Retired Widenmann Elementary School Principal MaBella Gonzales visits an exam room named in her honor in the school's new health center. Gonzales retired last year after 11 years as the school's principal.

In May, United Way gathered with community leaders from the North Vallejo Health Collaborative to celebrate the grand opening of a children’s health center at Vallejo’s Elsa Widenmann Elementary School.   United Way provided a $100,000 grant to support the clinic.  The grant is one of our many investments in Community Schools, which bring essential services to families and students on school campuses, leveraging them as community hubs.

Before the launch, the only school-based health center in Solano County was located at Pennycook Elementary School in east Vallejo.

“Children who are in poor health have a difficult time achieving in the classroom. By offering health services to families where their children attend school, the Health Center at Widenmann Elementary makes it easier and much more convenient for parents and caregivers to ensure children receive the care they need, so they can stay healthy and focus on school work,” said Aimee Durfee, United Way’s Vice President of Community Investments for the North Bay region.

The new health center — funded by grants from United Way, SH Cowell, McKesson, and Kaiser, as well as in-kind support from Vallejo Unified School District and a host of other local agencies — makes the vision for a second school-based health center in Solano County a reality.

The clinic hopes to serve 250 children during its first year. Services are available to students of the Vallejo City Unified School District and their siblings who are uninsured or under-insured. For more information call (707) 556-8921, extension 56549.

Widenmann students enjoy the celebration

Services delivered through the health center include:

• Immunizations
• Regular physicals, sports physicals
• Sick childcare and treatment
• Lab services
• Health and prevention education
• Dental screenings
• Health insurance enrollment
• Referrals to community-support agencies

Read the Times-Herald newspaper article about the clinic’s grand opening.

The North Vallejo Collaborative is a collaboration of agencies that support and/or provide services through the health center to students and families. Those agencies include:

Youth and staff from the Dreamcatchers program spruced up a playground at Solano Community College

Solano Community College is now more welcoming to young families thanks to a recent playground makeover by a group of teens from Dreamcatchers, a United Way grantee that provides troubled youth with employment training.  United Way supports Dreamcatchers as part of our strategy to empower the next generation for success.

The makeover provided youth the opportunity to test some recently acquired skills, as several are enrolled in or have recently completed the horticulture class at the college as part of the Dreamcatchers program.

“Overall, the project was a great success with all parties satisfied with the completion, especially the children who can now play safely and run over the grass hills, ride their bikes on the bike path, or plant flowers in the planter boxes lining their new play area,” said Regina Kaiser, program director of the Dreamcatchers Empowerment Network.

Gary, one of the participating teens, said, “It gave me a second chance to do something positive for the community. To see the smiles on the little kids faces was worth it.”

Before the makeover...

Another teen, Nick, said, “I felt proud. It was fun working around children. It kind of inspired me.”

...and after the makeover.

Jane is a single mother of five who first walked through the door of the Earn It! Keep It! Save It! free tax preparation site at Community Action Marin in 2009.  United Way and Community Action Marin have partnered for several years on Earn It! Keep It! Save It!, offering free tax assistance and asset-building programs to thousands of low-income Marin residents.

The Earn It! Keep It! Save It! volunteer tax preparer helped Jane claim the Earned Income Tax Credit and a refund of more than $5,500 last year.  Through her visit, Jane was introduced to other programs offered through Community Action Marin’s Prosperity Partners, which are further improving her financial situation.

Jane participated in financial management classes and enrolled in the Individual Development Accounts (IDA) matched-savings program.  She is now saving money, receiving matching funds for every dollar she saves, enabling her to more quickly reach her goal of going back to school.  Jane hopes post-secondary education will help her gain the skills necessary to earn a more competitive salary to support her children.

Further discussion with Jane revealed she was paying overdraft fees on her checking account.  Prosperity Partners was able to offer her a prepaid debit card, which eliminates overdraft charges.  She now uses this card to manage her money and pay bills.

Jane now has hope and motivation to go back to school and move toward financial stability for her and her family.

Building on our existing partnership, United Way and Community Action Marin are working together to launch the SparkPoint Marin Center this year to help even more families like Jane’s.  The Center will bring a full-range of resources together at one location to help low-income families easily access the tools and support they need to move toward financial stability.  Learn more about United Way’s SparkPoint Initiative.

Mary Castillo is now employed and supporting her family after graduating from Opportunity Junction, which is supported by United Way

Here is an inspiring success story from United Way grantee Opportunity Junction:

Mary Castillo had her life all planned out. She married her husband when she was 20 and spent the next 35 years staying home and raising their four children while her husband supported them.

All of that changed when her husband was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer. Mary spent the next two years taking care of her husband and living off their savings. She didn’t want him to worry, but Mary knew she couldn’t support herself, or her youngest son who was still in high school, when her husband passed away.

“I knew I needed to go to school or receive training,” Mary shares, “but I didn’t want to leave my husband. He thought our families would take care of me, but I needed to take care of myself.”

One month after her husband passed away, Mary saw an ad in the paper for Opportunity Junction, a United Way grantee that fights poverty by helping low-income adults gain the skills and confidence to support themselves and their families.

“I knew this was the place for me. I needed to start a career, and I needed to start it now.” Not only did the Job Training and Placement program at Opportunity Junction offer Mary the skills she needed to enter the workforce, it also was therapeutic during her grieving process.

“Being around other people, getting up and being productive, learning that I could learn new things all helped me grieve my loss and prepare for my new future,” said Mary.

Right before graduation from the program, Mary was handed another challenge–she gained temporary custody of her four grandchildren ages 2-10. She now had four more people depending on her. “For the first time ever, not only was I a working mom, I was a single working mom.”

As part of the Opportunity Junction program, Mary accepted an internship with hiring partner GWF Power Systems as an office administrative assistant. Although the temporary position was supposed to end in February, Mary proved herself in the workplace and had her position extended. Just last month, her hours were increased and there is the possibility of her position becoming regular/full-time in the next couple of months.

“Because of Opportunity Junction, I have what I need to be successful,” Mary says. “I know how to make myself indispensable, and I don’t let self-doubt stop me from supporting my family.”

Learn more about how Opportunity Junction is empowering people to be financially self-sufficient at www.opportunityjunction.org.

Elvira de Santiago first learned about the Shoreline School Readiness program after giving birth to her fifth child in 2007.  She took advantage of Shoreline’s insurance enrollment assistance, the car seat program and parent education workshops.

United Way funds the Shoreline School Readiness program, a child-services collaborative that serves hundreds of families in West Marin, as part of our efforts to prepare the next generation for success.

Elvira is a natural leader, who is eager to learn and help not only her family, but also the surrounding Latino community.  She quickly emerged as a parent leader at Shoreline, called upon frequently by other parents for advice about how to access services, where to get food and housing assistance, how to obtain free car seats and much more.

The staff at Shoreline quickly recognized Elvira’s potential and hired her at their Point Reyes site as the “Baby Gym” coordinator, a position that allows her to bring her baby with her to work.

Over the past two years, Elvira has enrolled in Early Childhood Education courses and used her new knowledge to strengthen the Baby Gym program.   The classes now have much more structure, and attendance by local families has increased dramatically.  She works closely with parents and their children to develop fun and engaging programs that keep local families coming back for more.

This past summer, when Shoreline’s Family Advocate position opened, Elvira was a perfect fit.  She now works 24 hours a week, with benefits, doing the work that comes naturally and that she absolutely loves.  In addition to helping to support her family financially, she has been instrumental in the success of her five children.   Her oldest, Lorena is attending Cal State Hayward.  She has two sons in high-school, a younger son in middle school and her youngest started at Shoreline Acres Preschool this January.

“We are so thrilled to have Elvira join our team! She is a true role model and makes a wonderful addition to our staff,” said Alex Porrata, Shoreline School Readiness Coordinator.