2008// We gathered a few interesting facts about our company that you may not have been aware of. Did you know: • This month, Jim Jenkins will have been an employee of Community Catalysts of California for 20 years, 10 of which he has been the CEO • Community Catalysts of California has been in service for 25 years • In 2007, the Accounts Payable function was responsible for cutting an average of 310 checks per month from 4 checking accounts. Due to our continued growth, we expect this number to increase in 2008. • During 2007, consumers participated in fundraisers, holiday parties, local activities, meetings and out-of-town events a total of 1,635 times! • We have 11 employees total who have been with the company for over 10 years. 20 YEARS/ Jim Jenkins, CORP 13 YEARS/ Judy Powell, STK 9 YEARS/ Ann Marie Miller, SC 8 YEARS/ Galina Shapiro, SM 6 YEARS/ Karen Garcia, UK 5 YEARS/ Catherine Blair, UK 4 YEARS/ Bettina Puga, SM 3 YEARS/ Shirley Antonio, STK Veronika Borinsky, CORP 2 YEARS/ Laura Cole, UK Edwardo Cortez, RH 1 YEAR/ Derrick Adams, MCD Jessica Diaz, COAL Cherolyn Howard, STK Krista Hribar, SM Ruthann Leonard, FSO Shawn Mendelsohn, UK If you would like to view the newsletter online, go to http://www.communitycatalystscalifornia.org/about/newsletter.html 2008// For those of you who have been with our organization for a number of years, you are familiar with our Strategic Planning process. Our first written plan was begun in 1998 and has been revised each year since then. We begin with a survey of our external and internal environments (which includes direct input from consumers, employees and other stakeholders). This is combined with other data and presented to our Board of Directors which works with the CEO over a period of months to complete a final written document. On April 11th and 12th our Directors held a “planning conference” which included day-long planning discussions. It was an exciting exercise in looking-forward to the next five years. The 2008 Strategic Plan will provide written directions for our organization and its employees. The 2008 plan is a significant event in the life of Community Catalysts. Your participation and that of our consumers is critical to its success. Thank you! I look forward to sharing it with you in the coming months. Jim Jenkins, CEO Community Catalysts of California - Board of Directors San Diego//San Marcos Community Catalysts is the proud owner of a new coffee cart. Regional Manager Sherie Kainz and our SD area Habitation Rep. attended an auction together and with “encouragement” from the Hab. Rep., Sherie walked away with a cart loaded with almost everything we need to start a new business! The SE team will assist our consumers with managing the coffee cart. It is expected that a number of consumers will be employed to work the cart 5 days per week. What a great opportunity! April has been a month for record job placements in our SE Program. We have had 9 consumers who either started their new jobs or have excepted new employment to begin in early May. A big part of that is the fantastic job our SE staff has done with Job Development. Way to go Bettina Puga for 4 new job placements and congratulations to Margie White for her first! We also welcome Martha Aguiniga as a new Job Developer in the San Diego area. 3 of the new jobs goes to our first group placement. They will be working at the Ultra Star Cinema. Great job Jessica Young, SE Case Manager for making that placement! The SL team is happy to have consumer Jack B. (who has been an SE consumer for a long time) now in our SL program. He has moved into his first apartment with his roommate and new Community Catalyst employee Michael Wade. We expect to see some fantastic things happen with Jack. Consumer Jan B. just purchased a new car. This will help shorten his commute to work from 1.5 hours to under 30 minutes. Diana M. has a new job at Von’s. Matthew S. just started a new job at Borders. Congratulations to SE consumer Chris V. who was awarded the “Employee of the Month” at his job site. Our new group of consumers working at Ultra Star are David S., Angie Y. and Lam H. 14 YEARS/ Susan R., FSO 13 YEARS/ Forest F., FSO Cynthia A., SD Michelle Y., SD 12 YEARS/ Edward G., FSO Linda N., MCD Teresa N., FSO JoAnn C., SM 11 YEARS/ Michael B., MDO Alicia P., FSO Loc K., SM 10 YEARS/ Mari W., SC John K., SC Dan B., SD 9 YEARS/ Andrew B., SC Ronald E., SC Patricia S., SC 7 YEARS/ George V., FSO 6 YEARS/ Melinda O., SM Paul R., UK Brian S., SC 5 YEARS/ Primes H., STK Marisa E., MDO Dylan C., SAL Danette R., MCD 3 YEARS/ Corey S., FSO James L., STK Gregory B., FSO Dharmesh P., SAL 2 YEARS/ Lloyd P., UK Paul M., FSO Stephen W., UK Jorge S., FSO 1 YEAR/ Lucille M., SC Veronica A., SAL Braulio C., MCD Katrina S., MCD Andrew R., MCD Maribel R., MCD On May 5, 2008, Marie Saavedra, Office Manager of the Santa Clara Office, passed away unexpectedly. She did have the opportunity to submit one last newsletter article, which her supervisor Denise Mansfield says she looked forward to being a part of each month. She has been a great Office Manager, providing friendship and service to both her co-workers and consumers. She will be greatly missed. Marie and Oscar Saavedra Salinas//Santa Clara Salinas would like to welcome our new Direct Service Aide Jeff Peregrina who came aboard earlier this month. Congratulations to consumer Karen M. and her fiancée, Danny A. for attending all the parenting classes with their CUTE baby boy, Matthew. Happy Birthday to DSA Sorena Holguin, who celebrated her 21st birthday, AGAIN!!! This past month has been a “BIG” month for Sorena. She won everything this office had to offer this month: 10 lottery tickets from the Safety Drawing and a free lunch from the Case Managers for maximizing the most consumer hours through this past quarter. She was also the recipient of the Salinas Office’s “Award of Excellence” for her constant hard work, dedication and providing great service to all the consumers. Keep up the great work, Sorena!! April 23, 2008, was Administrative Day. Loreley Salazar, our Office Assistant, received a beautiful bouquet of flowers, a box of chocolates, and lunch from the Case Managers. Santa Clara’s April event was a blast! The consumers enjoyed themselves bowling the night away. They ended the evening with a dinner at Home Town Buffet where everyone mingled and enjoyed each others company. A special thanks to Johnny Garza for volunteering for the event. The car wash scheduled in May has been pushed back to the end of June due to availability of the gas station. We have decided that the theme for our summer barbecue will be “Asian Take Out”. The consumers are looking forward to our barbecue. We are also planning an extended day trip to Santa Cruz Beach board walk in August for the consumers. We are still selling tickets for our basket fundraiser. Tickets are selling for a dollar and the baskets are beautiful! Many thanks to Ann Marie for arranging them and to Sandra for seeing that this fundraiser is a success. A big Congratulations to Jennifer Mansfield on a healthy delivery of her handsome son Aston Tyler born April 1st, 2008. Aston weighed 6 lbs. 15 oz. and was 19 inches long. Ukiah//Merced Do you have any consumers who just want to get away in this hot weather? Well JoAnn Holliday has passed along some great information on how they can do just that! She has a consumer who travels to Santa Cruz every summer and rents a special all-terrain wheelchair. It is lightweight, heavy duty, and makes the beach - even the water - more accessible! For more information, go here: http://www.sharedadventures.org/beachchair.htm Thanks JoAnn! Merced would like to congratulate Lucila Sanchez, Direct Service Aide, for the Catalyst P.R.I.D.E. Award in April. We are very proud of her! Merced had a busy month. We went to the Modesto Nuts Baseball game and had a great time. We all want to say how sorry we were for Stephanie, Rec. Coordinator, who lost her little chihuahua (McLovin) but congratulate her on her cat (Kalthis) who had three new kittens. We were very excited that Martha Castaneda, Case Manager from Fresno, was able to come and do a CPI Training. It was nice to have her in our office and reminisce. Modesto April has been a very busy month for the Modesto Office. We have been getting new referrals as well as having many scheduled events. On April 3rd, we had a combination baby shower and Staff Appreciation lunch. The baby shower was for Christina Coonfield, a DSA for SLS. She had a baby girl named Kendra born on February 29th. Christina is enjoying her time at home with her little one. On April 17th, consumers Jason B. and Thelma C. had their artwork from day program at “The Inner Eye Gallery Artists’ Show” at the Mistlin Fine art Gallery in Modesto. On May 30th, Jason B. will be in “The Inner Eye Documentary” at the State Theatre in Modesto. On April 20th, consumers and staff met for Travis B.’s birthday at John’s Incredible Pizza. Pizza and a Toll House Birthday Cookie was enjoyed by all! Consumer Cheneye W. was honored and presented with gifts for being April’s Consumer of the Month at John’s Incredible Pizza. Congratulations Cheneye! We are so proud of you! Magellan//Employee Assistance Program Grief is a powerful emotion that can accompany any type of loss, including the death of a loved one, a divorce or loss of a job. Grief can also accompany a traumatic event. Becoming familiar with the grieving process can help you understand what you're feeling. Following are the most common stages of grief, and strategies for coping. Shock/Denial After a loss, you may feel a sense of numbness and disbelief. You may even experience physical reactions, such as feeling faint or nauseous. To help yourself: Surround yourself with friends and family for support. Being around people who care about you can help ease the pain. Guilt You may feel guilty about things you've said or done in the past. To help yourself: Recognize guilt as a normal phase of grieving, but try to put it behind you. Focus on the positive aspects of the relationship you had. Anger You may feel abandoned because someone you loved died and you feel like you're left to resolve their problems. You might also be angry at friends and family for not understanding how you feel. To help yourself: Express negative emotions. This will help you work through your feelings. Depression You may feel lonely and sad. To help yourself: Realize that experiencing a certain amount of depression is healthy. Feeling depressed is one of the first signs that you've begun the healing process. Getting Help If you would like more information, you can call your Magellan program number 800-523-5668. To find out what services are available, check your employee benefits or call your local human services agency. You can also talk with someone you can trust, such as a doctor or nurse, local mental health professional or member of the clergy. For more information, please call our Employee Assistance Program toll-free number at 800-523-5668. Lucila Sanchez Community Catalysts of California is proud to announce that Lucila Sanchez was selected to receive the Catalyst P.R.I.D.E. Award~Leading by Example for April 2008. Lucila has been with Community Catalysts of California for 6 months as a Direct Service Aide for the Social Rec. Program in the Merced area. In that short time, her hard work and dedication has greatly stood out to her co-workers and supervisors. Lucila is being recognized for her positive attitude, her great interpersonal skills both with her co-workers and consumers, and her ability to lead by example. She has proven to be very capable and successful with working alone with a group of consumers, keeping their attention and mood positive, and maintaining a calm atmosphere. While interacting with her co-workers and her consumers, she has demonstrated each of the Core Values of Community Catalysts of California: Resourcefulness, Empathy, Trust, Compassion and Respect. She is willing and ready to help and has been an inspiration as a leader and as a person to those around her. We appreciate the great service and dedication to the vision of Community Catalysts of California that Lucila has provided and would like to recognize her for her hard work and for Leading by Example. Thanks for Leading Us In the Right Direction! Consumer Catalysts of the Month May 2008 Maria Garcia Maria Garcia has been in the Independent Living Services program in the Salinas area for almost 4 years. In that time Maria’s attitude and willingness to work has improved tremendously; especially in the past 6 months. She now participates more actively in the decisions made regarding her services and even tells her Direct Service Aide what goals she would like to work on each day by having items such as her checkbook and glucose monitor out and ready when they arrive. Maria has grown a lot and shown a great deal of improvement in her independence. This is demonstrated by her improved hygiene and by attending school on a regular basis. Maria has also had to deal with a lot of change recently in her family yet continues to work hard through it all. Maria loves to write letters and even short stories in her spare time. She likes to read, listen to music and to hang out with friends whenever possible. Another fun way she spends her time is to dance! We wanted to recognize all her growth and hard work! Congratulations Maria!