25 Apr 2015

Silicon Valley Gives Day is Coming!

On Tuesday, May 5, 2015, Silicon Valley Gives will raise money for local nonprofits through a single online donation platform, providing a simple way to connect donors to the charitable causes they care about most and encourage them to take action.

Please join Puente and friends for it’s own SVG Fundraising Event on the evening of 5/5/15, at Pasta Moon in Half Moon Bay, from 5:00 – 7:30 pm. Light appetizers and no host bar. For more information or to RSVP, please contact Eleanor Palacios at epalacios@mypuente.org or call 650-262-5997.

Not sure where you will be on 5/5/15? Schedule your donation now at:

svgives.razoo.com/story/puente-de-la-costa-sur. All gifts will be matched, dollar for dollar, up to $35,000.

Schedule your gift today on this secure website.

Want to start a team to fundraise for Puente’s Silicon Valley Gives Campaign? Click here.

18 Apr 2015

Free tax prep and refunds at Puente help the medicine go down

Sometimes the best surprises are the ones that arise from doing the right thing. That’s what made Omar Ortega’s first tax refund such an unexpected, and pleasant experience. It was just a check for $50, but Ortega, then 16 years old, was shocked. “I was ecstatic. Even getting that little amount was great to me,” he recalls. He doesn’t remember what he spent the money on, but he does remember the reaction he got at school when he told his friends about it. “Seeing their faces when I told them, they were like, ‘Wait, I can do that? No way!’… It was a good feeling.”

Omar Ortega

Omar Ortega

Ortega, now 21, has been filing his tax returns using Puente’s free tax prep services  starting during his earliest working days as a Puente Summer Youth Program employee. This year he came full circle as the newly minted Site Coordinator for Puente’s tax program. He still thinks tax refunds are a great incentive, although tax-related meetings and trainings – which he has had to spend a lot of his time on – are not. His favorite part of helping people file their taxes is revealing the size of their refunds, a happy surprise. Then, when they go to pay for their tax prep, he reminds them that the Puente services are free.

Puente helped 79 local families and individuals file taxes this year, roughly on par with last year’s clientele. Altogether, they earned $89,946 in federal returns and $16,614 in state refunds. The people served have ranged from single contract workers to families earning a dual income with multiple dependents. Some were English speakers, some Spanish-only.

Like most people, Luis Flores and his wife were not exactly looking forward to tax time. But by the end of their tax session at Puente, they were feeling very relieved. “Our experience went better than we thought, as we weren’t expecting a refund. However we did receive a refund, and that made us really happy. The people at Puente have great people skills, and made us feel comfortable,” says Flores.

Many – nearly half – of those who filed are unauthorized immigrants who live in the community, according to Ortega. They used an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, or ITIN, rather than a Social Security number to file.

“We’ve had several people, including those with Social Security numbers, go back and file their taxes from past years as well,” observes Ortega. What accounts for the enthusiasm? “They want to do their taxes the right way. They want to be law-abiding citizens and be able to feel good about themselves.”

Filing taxes is required for those not authorized to work in the U.S. if they are making more than $10,000 annually. People who file tend to see it as an investment. They believe it creates a paper trail that could  help them demonstrate that they are honest and also help to prove their residency, should Congress pass a comprehensive immigration reform law of which DAPA is a step but is not the final solution. The government says it does not keep track of the immigration status of anyone who files. In 2011, the most recent year available, the U.S. government issued 1.6 million ITINs. Not all are used for tax purposes, but often double as identification numbers for bank accounts and other forms of registration like health insurance.

Some people who don’t file their taxes are passing up an opportunity to see a refund, says Ortega. Meanwhile, those who are on payroll, but using invalid Social Security numbers instead of being paid under the table, already have their wages garnished by the government. They pay into a pool that benefits U.S. citizens, but these individuals do not enjoy any of those public benefits themselves.

This year’s tax return included questions about health insurance for the first time, under provisions of the Affordable Care Act. Those who answered ‘no’ on the health insurance form received a  unpleasant surprise: they were fined $95 per adult or 1% of their income, whichever was greater in 2014.

“There were a lot of people who did not know, even though they had been told all of last year that come tax season, they were going to be charged if they didn’t have health insurance.” says Ortega. The penalty will continue to increase every year that they don’t have health insurance.

Others did know about the penalty but had already decided to take a gamble and pay it, rather than enroll themselves and their families in a program under the Affordable Care Act. But why? Ortega explains that these families often fall into a troubling gray area: they earned slightly too much in 2014 to qualify for Medi-Cal, which is free–yet they don’t earn enough to feel they can afford health insurance under Covered California.

Omar Ortega, left, meets with Miguel Gomez and Catalina Robles.

Omar Ortega, left, meets with Miguel Gomez and Catalina Robles.

“It was hard telling people that their refund was going to be smaller, or that they had to pay because of that,” says Ortega. The gamble may not pay off next year, when the penalties increase to $325 per person.

For more than a year, Puente has mounted a major outreach drive to enroll people in some kind of health insurance program, whether it is Covered California, Medi-Cal, or county programs for undocumented individuals like ACE or Healthy Kids. More than 200 South Coast residents did sign up, thanks to those efforts. And Puente staff is not done yet. In fact, Ortega says that in several cases, when clients finished filing their taxes last week, they were referred directly to Monica Amezcua and Laura Rodriguez, the Community Resource Navigators who handle health insurance enrollments.

“They need the health insurance, and we will make sure they get signed up for an appointment,” he says. If you live on the South Coast and need health insurance please contact Puente at (650) 879-1691 for more information and/or to make an appointment.

12 Apr 2015

Puente trains parents to improve their children’s lives

There’s a saying in Spanish: “Saber es poder,” which translates to “Knowledge is power.” Iris Fernandez witnessed the truth of those words when she brought 23 parents to the Half Moon Bay Library last month to reinforce a message about the importance of reading to their children at an early age.

More than half the parents were visiting the library for the first time. Fernandez says the field trip, offered by Puente as part of its ongoing Abriendo Puertas (Opening Doors) workshop series, opened their eyes to the vast amounts of useful material that could be had for free. “There are magazines, books, tapes on how to learn English. They’re going to be offering book tablets, too. They were just thrilled,” she says. “We were trying to get everyone back to the bus, and we had to wait for them because they were checking out books,” she adds with a laugh. Thirteen parents signed up for new library cards on the spot.

Participants in Abriendo Puertas select books at the Half Moon Bay Library.

Participants in Abriendo Puertas select books at the Half Moon Bay Library.

Puente staff didn’t know what to expect on March 2 when they launched Abriendo Puertas, a ten-part curriculum that teaches parents how to support their children’s growth and education with a focus on children aged 0-5. Would all 25 parents, many of whom work at least two jobs to keep their families afloat, be able to stick with the demanding program for 10 weeks?

They have. And they have been learning from each other, not just the curriculum, says Arlae Alston, Early Literacy Coordinator for Puente. Local parents themselves lead most of the sessions, as well as other community leaders and mental health and nutrition experts who were specially trained to present the material. The workshops are written in Spanish and specifically developed for Latino parents of small children. It’s not about perfect parenting, just about becoming more involved and engaged – even when parents are busy or stressed.

“This curriculum doesn’t ask parents to do anything that’s out of reach. We get their economic situations,” says Alston. “It’s not a guilt trip. We want them to feel successful.”

The program lasts from 6-8 p.m. on Monday nights, during which Puente provides childcare and dinner.

The material is interactive and culturally relevant, with short films, group discussions and role-playing. Each session begins with a “dicho,” or saying, in Spanish. The trainings draw on real-life examples to help parents understand how they can participate in their children’s early development to produce long-term success in academics and physical and emotional health.

One of the reasons Abriendo Puertas, which is being taught across the country, works so well is that it empowers parents to take control of their children’s development and make important decisions on that basis. One session teaches parents what to look for at different stages of development, including fine motor stills, cognitive development and language development, and to recognize if there is a problem. During that session, one of the mothers spoke up. She said her son wasn’t talking at the age he was supposed to, but that his pediatrician had assured the family that he was fine. “The child is now behind in school, and she’s thinking it’s because she didn’t push her pediatrician harder on the language development,” says Alston. Puente is trying to enroll the boy in Homework Club to help improve his literacy skills.

Reading together at the library.

Reading together at the library.

What if parents are shy about second-guessing authority figures? One of the sessions focuses on advocacy – teaching parents about their rights in the context of working with school administrators, as well with doctors and landlords. They also learn about the rights of their children.

Most of the sessions focus on ways to reinforce literacy at home. Even if parents themselves are not literate and can’t read to their children in Spanish (or English) they can still make up stories, ask questions, make observations. They can turn off the TV and go for a walk together. Everyday actions, like grocery shopping, are great opportunities for interaction.

“The message is, we want you to talk to your child. You don’t need to be an expert. When you ask your child, ‘What sweater do you want to wear, the red one or the blue one?’ Right there is early literacy,” says Alston.

In 2014, Puente received a grant from the Heising-Simons Foundation to fund its new Family Engagement Impact Initiative, which Puente developed in conjunction with the La Honda-Pescadero Unified School District. The two-year, nearly $400,000 grant has already helped Puente launch several efforts designed to address students’ struggles by promoting early literacy and bridging the learning gap between home and school. One of the first efforts was to expand Raising a Reader, a free book-bag program, to the younger grades while teaching their parents how to read books to their children – even if they themselves don’t know all the words. Forty-four parents of preschool and kindergarden students (75% of all parents of that age range) participated in Raising a Reader Family Nights. The second major program Puente implemented was Abriendo Puertas.

Two younger participants in Abriendo Puertas play at the library in Half Moon Bay.

Two younger participants in Abriendo Puertas play at the library in Half Moon Bay.

The sessions also cover difficult topics like disciplining children without yelling or hitting. Parents are introduced to the concept of positive discipline, and get some good tips on how to enforce consequences for misbehavior. “That was one of the sessions when parents were at the edge of their chairs, really paying attention,” recalls Alston.

Iris Fernandez, Mental Health Intern at Puente, is teaching a session on emotional health in the home. It all starts with modeling good communication, she says. Sometimes parents explode when they’re sad or angry, and then they’re surprised when their children do the same. Or sometimes children bottle up their feelings because they don’t have the language to express them.

“We know as a community there’s a lot of trauma, depression, drugs, domestic violence. So it can be eye-opening for parents to see they can make changes if needed,” says Fernandez.  Parents are key in their children’s social-emotional development. When children have positive, respectful and loving relationships, they learn to express and regulate their emotions in a positive way.“There’s a dicho: ‘Cada cabeza es un mundo.’ Every head is its own world. We can’t imagine that everyone will react in the same way to the same circumstances. It’s okay to be mad or sad. It’s okay to express whatever tension there is, but in a safe way. Children learn this from adults who can model positive interactions.”