14 Nov 2015

Puente prepares for “Godzilla” El Niño storm season

Out on the South Coast, weather predictions of a “Godzilla” El Niño storm season are more than a little unsettling. Long-timers remember the last El Niño winter in 1998, and the disasters it wrought on the communities of Pescadero, La Honda and surrounding areas.


Residents still tell the stories from that year: the flooding that poured 17 inches of water into homes on Stage Road, in downtown Pescadero. How it knocked out a bridge in Butano Canyon, and how it turned Pescadero High School – the community’s only emergency shelter – into a water-bound island that was all but inaccessible. Emergency vehicles found the main road into Pescadero impassable. A major landslide on Highway 84, the mountain road that links Pescadero and La Honda, shut all traffic down for weeks while the county made repairs.

Flooding in Pescadero.
Flooding in Pescadero.
 
In other words, locals were on their own. And they know that hasn’t changed.


“In a major natural disaster, like an earthquake or a big storm that affects the entire Peninsula, we are going to be last people that anyone is worried about,” says Ben Ranz, Community Outreach Coordinator for Puente.


“Help could come, but we’re going to be last on the list. And if a tree falls down and blocks the road – they wouldn’t be able to get us supplies, even if they wanted to,” he adds.


The farther away they live from a city center, the more acutely Coastsiders are already aware of the need to be prepared for a serious emergency, according to emergency personnel. This translates into having at least three days’ worth of food supplies, the minimum they’ll need to shelter in place.

 

But Puente knows many locals will need much more help than that. So Puente is working with the county to anticipate the gaps in First Aid, shelter and communication that will ensue in a major El Niño event.

 

“We know that we will be the responders. People are going to come to us, call us to find out information and ask what they should be doing with their families,” says Rita Mancera, Deputy Executive Director of Puente.

 

The good news is that Puente, and the South Coast, are getting help from the best possible source: the San Mateo County Office of Emergency Services, or OES. Historically, the OES has focused on the most populous parts of the county, with occasional side-trips to offer workshops and trainings on the coast. The result was that some Coastsiders had the training and knowledge to handle a natural catastrophe, but they were poorly networked and loosely organized.

 

That changed in late 2013, when Nick Gottuso became the first-ever Coastside District Coordinator for San Mateo County OES. His is a full-time job overseeing rural stretches from Montara all the way down to the Santa Cruz County line, including Half Moon Bay. Gottuso has been extremely busy these past 18 months, teaming with Coastside/Cal Fire Battalion Chiefs Ari Delay and Dave Cosgrave, giving two-hour Emergency Prep presentations where he answers questions about the county’s ability to respond in an emergency and what residents can do to help themselves until real help arrives.

 

Gottuso and his Battalion Chief partners also offer CERT classes (Community Emergency Response Teams), which covers a lot more ground than CPR and basic First Aid. In a CERT class, for instance, adults learn search and rescue techniques like how to use cribbing to lift broken pieces of concrete off someone who may be trapped underneath.

 

Gottuso says the Coastside CERT classes have seen record attendance from locals who are eager for lifesaving tips. That’s a very good sign.

 

“The more people can take care of themselves, the more resources they can free up for someone who needs our help more than they do,” he says.

 

Gottuso, a former police captain, has created the Coastside Emergency Corps (CEC). The Corps encompasses 118 volunteers who have the best emergency response training, including those with professional medical skills, CERT trainees, ham radio operators, Red Cross shelter personnel, Large Animal Evacuation Group members, and people qualified to work in an OES central command setting. In an innovative program unknown elsewhere, Coastside Emergency Corps volunteers are covered as County employees for workers compensation if they are injured during training or a real activation.

 

Gottuso also decided to issue special holographic identification cards to Corps members, who have all been fingerprinted and have passed background checks. The cards list their skills and qualifications. They can show the cards to OES officials in an emergency and receive clearance.

 

Gottuso’s presence has made a big difference already, according to Ranz. Puente is now a part of the South Coast Emergency Group, a smaller subset that meets once a month to discuss emergency readiness in Pescadero and surrounding communities.

 

“Before Nick came, we were reliant on community people thinking and talking about disaster preparedness, but a lot of them moved away,” says Ranz. “This was a great step toward recognizing that we have special needs.”

 

Those needs were laid bare in the wake of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that killed tens of thousands in Japan in March 2011. California officials issued, and then cancelled, a tsunami evacuation notice for the Coastside when no tsunami materialized. But hundreds of locals evacuated anyway due to misinformation and the terrifying images broadcast on TV. The result: gridlock on Highway 92, which prevented the county from getting through with food supplies for Pescadero’s Red Cross emergency shelter. Puente bought food and Puente youth, many trained as CERT volunteers, stepped in because the Red Cross didn’t have bilingual staff members to translate. CERT-trained volunteers were not formally activated, and Puente staff had trouble reaching many residents by telephone.

 

Community Outreach Coordinator Ben Ranz, center, with members of the South Coast community.
Community Outreach Coordinator Ben Ranz, center,
with members of the South Coast community.

 

In brief, “it was panic,” says Mancera. “What we got out of the situation was that we were not ready.”

 

Puente is far more ready today than four years ago. After the tsunami scare, Puente obtained a grant from the Silicon Valley Community Foundation to train community members in CPR and First Aid. Every Puente youth and nearly every Puente adult staff member receives CPR and First Aid training and residents at nearby ranches, farms and businesses have also been trained. Three Puente employees are CERT trained and are also ham radio operators. Three of them are CEC members. Local school district staff has received similar training.

 

Disasters aren’t always forged by Mother Nature. Puente has a lot of practice reacting to local crises, like when a mushroom farm shut down, costing 300 jobs. Puente helped with rent payments for the newly unemployed. Or when a fire displaced nearly 30 farm workers and their families: Puente helped them find shelter.

 

As fall turns to winter, Puente is starting to work on a community phone tree that, once activated, will help get important information to farms and ranches far out of cell phone range. And the Silicon Valley Community Foundation has generously committed to reimburse Puente for up to $50,000 of disaster spending on behalf of the community. Puente’s longstanding partnership with the La Honda-Pescadero Unified School District increases community capacity to reach the region’s adults and children.

 

It doesn’t take a tsunami or a 100-year storm to bring Pescadero to cut off the community from the rest of the world. A rainfall on November 1 left big puddles of standing water by the roadside, a prelude of worse yet to come. Creek flooding is a long-term struggle in the community, much of which also lies below sea level. And when it floods, the water can take days to recede.

 

“People need to understand that we’re all really vulnerable here,” says Kerry Lobel, Puente’s Executive Director. “Thanks to a partnership with the Red Cross, Puente has emergency bags that items can augment with their own supplies. We really encourage people to have food and water and other disaster items ready, because there’s already only a limited number of items you can buy in town.”



For more information about disaster preparedness, contact Ben Ranz at Puente at branz@mypuente.org

25 Oct 2015

Dia de los Muertos: art, therapy and community

In Central and South Mexico, Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) is a hallowed melding of Indigenous and Catholic traditions that honors loved ones with rituals that include an altar decorated with sugar skulls, marigolds, food and photos to commemorate those who have died. It’s a time to reflect on family and loss and what is important in life.

It has acquired profound meaning in the lives of a group of local mothers who have come together to stage the event at the final Pescadero Farmers’ Market of the season, which this year will occur on Thursday, October 29.

Seven years ago, Puente social worker Belinda Arriaga introduced Dia de los Muertos to Pescadero to encourage South Coast mothers to engage in the meaningful traditions they had back in Mexico. A grant from the Bella Vista Foundation to combat maternal depression provided Puente with the opportunity to use culturally relevant art projects as a way to address the feeling of rootlessness Arriaga saw in many local women whose families and traditions were so many miles away.

This year, the Madres Group has collaborated with Puente staff member and resident artist, Alejandra Ortega, to organize the Dia de los Muertos celebration, with additional funding from the San Francisco Community Foundation Faiths Program. The women, along with about 20 other community participants, make art together every Monday leading up to the big event on October 29, decorating plates and sugar skulls while they spend quality time with their children and each other.

“It’s helps them feel a part of the community and it lifts the veil of isolation and depression,” says Joann Watkins, Clinical Director for Puente. Watkins is particularly happy that this year, Puente has identified four leaders among the local mothers. They are taking charge of the art workshops and are planning the altar, the food – everything.

“Our job is to work ourselves out of a job and have the community take over. We want this to be a community event, and it is starting to be that way more and more,” adds Watkins.

One of those women is Yessenia Serratos, who says she has gained new friendships from the evenings she has spent decorating sugar skulls and other art for the altar. Like many of the women in the Madres Project, Serratos also participates in Puente ESL classes, Zumba and a women’s walking group in town.

Yessenia Serratos works on a plate at a recent art workshop.

Yessenia Serratos works on a plate at a recent art workshop.

“I gain fellowship with people and I can understand them better as individuals. We speak the same language and come from the same country, but we are very different people,” says Serratos, who is from Baja California, a part of Mexico that does not widely celebrate Dia de los Muertos. Serratos grew up with Halloween instead, so she has taught herself pretty much everything she knows about Dia de los Muertos traditions. She has even drawn inspiration from the artwork of Frida Kahlo, which deals with mortality-related themes.

“I feel nervous about it – it’s my first time. I’ve been watching YouTube videos about everything… including how you make the altar. I want this to be excellent,” she enthuses.

Serratos isn’t sure whether she’ll paint her face this year with sugar skull makeup. “I’ll be the cowgirl rocking the skull shirt,” she jokes.

The Madres aren’t the only group with special plans for the October 29 farmers’ market. A group of students from Pescadero High School will be there, handing out educational materials that explore a very important topic: binge drinking, a common form of alcohol abuse among young people. They will be wearing matching skull-themed t-shirts designed by local artist and Puente program assistant, Jovany Rios.

Jovany Rios works on a mug at one of the art workshops.

Jovany Rios works on a mug at one of the art workshops.

The students are in a Puente-led discussion group that meets regularly throughout the year to plan education campaigns about alcohol and other drugs. Their goal is to cultivate community-wide awareness through projects that are student-driven, not adult-driven.

“There’s some tragedy in the community around binge drinking, so it will be great to see how their efforts pan out,” says Suzanne Hughes, one of Puente’s marriage and family therapists. Hughes put the curriculum together. The program is supported by a grant from the Youth Leadership Institute.

The young people can earn community service hours for their participation, but there’s an additional perk. Through Friday Night Live, a project of the Youth Leadership Institute, they get to travel to other parts of San Mateo County and socialize with students in the same program.

“It was a small group, but it got popular very quickly once they realized they would get to visit other chapters and meet other youth their age,” says Watkins.

Puente’s behavioral health programs have always had a wide focus by design, from personal and family therapy to group workshops on domestic violence and child abuse prevention, or drug and alcohol abuse.

This fall, a new Puente program called Seeking Safety focuses on the troubling reality of generational trauma among young people in and around Pescadero. Many young people suffer from trauma symptoms without realizing it, says Watkins – from brushes with domestic violence, incest and rape to a family history of substance abuse. And the trauma tends to perpetuate itself in the younger generation.

“It’s not just here, but I do feel we have a higher rate of generational trauma. It’s a rural community, and I think people gravitate toward a place where they can stay isolated. They don’t have to be out in public as much. If you’re traumatized, you try to avoid things that trigger you,” explains Watkins.

The Seeking Safety training, made possible by a grant from San Mateo County, entails 25 skill-building workshops to teach women how to identify the symptoms of trauma and cope with them in a group setting. If participants complete all 25 sessions, they will receive a $1,000 stipend. This year, Puente is working with women aged 18 to 25; next year Puente hopes to work with a similar male cohort.

“They don’t have the language for what’s happening, but when one of them says it, the others recognize it” adds Watkins. “They have no idea where those feelings are coming from.”

Grief is another thing that almost everyone in Pescadero struggles to recognize and process. For her part, Serratos has discovered a meaningful and cathartic way to honor all the loved ones she has lost and misses the most. At Dia de los Muertos, she’s looking forward to the music, the colors, the flowers and the incense.

“I like using my imagination. I’m able to think of the people I’ve lost. And I think about how one day I’m going to go, and how I would like to be celebrated in the same way,” she says.

The Day of the Dead celebration occurs from 3 to 7p.m. on Thursday, October 29 at the final farmer’s market of the season. Enjoy live music, a labyrinth, pan de muerto, and more next to the Pescadero Country Store, 251 Stage Rd.

11 Oct 2015

For every child on the South Coast: training childcare providers

The South Coast is a children’s paradise, with beaches and marshes to explore, farm animals to visit, and fields to run through. Unfortunately, many infants and toddlers under the age of 3 have no idea about the beauty and outdoor fun that lies so close at hand. They may spend their days inside dim, claustrophobic farm worker housing.

Although providing early learning opportunities has been a priority for the South Coast for nearly two decades, efforts have been revitalized thanks to partnerships between Puente, the La Honda-Pescadero Unified School District, the Heising-Simons Foundation, and the Big Lift — a collective impact collaborative led by the three agencies – SVCF, the San Mateo County Office of Education, and the County of San Mateo County.

Three years ago, the La Honda-Pescadero Unified School District initiated a series of meetings to discuss how to address these problems, which go deeper than a lack of exposure to books or toys. Over several sessions with Puente staff and local leaders, a clear priority emerged: to fully engage caregivers and parents in children’s inner lives and brain development. Luckily, Pescadero’s caregivers are passionate, caring and enthusiastic about giving their young charges the best chance for success.

But many have no professional training in early childhood development or basic skills in how to interact with the children. So Puente stepped in to provide those trainings. With major support from the Heising-Simons Foundation and in partnership with the school district, Puente launched its Family Engagement Initiative in 2014 with a number of targeted programs to benefit home childcare providers, parents, and the children themselves. These programs make up a comprehensive plan drew on the momentum from the Early Childhood Learning Initiative.

This partnership and plan were critical to a successful effort resulting in the school district being awarded The Big Lift funding to support longer days and a longer year for the district’s preschool program. Last year, an expert with the San Mateo County Department of Education gave a 12-session workshop on early childhood development to 26 home care providers using curriculum from PITC, the Program for Infant-Toddler Care. Puente will offer another round of classes in the coming months, classes that are made possible because of funding by  First 5 San Mateo County. Puente Family Engagement Project Manager Arlae Alston provides monthly check-ins for caregivers to ask questions and observe how she handles difficult situations, like a child with a temper tantrum.

Because the South Coast lacks a daycare center for children before they enter preschool, local women do the bulk of childcare for families who work full-time. Some of these local venues are not ideal for childcare: cramped houses, trailers and farm barracks with barely any room to crawl or play. Sometimes it’s not safe to play outside, so children remain indoors.

The years before preschool begins are a crucial period in a child’s early development: the time for self-expression, play, and contact with books and toys. But books and toys are not always at hand for all childcare providers, especially the kind that directly promote growth and curiosity. Recently Puente stepped in to provide a toy lending library and a book bag program for the area’s youngest children, along with home visits from a Puente specialist – weekly interactions to stimulate children’s play and interest, as well as guidance for childcare providers.

“Children should be raised in an environment of beauty and color. We want them to be able to dream and be surrounded by hope. You need to have those early memories be pleasant, meaningful memories. And you need to be able to express yourself as loudly as you wish, instead of having to be quiet because some men who worked late are sleeping in the room next door,” says Alston. Alston joined Puente full-time this summer, following an earlier stint as an early childhood development specialist, to help the community address the complex sources of the ‘readiness gap’ that begins as early as preschool.

When children arrive in preschool, they’re eager, energetic and ready to learn. But sometimes, the early deficits associated with lacking a proper environment for literacy and learning can set kids up for academic problems later on in areas like language and math. And those problems may become compounded over the course of a student’s academic career.

She has started visiting two local ranches with books in tow so she can read to the children, a program she dubs “story time on wheels.” “I’ve done it regularly enough that the children are waiting for me at the door. They are just hungry for knowledge, for information. We play with toys, we sing songs,” she says. Every at-home childcare provider now has a box of toys to keep. Puente and the school district have also turned their attention to local parents (including in-home caregivers) with Raising a Reader, a literacy program that teaches parents how to explore books with their children even if they themselves do not know how to read.

Raising a Reader sends children from preschool through second grade home with a colorful book bag that is filled with new books each week – picture books, reading books, numeracy books. Although LHPUSD has offered Raising a Reader in preschool for many years, the Initiative supported a more robust Raising a Reader with additional family nights.

This year, the district designated additional funding to expand the Raising a Reader Plus Family Nights to second graders and their families. Another key strategy is Abriendo Puertas (Opening Doors), a ten-part workshop that teaches parents how to support their children’s growth and education and empowers them to get involved in the local school district.

Local mother and at-home childcare worker Silvia Acosta has participated in every early child development workshop and program Puente offers, including the PITC sessions. She attends Raising a Reader with her 4-year-old daughter and graduated with the first Abriendo Puertas cohort last year. She helps Puente organize and distribute its book bags.

“I want to be a better mom. I want to do good for my children. And it’s important to continue to learn new things,” says Acosta, who asked that her name be changed because she is undocumented. Today, Acosta earns $50 a week caring for a neighbor’s 4-year-old in addition to her own. The parents drop off the child at 6:30 a.m. as they head to work and pick her up at 5:30 p.m.

She would love to take the children for a walk – just outside are fragrant rows of flowers, zucchini and pumpkins. But sometimes she can’t, because she doesn’t feel it is a safe environment. So they mostly stay inside, which can be difficult and confining.

Acosta dreams of becoming a teacher’s assistant or a professional, accredited childcare provider. She has already learned so much from her trainings with Puente: when to use a ‘time out’ to discipline a child and how long it ought to last. The reasoning behind letting a child climb a tree, since it helps them test their own strength. “I’m giving more of my time to the children now. Before, I didn’t read to them that much. I didn’t pay as much attention to them. Now I’m spending time playing with the children and talking to them,” she says.

Puente ultimately hopes to raise money to build a comprehensive licensed childcare center in Pescadero. A full-time daycare “would really help us,” affirms Acosta. “A lot of people leave to go to work at 6 a.m., so we need something that would take care of children all day.” Alston hopes women like Acosta can continue to empower themselves by finding work at a future childcare center while they further their own education.

It’s not just about babysitting. Puente and the school district want children to benefit from a formalized early education, staffed by professionals who are trained to notice learning deficits and speech delays.

“I want a safe place for children. Kids need spaces that encourage them to be creative, with people who know how to help them play and to learn a set curriculum,” says Rita Mancera, Deputy Executive Director of Puente. The more children learn by the time they enter preschool, the more we can expect from them. And that starts with a level playing field. Right now, the playing field is tilted away from families who can’t afford more than $15 a day for childcare.

“I’m always hearing about the ‘achievement gap’ and when I do, it’s like putting the blame on children and families. That’s not how I see it,” says Alston. “They’re not broken; they have not been given the same resources as others. But if we have a children’s center for them, they would have the same as everyone else.”

Please contact Rita Mancera at rmancera@mypuente.org or (650) 879-1691 Ext 102 to learn how you can help build a childcare center in Pescadero.