Four months after it merged with a countywide health and human services organization, the staff at Felton’s Mountain Community Resources has its collective eye on the future.
Hoping to cut costs and extend its reach, the valley resource center became part of Community Bridges’ network of Santa Cruz County nonprofits at the end of September. The result, said founder Mary Hammer and director Jennifer Anderson-Bahr, is a lighter burden of paperwork and easier access to grants and funding sources.
“(Community Bridges) really values the individuality and the flavors of the communities,” Anderson-Bahr said. “(The transition) has been relatively seamless.”
She added that the effects of the merger have been mostly behind the scenes and have not changed what the Felton group does or how it interacts with the community.
Mountain Community Resources has seven employees and runs using money from the county, from donations and from grants.
Community Bridges also runs eight other programs in the county, including Meals on Wheels and the Beach Flats Community Center.
Hammer said the goal of Mountain Community Resources, founded in 1982, is still to guide families in the valley to the people who are already waiting to help them.
“There are a lot of programs available that people don’t know about,” Hammer said.
The nonprofit offers parenting courses in English and Spanish, classes in English as a second language, translation for monolingual parents with school meetings, lessons in child nutrition, office hours for family counseling and time with doctors and nurse practitioners. It also advises people in danger of losing their homes.
All this month, volunteers will man the phones from 6 to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, seeking donations for the nonprofit’s annual Phoneathon. The fundraising goal for 2011, Hammer said, is $30,000.
In the coming months, Anderson-Bahr said, the group plans to host a community meeting to find out what people would like to see from Mountain Community Resources, particularly teen activities.
“We point people to resources that are available to help them,” Anderson-Bahr said. “We never know what’s going to come through the door each day.”
“Our goal is to strengthen the community.”
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