54 Monterey County GIVES! 2023 mcgives.com Community & Social Services DONate online mcgives.com younger students—then the younger students can someday become employees working with the next generation, learning responsibility and serving as role models. Donations through MCGives! will support the expansion of this program to all CPY students and provide the funds for these teens to bring home their first paycheck. “With CPY’s support I have been able to receive so many opportunities, and not just me but my friends too. For example, I work at Del Rey Woods [Elementary School] right after school every day. I went backpacking with my friends in the Ventana Wilderness, and had the opportunity to help paint a mural on the Seaside Police Department briefing room wall. I have discovered I love the arts and learn so much about myself when I share with the kids. CPY holds me accountable and encourages me to be my best self.” -Jared Ortiz COPA (Central Coast Interfaith Sponsors) Year Founded: 2003 Paid Staff and Volunteers: 3 paid, 250 volunteers Budget: $501,000 728-3210 copaiaf.org Big Idea: Central Coast Interfaith Sponsors (COPA) mobilizes and nurtures local leaders to identify issues in their communities and generate meaningful change. Often, this change begins from true sharing stories and experiences from participants at COPA’s meetings. After identifying a problem, organizers come up with real solutions. Those solutions include countywide programs like Esperanza Care (health insurance regardless of immigration status) and the VIDA Community Health Worker program. Such successes illustrate this nonprofit’s Big Idea: to work together and address the real economic, social, political and cultural pressures facing our neighborhoods. Recently, COPA helped Pajaro residents advocate for their needs after devastating floods in March. “My work has been in the fields for 13 years. Two years ago I was given the opportunity to work as a community health worker for Mujeres en Acción through the VIDA program, which COPA helped to create in 2020. This has completely transformed my life. I learned to use email, a tablet and a computer. I learned to know the needs of the community, to interact and function in it, and how to support it. I learned how to make my church [San Juan Bautista in King City] a leader with COPA, and how to support our priest in a three-day retreat which around 200 women attended.” -Maricela Acevedo Dorothy’s Place Year Founded: 1982 Paid Staff and Volunteers: 37 paid, 100 volunteers Budget: $4,358,399 757-3838 dorothysplace.org Big Idea: The Dorothy’s Place Drop-In Center offers a lifeline for unsheltered people in Salinas. In addition to providing practical services like showers and charging stations, the Drop-In Center provides in-depth assistance, helping connect clients with needed healthcare services and recovering vital personal documents. Up to 200 people use the center every day. Dorothy’s Place is seeking donations to help with its Big Idea to repair the showers and other fixtures and restore the center as a place of dignity and hope. “The Drop-In Center is so accommodating. If people need shoes or a jacket, they are able to get something every day. I need a clean pair of socks every day and I can always get that from Dorothy’s. The Drop-in Center showers especially are great because I volunteer next door in the kitchen and it’s essential to try and be clean. And you don’t always have that when you’re homeless—you guys are able to help me when no one else can.” -Daisy Friends of the Carmel Valley Library Year Founded: 1980 Paid Staff and Volunteers: 0 paid, 9 volunteers Budget: $22,500 647-7760 focvl.org Big Idea: Friends of the Carmel Valley Library has some Big Ideas to help share the love of reading at the Carmel Valley library. This nonprofit plans to continue its popular First Saturday speaker series and will install a new mural in collaboration with the Arts Club at Carmel High. The branch will also ITN Monterey County Year Founded: 2012 Paid Staff and Volunteers: 11 paid, 53 volunteers Budget: $700,900 233-3447 itnmontereycounty.org Big Idea: The Independent Transportation Network (ITN) Monterey County provides dignified rides to seniors and visually-impaired adults throughout the region. That includes increasingly frequent rides for folks in rural locations. ITN describes its Big Idea as providing “arm-in-arm, door-throughdoor” service for ordinary tasks like going to the pharmacy or the grocery store. With the expiration of its partnership with the Federal Transit Administration, ITN is seeking donations to develop a sustainable future for this network of volunteer drivers. “ITN Monterey County has made a great difference in my traveling needs. I appreciate, so much, that ITN will transport me and my dog to the vet and for grooming. It was one of my main concerns when I decided to stop driving.” -Joanne McFann spotlight You guys are able to help me when no one else can.” Daisy, Dorothy’s Place
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