“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
A favorite program of my sister, who inherited all of our mother’s artistic and style genes, the home improve-
ment show “Extreme Home Makeover” is the inspiration for what could be the answer to addressing gaps in human services I have been looking for.
A realtor in Almaden Valley, Farah Bani-taba was watching this show and saw all kinds of businesses come together to help a family create a new environment that would contribute to its health and well-being. She thought to herself, “If I needed something like that, I have all kinds of people I can call on.” Her years of experience donating her time and talents to a variety of human
service organizations led her to establish such a network to help families in need. With
two other compassionate and creative colleagues, she established Almaden Network.
When human service organizations work with a family in crisis, they find the family has become buried and overwhelmed by a series of problems that have compounded each other. When one problem arises, if that problem isn’t resolved, the family can become overwhelmed and unable to cope with the next problem around the corner. One of the greatest gaps in the community is the “one-time” solution to the first problem, something that our current safety net isn’t designed to handle.
For example, a local organization’s case managers were stumped by the needs of a man with two small children. His wife had recently died; he had a job, but no one to take care of the children (subsidized care was not available). He’d found someone to take care of the kids, but he didn’t have the money yet to pay for the care the children needed while he earned the money to pay for rent, as well as future care. Unable to overcome the restrictions on emergency funding, his family would become homeless if he couldn’t figure out a way to address this one issue. Farah’s group took care of this, helping them avoid a host of negative consequences because her group was able to keep this family from falling through a crack that would have led to crisis after crisis.
Although billed as a business network, the members are more interested in the service possibilities. Established civic associations, such as Kiwanis, Rotary and Lions provide wonderful support to the community, but these folks want more flexibility and immediacy in the types of projects by providing cash or in-kind help.
The energetic trio that started this will collect the information on the need of a client served by a local organization. They contact the network immediately and see if one or a group is able to take it on and facilitate contact between the donor and the organization. Although the businesses insist it’s not their main motivation, the facilitators still post on their Internet site the good deeds the various businesses have performed for the community, giving them kudos and publicity that will help their businesses.
Their logo is a giant hand large enough to catch the figure falling backward onto it. It’s an excellent depiction of what they aim to do.
With government and private budget cuts, there is a huge need for such an organization, providing a new way to meaningfully engage private citizens and businesses in the solutions to the needs of our community. I hope you check it out and consider joining them, or start one of your own (and let me know!).
Speaking of opportunities for meaningful involvement, the local South County First 5 effort to implement supportive programs for families with children ages 0-5 is getting off the ground. It has a “community oversight committee” that has more community members than agency employees to direct the effort.
If you, like me, are a little jaded by organizations that hold community meetings, yap at you for an hour, ask you some questions just so they can say they had community input and then do what their consultant says they should do rather than what the community
actually recommended, know that this is different. This is an effort that truly wants to know what the community needs and wants, and to act based on your involvement and input, not just what local human services organizations think you need.
Here is a unique opportunity. I encourage community members interested in participating to contact Marianne Marafino of Community Solutions at (408) 846-4729.
Columnist Dina Campeau is a wife, mother of two teens and a resident of Morgan Hill. Her work for the last seven years has focused on affordable housing and homeless issues in Santa Clara County. Her column will be published each Friday. Reach her at [email protected].
