernardino calms down ... I can't leave in the middle of a fight," she said.

Time for Change Foundation's activities include the operation of two women's homeless shelters. The organization assists women who have been in prison, abused or are recovering from drug addiction.

By Andrew Edwards
Staff Writer
SAN BERNARDINO -- Representatives from local charities, churches and government agencies gathered here Wednesday to share ideas on to better provide food to the needy.

The meeting, which was chaired by San Bernardino mayoral aide Kent Paxton, could be the first of regular series of gatherings on the subject.

Those who sat at the table Tuesday said two of the challenges their organizations currently face are not having sufficient transportation capabilities to haul donated food to distribution points and reaching out to those who have become newly poor during the recession.

"There are a lot of folks who find themselves for the first time needing to ask for help and that's not an easy thing to do," Paxton said.

One of those who spoke at the meeting said he represented Highland Avenue Lutheran Church and has observed that it's easy for him to identify who is having to rely on donated food for the first time.

"I can tell before they get to the intake table because they're mad. They're frustrated," he said. "Our needs test is pretty simple. If you need to stand in line to get food, you need food."

The meeting also touched on the possibility that people who are facing major financial problems for the first time are likely to be less aware of places to obtain emergency food than those who are already homeless or impoverished.

San Bernardino County 211, a phone service that refers callers to health and social service providers, received nearly 1,100 calls from San Bernardino residents in July.

San Bernardino had more of its residents call 211 than any other city in the county. Of those contacts, 159 -- 14 percent -- were from people in need of food.

Meals were the top need among San Bernardino callers, followed by those having difficulty making utilities payments, people needing information services and those needing help to make rent.

Other communities where food ranked as 211 callers' top need in July were Bloomington, Fontana, Rialto and Yucaipa. Among all San Bernardino County callers, meal assistance was the second-most common need, followed by utility bill assistance.

Traceylyn Sharrit, director of development and marketing for Riverside and San Bernardino Second Harvest Food Bank, said food providers could possibly solve their distribution problems by purchasing a truck or two that could be shared by multiple nonprofits.

Time for Change Foundation, a local nonprofit that endured a burglary at its offices on Easter Sunday, is moving to a new location.

The nonprofit has announced that a ribbon-cutting is scheduled to take place Aug. 31 at its new location at 1255 East Highland Ave. Time for Change's old offices were on Arrowhead Avenue.

Time for Change has two shelters for homeless women and children in San Bernardino.

Several commenters have made their case today on SB Now that Fifth Ward Councilman Chas Kelley's reason for supporting a city takeover of graffiti abatement stems to his beef with Los Padrinos Youth Services over trees that were planted - and died - in the area around where E Street becomes Kendall Drive, near Castaway Restaurant.

"If anyone's saying it's about trees, that's bunk," Kelley said.

The scuttlebutt among those who think Kelley has something personal against Los Padrinos seems to be based on the idea that Kelley wanted trees planted near the restaurant and when the landscaping failed to thrive, decided to have Los Padrinos run out of town.

Los Padrinos has contracted with San Bernardino for several years to remove graffiti around town. The organization's tool kit includes a water sprayer and Kelley and Los Padrinos director Max Alonso both said that cleanup crews for a time were tasked with watering the new landscaping. The events happened back in 2007, Alonso said.

Kelley's account of the story is that since Los Padrinos could not legally stop their trucks on the curvy road near the trees to water the plants, the trees could not be watered and died.

"Unfortunately, the trees died. I was disappointed but it wasn't Los Padrinos' fault," he said.

Alonso remembered things differently. Although he did not accuse Kelley of wanting to take away Los Padrinos' contract because of the trees, he said that he has not been on friendly terms with Kelley since the trees died..

On the broader issue of Los Padrinos' contract, Kelley said the reason he and others wanted city staffers to take over graffiti abatement is for quality control reasons. Kelley said he was dissatisfied with Los Padrinos' record keeping and although a city-run program will cost more, he echoed interim Code Enforcement chief Wayne Harp's assessment that San Bernardino will create a "Cadillac" program.

For example, Kelley said, city staffers who are set to begin working in January are expected to repaint entire walls that have been vandalized, rather than do patch up work with colors that may not match surrounding paint.

He further argued against the notion he sought to kill Los Padrinos' contract out of spite because two other council members and Mayor Pat Morris (breaking a 3-3 tie) also cast votes on Nov. 3 to make graffiti abatement a city-run operation.

"If this was just a Chas Kelley thing it would have crashed and burned," he said.

The council voted tonight to allow the hiring of seven new employees to take over graffiti abatement.

The vote was a touchy subject because the plan could spell the end of Los Padrinos Youth Services, a contractor that has previously been San Bernardino's on-call force to clear away tagging.

The council voted 4-2 to greenlight the hiring plan. Councilmen Dennis Baxter, Tobin Brinker, Chas Kelley and Rikke Van Johnson voted for the move.

Councilwomen Esther Estrada and Wendy McCammack voted no.

Los Padrinos director Max Alonso did not speak at the council meeting. He has previously said that losing the San Bernardino contract could be the end of his organization.

City officials said during the night's discussions that Alonso has planned to retire. SB Now will attempt to contact Alonso during business hours Tuesday for more information.

The council's action allows the Public Services Department to hire six new maintenance workers and a new lead maintenance worker. The hires are expected to cost $637,000 over the first six months of 2009.

Los Padrinos Youth Services has given former offenders a chance to find jobs clearing up graffiti. Carolina Chavez, who spoke in favor of the contractor, said before the council voted that she objected to the plan because people who have worked for Los Padrinos will not be able to work for the city.

"They all applied," she said. "Within a week they all received a decline letter because of their records."

Mayor Pat Morris said there may be some possibility that Los Padrinos could survive as a nonprofit that the city would hire to board up vacant properties. As of tonight, that idea was more of a concept than a plan.

Kelley, who represents the city's Fifth Ward, maintained that Los Padrinos has failed to adequately clean up graffiti. He said vandalism in the downtown area is an embarrassment to the entire city.

"Business provide services and goods, and when they don't provide services and goods efficiently they go out of business," Kelley said.

He added his view that the city wasn't getting its money's worth for the $59,000 per month that Los Padrinos received.

Taking graffiti abatement operations in house will be more costly for San Bernardino than contracting with Los Padrinos. Brinker, who represents the Third Ward, said that the plan will allow San Bernardino officials to have more control over the quality of graffiti removal work.

McCammack opined that the move will not work out. She said she was concerned that San Bernardino may not be able to afford the costs of keeping the new maintenance workers on staff.

She also maintained the new plan abandons the rehabilitation efforts that were part of Los Padrinos' approach.

"I'd rather give it to Los Padrinos, at least they keep people off the street," McCammack said.

More than 300 volunteers arrived Thursday morning at Nunez Park to help build a new playground.

The project is the third time that city parks officials and Kaboom, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, have joined forces to build a new playground at a city facility. Kaboom also helped a San Bernardino charter school build a playground this year.

Many of the volunteers came from Home Deport stores in the Inland Empire and other parts of Southern California.

Kaboom sounds like a sound effect that would belong in the 1960s "Batman" television series, but it's actually a nonprofit that supports playground construction.

San Bernardino's fourth Kaboom build of the year is scheduled for Dec. 11 at Nunez Park. The nonprofit has previously aided the city at Lytle Creek Park, Delmann Heights Park and Soar Charter Academy.

Kaboom projects depend heavily on volunteers. Anyone interested in helping out can call Juanita Webster at Ruben Campos Community Center at (909) 384-5421.

Kismet Evans, who until recently worked with San Bernardino-based Young Visionaries Youth Leadership Academy, is scheduled to receive the California Peace Prize.

The California Wellness Foundation is scheduled to award the prize to Evans and two others Wednesday during a ceremony in Los Angeles.

"I am so humbly overwhelmed at receiving such an award as this," she said.

Evans, a former drug user who has been both incarcerated and homeless, said she began her advocacy work in 1999.

"A jail house prayer turned into a decade of kept promises," she said.

Evans, 47, lives in Riverside. Her current activities includes work with groups that she respectively founded and co-founded Men of Valor and Excellence and Inland Empire Veterans Stand Down.

She said the prize's $25,000 will be used to support her organizations.

Here's the announcement from the California Wellness Foundation.

"Kismet Evans has worked over the past decade to provide drug, alcohol, and violence- intervention counseling for youth and to increase public awareness of the trauma that incarceration has on families and communities. Most recently, she was a program manager for the Young Visionaries Youth Leadership Academy, where she worked to prevent violence and teen pregnancy through academics and job development among gang-affiliated and other youth at risk.

"In the 1990s, Evans was incarcerated for drug-related offenses and experienced periods of homelessness. After a year of outpatient drug treatment, she realized that she wanted to help others. She first worked at MFI Recovery Center, a co-ed residential treatment program in Woodcrest, California, and continued her work at Inland Valley Recovery Center, in a program for female parolees and their children. She founded Men of Valor and Excellence, a recovery transitional program, and co-founded Inland Empire Veterans Stand Down, a program that connects homeless veterans and their families to resources.

"Born in Fullerton, California, Evans graduated from California Paramedical Technical College, as salutatorian. She is a member of the Inland Empire Women's Business Center and Women's Circle of Success and she volunteers for the ASK Mentoring Outreach program. She has received accolades from policymakers and community leaders. Evans lives in Riverside, California.

Here's an announcement about plans for a Salvation Army facility for female veterans:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SALVATION ARMY WILL BUILD APARTMENTS FOR HOMELESS FEMALE VETERANS

(San Bernardino, Calif.) - Female veterans and their families who have struggled with homelessness will have a new place to live, thanks to a grant The Salvation Army received recently.

The $150,000 grant is on top of a $1 million zero-interest loan already received from the California Department of Housing & Community Development in July. Together, they will enable The Salvation Army to build eight to ten apartments near 925 Tenth Street, and to remodel an existing shelter there.

A few of the apartments will be reserved for veterans and their families. Since the Salvation Army of San Bernardino shelter primarily serves women and children, the apartments will be for female veterans.

"Building these apartments has been a goal of the Salvation Army for a long time," said Capt. Stephen Ball, commander of The Salvation Army of San Bernardino. "The zero-interest loan from the state has helped us realize that dream, and the grant from the Veterans Administration allows us to reach out to a few more women, who have sacrificed for their country and now need our help to get back to normal lives."

The Salvation Army of San Bernardino offers shelter to women and their husbands and children, usually for up to three months. It plans to offer the apartments to women with families who are living in the shelter, but need to rely longer on the services its ministry provides before making independent living arrangements.

The remodeling to the shelter itself will benefit all who rely on this service.

The shelter is currently operated by Adult Rehabilitation Services, another branch of The Salvation Army, which works with homeless men. Adult Rehabilitation Services is building a larger shelter on Doolittle Street, and should be able to move there in October 2008.

Once Adult Rehabilitation Services moves into their new facility, The Salvation Army of San Bernardino plans to modernize the shelter and to convert some of the area into dormitory-style apartments for single women who stay longer.

"The San Bernardino City Unified School District counted 1,700 homeless children in the district," said Kent Paxton, director of Operation Phoenix, and leader in the city's effort to assist The Salvation Army through the approval process. "Those children belong to families, some of whom will benefit from these apartments."

The California Department of Housing & Community Development loan is zero interest for 10 years, and then won't have to be repaid if The Salvation Army completes construction of the shelter, said Adriana Mattox, a funding consultant with Hill & Associates, a firm that helped The Salvation Army obtain both sources of funding.

Since the grant is from the Veteran's Administration, five of the apartments will be for homeless female veterans. Three single women will live in the remodeled dormitory-style apartments in the shelter, while two women and their children will live in the nearby apartments.

Adult Rehabilitation Center currently operates the Tenth Street shelter as a residence for men in an addiction recovery program. The Salvation Army of San Bernardino is temporarily operating a shelter at 746 W. Fifth Street, primarily serving homeless women and children, but also married couples.

Sheltering up to 96 homeless people every night is just one of the many ministries The Salvation Army of San Bernardino offers. Other ministries include serving dinners six nights a week to up to 200 people, providing spiritual counseling and training, operating youth mentoring and recreational programs, and working to improve the lives of homeless families in the community.

The Salvation Army San Bernardino Citadel Corps has helped residents of San Bernardino, Rialto, Grand Terrace, Highland, Bloomington and Colton since 1887.

The homeless shelter and meals program is located at 746 W. Fifth St. in San Bernardino. For more information call (909) 888-1336.