Ukiah Community Center Looks To Future With New Director

by Laura Golino de Lovato

Next year, in 2001, the Ukiah Community Center (UCC) will celebrate its 30th anniversary. For a locally-based nonprofit organization, that's a very long time. For those past three decades the UCC has provided a wealth of services, from its beginning as a coffeehouse "hangout" for teens, offering Simple Living Workshops, doing food distribution through its Food Bank program, to providing emergency shelter assistance. Currently, the UCC's programs focus on crisis and emergency services. The Food Bank, the largest one in the inland area, serves all residents of the greater Ukiah area who are in need of emergency foods and supplementary commodities. The Food Bank program also provides smaller food pantries and food closets around the area with products to reach more of our rural population. The Crisis Line, a UCC administered program, is the only county-wide hotline for crisis assistance. Through our partnerships with seven other agencies and the Greater Ukiah Ministerial Association (GUMA), UCC can offer all Mendocino County residents 24-hour access to professional assistance with mental health, domestic violence and youth and health issues, and also provide emergency shelter and food to those in need. Our Temporary Assistance Program provides immediate assistance with emergency housing, utility payments, and eviction prevention. We also counsel, refer and place homeless people in transitional and permanent housing. The UCC has beenable to continue these programs because of strong relationships with the other social service agencies and organizations in the county, connections with city and county government, and ties to our community through our volunteers.

But more can be done and now is the time.

As the UCC completes its third decade and looks at the coming decades there is a new sense of purpose for the organization. Whether you call is purpose, vision or mission, the UCC is on a new path to serve more of our community. With the successful purchase of our facility (done with the City of Ukiah's support and assistance and the hard work of Judy Judd, the former Executive Director) the UCC is more than ever poised to be our Community Center. Our services will focus on the whole community without compromising the part of the community we serve now. Plans are in place to resurrect UCC's Volunteer Center, re-publish the Community Resource Directory, and start an Information and Referal service. And these plans are in place because of new relationships UCC is building with local businesses, groups and individuals.

Our plans go beyond these new manifestations of programs once done by UCC. We are looking at new partnerships with local groups to encourage youth volunteerism, diversified job and vocational training programs, and creative participatory events for the whole community. We are planning a small community garden on property adjacent to our facility, and hope to get more community gardens started throughout the area.

On a personal note, for the many of you who do not yet know me, I am a newcomer to the Ukiah community. I moved here in August of 1999 from the Santa Cruz area where I owned and operated a retail garden store for three years. My husband Roberto and I moved here to find a smaller, less hectic community, and we succeeded. I was fortunate to find a job with West Company, where I worked for 10 months, before being even more fortunate to get the position as Executive Director of the UCC. My background includes over 17 years in the nonprofit world, doing just about everything, in place like Santa Barbara, CA and Cambridge, Mass. I have a personal interest in the betterment of our community and believe that the Ukaih Community Center can do this through more community involvement. Please feel free to contact me at 462-8879 if you have any ideas, or drop by the center at 888 N. State St., Ukiah from 8-12 or 1-4 weekdays.

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