26 Oct 2015

Rita Mancera to succeed Kerry Lobel as Executive Director of Puente

Today Puente de la Costa Sur (PUENTE) Board President Laura Franco announces that Rita Mancera will succeed Kerry Lobel as Executive Director, effective January 1, 2016. Lobel will be taking on a new role as Puente’s Strategic Projects Advisor.

“For Puente, it’s the best of all possible worlds to keep us both but in new roles. Rita and I have worked side-by-side for nine years and she is terrific. For me, the shift in roles is fantastic. I’ve longed to work on the larger infrastructure projects, and there is so much to do,” says Lobel.

Mancera lives in Pescadero with her husband Jim and son William, who attends Pescadero Elementary. She has served as Puente’s Community Builder, then its Program Director, and currently the Deputy Executive Director.

“These are my people and this is my community. I’m going to take this role personally,” she says.

Current Executive Director Kerry Lobel, right, with soon-to-be Executive Director Rita Mancera at the Puente offices in Pescadero.

Current Executive Director Kerry Lobel, right, with soon-to-be Executive Director Rita Mancera at the Puente offices in Pescadero.

Lobel has presided over an extraordinary period of growth for Puente, which has gone from 3 employees and a $185,127 budget in 2006 – the year Puente formally merged with North Street Community Resource Center – to a budget of $2.3 million with 27 full and part-time staff.

Looking back, Lobel is most proud of turning Puente into a community resource center with programs that include:

  • Puente’s La Honda office, which offers Spanish classes, behavioral health and safety net services;
  • A fully staffed behavioral health team that provides individual, family and group counseling to South Coast residents as well as in-school programs that build community resilience.

Lobel singles out the Youth Leadership and Development Program as her greatest pride and joy. Puente helps prepare youth for college and the workplace by placing them with local nonprofits and other businesses where they learn marketable skills and grow into confident, engaged adults. In 2007, the first four teens entered the program. Now 126 youth have participated.

kerry lobel

Kerry Lobel at the 2014 Fall Harvest Celebration

“I love our youth program so much,” says Lobel. “I’ve seen so many changes in the youth, their parents, and how the community views young people – with respect.”

Puente Board President Laura Franco praised Lobel’s leadership style with her trademark “utter calmness and equanimity in the face of incredible challenges to Puente’s mission.”

Together, Lobel and Mancera have guided Puente through the often difficult nonprofit funding waters, such as the recent loss of federal funding to the youth program. That rescue effort is still underway, with a matching grant for all donations up to $40,000.

“Rita has been my partner for my entire tenure at Puente. She’s given her body and soul to the organization,” says Lobel.

Like Lobel, Mancera has been with Puente since 2006. She was born and raised in Mexico and immigrated to Pescadero after marrying her husband Jim. She is known for her hands-on leadership style and vivacious personality. She loves to learn, and over the years her evolving roles at Puente have given her a chance to learn all kinds of unexpected new skills. She has become a paralegal, a Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) accredited legal worker, a notary public and Zumba instructor. Read more about about Rita here.

“We are an incubator of local leadership. I’m a product of that culture. If I were not given the opportunity to continue growing within Puente, I would not be where I am now. I want to make sure that remains rooted in what we do,” says Mancera.

Rita Mancera at the 2015 Fall Harvest Celebration

Rita Mancera at the 2015 Fall Harvest Celebration

As a local mom and PTA member, Mancera has close ties to the local school district and a unique understanding of the needs of local parents and students. She cites Puente’s growing education programs and the sustainability of the youth program as major priorities going forward.

“I feel that everything I’ve done at Puente one way or another is related to education. Culturally, we Latinas say an education is something no one can take away from you,” adds Mancera.

Starting in January, Lobel will use her role as Strategic Projects Advisor  to help realize major Pescadero infrastructure projects that need some political muscle to get done: improved housing for farm workers, a child care center, a health center, and an office upgrade for Puente.

“I really want to take the things I’ve learned and apply them to seemingly intractable problems. I want to focus on the big picture and I can’t do that and run Puente at the same time,” Lobel says. She will also look forward to traveling with her partner, Marta Drury, and honing her photography skills.

Mancera will be the third leader to lead Puente in its 17-year history. “She’s next in line in a very deliberate strategy developed by Puente founder Wendy Taylor to build community leadership,” says Lobel. “With Rita setting the course and the strong support of our community, Puente can realize the ambitions and plans we have, which are bigger than ever.”

The Puente staff and board in August 2015.

The Puente staff and board in August 2015.

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.

17 Oct 2015

Puente Farm Bike Day rides into the field

Gabriel Echeverria is rarely seen around Pescadero without his blue mountain bike with his guitar strapped to the back. The bicycle, a gift from Puente in September, is his means of commuting to the plant nursery where he works.
“It’s really a great way to get around the area. Going by foot is a huge disadvantage. I use my bike every time I go out. I go to the bank, to the post office, to the beach every now and again,” says Echeverria, a Puente board member, song leader, and friendly figure among farm workers.
Seventeen years in, Puente’s bike program is still one of its most iconic and essential services. Dozens of local farm workers rely on Puente’s donated bikes – and its free bike repair – to make their independence possible. “A bike makes a huge difference in someone’s life around here. It removes a barrier and gives people a level of freedom they didn’t have before,” explains Ben Ranz, Puente’s Community Outreach Coordinator and facilitator of the bike program.

Ben, center in orange shirt and black jacket, at Farm Bike Repair Day in 2013.

Ben, center in orange shirt, at Farm Bike Repair Day in 2013.

Puente gives out about 25 bikes a year, but demand exceeds supply – Ranz is always on the lookout for adult mountain bikes in good condition. Most farm workers ride a mile or more on a bumpy dirt road to get to the field they’re working in that day. They also ride from one side of a farm to another. Those are hard on their bikes.
Enter Farm Bike Day, a special outreach event on the coast that brings the mechanics to the people. On October 18, several bike mechanics and gearheads visited a Pescadero ranch called Campinotti, home to many farm workers and families, and spent the day fixing their bikes for free.
 
Farm Bike Day is now in its third year. It was the brainchild of a woman named Every, who stewards the ever-popular Bike Booth at Puente’s farmers’ market. She repairs perhaps two or three bikes per market day. But not everyone can make it to the Market. Those who show up are usually people who can get off work early enough to wait while she works on their bikes, and young people, and those who have a big enough car to tow their bikes to the market.

Every helps a young rider with her helmet.

Every helps a young rider with her helmet.

In other words, not a lot of farm workers.
“When she came on the scene, she realized how challenging it was to get people’s bikes to the market, and she said, ‘I want to take this into the field,’” recalls Ranz.
Lior Shaked, a fellow bike mechanic who used to share time at the Bike Booth before he moved away, helped recruit the first group of local Farm Bike Day volunteers through an online Meetup group.
But Puente owes much of its bicycle repair program to Kyle McKinley of The Bike Church in Santa Cruz. He came up with the idea for the Bike Booth and The Bike Church now provides Puente with many bike repair parts and equipment at cost.

Kyle, center, works on bikes at the Farmers Market.

Kyle, center, works on bikes at the Farmers Market.

Additionally, Puente’s volunteer-based bike program relies on generous contributions from a few Puente donors who are passionate about bikes and the way they empower local men, women and children.
La Honda resident Liz Chapman has been supporting the bike program since Puente founder Rev. Wendy Taylor founded it in the late 1990s. After Rev. Taylor left, Chapman helped Puente provide continuity by finding some farm workers who knew how to repair bikes – which they did for a time, until Shaked and Every became Puente’s permanent bike mechanics.
Chapman’s financial contributions, and those of other bike supporters, help Puente pay for extra bike repairs as needed.
“It’s become clear to me this is so enabling for these guys who don’t have a car,” says Chapman, who in an avid bike rider herself. Even people who have cars may do better getting around Pescadero by bike rather than driving, she believes.

Liz, right in pink hat, at the first Farm Bike Repair Day.

Liz, right in pink hat, at the first Farm Bike Repair Day.

Echeverria’s current bike is actually the second one he received from Puente. The first came from Rev. Taylor back in 2000. Echeverria met Rev. Taylor back when she was giving out bicycle lights to keep farm workers safe at night.
“That’s where she got the idea to give away bikes,” he recalls. “She was walking around giving out the lights for people’s bikes, and people would say, ‘Well, I don’t even have a bike.’ So that’s where it all started.”
Eventually Rev. Taylor surprised him with a mountain bike to replace the creaky road bike he had worn to bits.

Rev. Taylor and Gabriel

Rev. Taylor and Gabriel

“In those early days, there were very few people who donated bikes. To this day, Puente is more complete,” says Echeverria.
Farm Bike Day was the first of a series of Puente field outreach programs that, taken together, mark a shift in focus toward connecting services with residents who may find it difficult or intimidating to come into Puente. One recent example is Puente’s new program to send community health workers out to rural ranches. The health workers, known as Promotoras de Salud, are being trained to help connect people to health insurance and plug them into the medical clinic and mental health programs housed within Puente.
“I feel like putting the effort into bringing services into the field is the logical next step for Puente,” says Ranz. “This helps us cast our net as wide as we possibly can.”
 
You too can support Puente’s bike program:
 
• Puente seeks donations of adult mountain bikes in good working condition only. No street bikes or bikes with rusty or broken parts. (NO CHILDREN’S BIKES, please. Donate those to South Coast Children’s Services.)
 
• Make a financial donation to Puente’s bike program here. Thank you!

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