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This letter is to introduce the Community Casa in Riverbank.
The Community Casa was open over four years ago. The vision for the Casa was, and it is, to have a place that would be available to the Community as a platform where the City, local and county wide organizations, and
concerned Citizens could use to offer programs and services needed in our community and neighboring cities.
The Vision became reality and the following are some of the programs we have had at the Casa Since 2001:
The NET Project. NET stands for; Networking Everyone With Technology.
The NET was elaborated to help to bridge the digital divide in our Community. Surveys done at the time showed that the local senior citizens were interested in acquiring computer skills and Internet access if they were free and accessible to them. The survey also showed that only 1% of the English learners had access to technology. In a
partnership between the City of Riverbank, The Bridge Covenant Church, Rio Altura Healthy Start, and few others the initial money was acquired through a Technology Grant offered by SBC/Pacbell. At the same time the
Department of Employment and Training, connected with the assistance of Kirk Lindsey and support of Terry Plett, joined the partnership and 12 New Computers, with broad-band T1 line, were installed at the Community Casa. Since then hundreds of people have accessed the NET Project to freely learn/develop computer skills, access the Internet, job search, resume making, learning MS Office programs (Access, Word, Excel, Power Point) learn how to type (Mavis Beacon) and career assessment (Eureka).
The Casa is a local hub for programs offered by service groups, social services, and non-profit organizations. The Block House program, which was funded by Social Services Agencies, has served over 400 homes on a bi-weekly basis offering them updated information of programs and services offered by local and county-wide agencies. The 1st Health Fair in Riverbank was organized and directed by the Block House team. Over 700 people attended the Fair at California Avenue School and 30 service agencies were present with booth , information and free services.
Women’s Haven have offered small support group to women and children, Girl Scout groups have met at the Casa, Riverbank Children’s choir started at the Casa, Riverbank Community Theater started and has its headquarters at the Casa. Several High School Senior’s project have presented their event at the Casa; arts, music and bands. Many workshops, and community events have happened in the Casa. One of the most moving event was the memorial service for Michael Copeland, the 16 years old who was hit and killed by a train. The high school friends of Michael Copeland felt they would not be comfortable in a church setting and requested the use of the Casa for the event. The Casa was filled and the kids freely shared from their hearts how they felt. A step towards healing was taken in their lives and a remarkable moment became part of the Casa’s legacy that night.
The Casa’s full financial support has come through The Bridge Covenant Church for the last 4 years and the Bridge’s pastor, Wainer Guimaraes, has served as the Casa’s Director since the initial opening. The staff for the programs, and as well as equipment necessary for some of the services, has come through the result of partnerships with the City, Great Valley Center, DET (Department of Employment and Training), Americorps/Vista, United Way and many others. The Computer Center is fully furnished and updated by D.E.T.
This year a fund-raising committee, strongly supported by the City’s manager Rich Holmer, and City’s director of Economic Development, Margaret Silveira, who have seeing the social value for the Casa, have been working hard to raise $40,000.00 to keep the Casa open in 2005, to make some improvements in the facilities, and as well as to increase our staff team team so more people can be served.
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