These 8 nonprofits are making a difference: North Bay Gives Awards for 2022
North Bay Business Journal recognizes the following organizations for their impact on their communities in Marin, Napa, Sonoma and Solano counties.
Winners of the 2022 North Bay Gives Awards will be recognized at an event in Santa Rosa on Wednesday afternoon.
What is this organization’s mission?
Community Matters works with schools and youth serving organizations across Sonoma County in the North, South, East, West and Central county.
They have trained approximately 10,000 youth and 1500 adults in Sonoma County alone. The organization has been able to provide the programs and services to local schools for little or no cost through funding supplied by Sonoma County donors, foundations and grantor's.
Why was the organization created?
Founded in response to the Columbine High School shooting in Colorado in 1999, it has created a Safe School Ambassadors program to train students. “Student bystanders see, hear, and know things adults don’t, can intervene in ways adults can’t and are often on the scene of an incident before an adult. They are a critical and necessary resource for positively impacting the crisis of bullying in our schools,” the group’s website states.
“Community Matters recognized the need to include a method were students were empowered, engaged and given a voice to make their schools better. Diverse socially influential clique leaders are trained to be Upstanders with skills to intervene and de-escalate in situations of mistreatment, creating a ripple effect and a culture where all students can feel safe, welcome and included.”
What is this organization’s mission?
Habitat for Humanity of Sonoma County brings people together to build homes, communities, “and hope,” the organization states.
Habitat homeowners build their own homes alongside volunteers and pay an affordable mortgage.
“With our help, those homeowners achieve the independence they need to build a better life for themselves and their families.”
It operates an “aging in place program, a home repair program enables seniors to age safely, independently, and comfortably in their homes. In October, it added a “Fire Safe Sonoma” component to the program.
In addition, the nonprofit has a 27,000 square foot ReStore on Industrial Drive which sells building supplies, furniture, and other home products that are “priced affordably” and keep the material out of landfills.
Why was the organization created?
The local affiliate of Habitat for Humanity was formed by a group of volunteers in 1984. Volunteers performed 18 home rehabilitations in the first seven years.
Since its founding, it has completed 48 homes, has four in the final permit stages with City of Sebastopol. Also, it has completed 71 Aging in Place / Neighborhood Revitalization projects. Habitat homeowners are low-income families, defined as 50-80% of area median Income.
What the group says about its mission
“Pooling the financial and intellectual capital of civic-minded people, the Napa Valley Community Foundation focuses on fighting poverty, championing community, investing in youth, and helping the most vulnerable in our community recover from and prepare for the next disaster.
“Napa Valley Community Foundation was launched in 1994 by a group of civic leaders who looked around and saw that the nearby communities of Sonoma and Marin had Community Foundations that were working with local donors to make positive impacts in their communities. Since Napa did not have a foundation to support the larger needs of the community, this group of visionaries began the work of making sure that Napa Valley had the resources it would need to keep the community thriving.”
What are some of the organization’s key accomplishments and programs?
•Collaborated with Napa Valley Adult Education, Napa Valley College, On the Move, and UpValley Family Centers to launch a construction training program to address the critical shortage of construction labor while helping local workers build the necessary skills to gain employment in the higher-wage construction sector.
To date, 74 men and women have graduated from the program, 47% are now employed in the construction trades, 35% have received promotions and/or salary increases post-graduation, and 46% are enrolled in continuing construction education classes(welding, plumbing, etc.).