SparkPoint Marin Center Opens to the Public

Call 211 for Bay Area Tsunami Info

March 11, 2011 By Maria Stokes 1 Comment

Call 211 to get information about whether the tsunami will impact where you live.

Residents in the San Francisco Bay Area, who are concerned about the local impact of tsunami waves generated by the 8.9 earthquake off Japan early this morning, can call 211 for information about areas that are being evacuated, shelters and evacuation centers, and check points for boat owners.

Residents are discouraged from calling 911 unless they are experiencing a life-threatening emergency. During times of disaster, the 211 Bay Area helplines provide critical information to local residents, relieving 911 operators from answering non-emergency calls.

“Our 211 Bay Area call center is actively communicating today with the Offices of Emergency Services for Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Cruz Counties, so that we can provide residents with the most current information about evacuation areas, road closings and other coastal warnings,” said Helen Rosen, vice president of operations for United Way’s 211 call center.

“Our phone lines have been quite busy, and we encourage residents to call 211 for tsunami information, so that 911 operators can remain focused on life-threateningemergencies,” Rosen said.

211 providers all along the California coast are also providing information to residents in their areas,including call centers in Los Angeles, Monterey, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Sonoma and Ventura counties.

211 is free, confidential and available 24 hours a day in more than 150 languages. Residents who cannot dial 211 should call 800-273-6222 to reach a local 211 call center. For the hearing impaired, dial 711 or 415-808-4440 (TTY).

Learn more about 211 at www.211BayArea.org.

Photo courtesy of Hamed Saber via Creative Commons license.

Filed Under: Disaster Preparedness Tagged With: 2-1-1, 211, Bay Area, Disaster Preparedness, Japan tsunami, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo

SparkPoint Marin Center Featured in Marin Independent Journal

January 5, 2011 By Maria Stokes Leave a Comment

SparkPoint Marin Center was featured in the Marin Independent Journal newspaper on New Year’s Day. The article, “Marin SparkPoint Center helping residents get — and stay — out of poverty” highlights the story of SparkPoint client Jacek Sochan, who is receiving financial coaching at the center.

Here is an excerpt from the article:

About 100 Marin residents have been learning how to boost their credit scores and income, as well as build assets, as part of a new multi-pronged program focused on getting — and keeping — people around the Bay Area out of poverty.

United Way of the Bay Area has worked with local agencies to open four SparkPoint centers in Marin, San Mateo County, American Canyon and Oakland, said Maria Stokes, a spokeswoman for the San Francisco nonprofit. The SparkPoint Marin Center, at 409 Fourth St. in San Rafael, started seeing clients in June and officially launched in November.

“We are creating a really holistic approach to poverty — connecting people with multiple services at one site,” Stokes said. “We were seeing people coming through the door that were getting free tax help. What United Way decided was … we really need to work at something that’s more comprehensive.”

The program is part of United Way’s goal to cut Bay Area poverty in half by 2020.

Between June 22 and Dec. 10, the SparkPoint Marin Center gave 109 people credit and job counseling, tax preparation help and assistance setting up special federally supported savings accounts and pre-paid debit cards, among other services, said Margot Fahey, a financial coach for the center.

Read the complete article.

Learn more about SparkPoint at www.sparkpointcenters.org.

Filed Under: Income, Pathways out of Poverty Tagged With: Marin, media coverage, SparkPoint

SparkPoint Marin Center Opens to the Public

December 1, 2010 By Maria Stokes Leave a Comment

In November, United Way joined our partner Community Action Marin (CAM) for the public launch of SparkPoint Marin Center at CAM’s Prosperity Partners office in San Rafael.

SparkPoint Marin Center is one of four SparkPoint Centers in the Bay Area that are working with families to help them achieve lasting financial stability. United Way and our partners plan to build nine SparkPoint Centers throughout the Bay Area within the next two years.

The personal stories shared by SparkPoint clients were the highlight of the launch event. During its four-month pilot phase, SparkPoint Marin Center served 99 clients, delivering multiple services to 25 percent of them. Click to view a short video of SparkPoint Marin Center clients Jack and Don sharing their stories. Scroll down to the photo gallery below to view scenes from the celebration.

“We know that persistent poverty pretty much guarantees the presence of a large collection of risk factors for a family,” said Gail Theller, executive director of Community Action Marin. “Therefore, it makes sense that a program like SparkPoint, with many partners addressing many different risk factors confronting a family, will have a much greater chance of achieving long-term, financial stability for that family. To ensure success for a family in overcoming poverty, SparkPoint brings a critical mass of successful programs to concentrate on each and every family served.”

The agencies that collaborate to deliver services at SparkPoint Marin Center include Community Action Marin (Prosperity Partners, Marin Asian Advocacy Project and Marin Jobs and Career Services) Canal Alliance, Marin County Health and Human Services, Marin City Community Development Corporation, and Homeward Bound of Marin.