Krista Hanni is a distinguished public health advocate and community leader who has served Monterey County for over two decades. Krista holds a Ph.D. in epidemiology from the University of California at Davis, plus more than 25 years of experience in epidemiological and public health research and planning. Monterey County was the lucky beneficiary of her wealth of expertise and commitment to advancing the field of public health.

Since 2002, Krista has been a cornerstone of the Monterey County Health Department (MCHD). Recently retiring as the Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Manager, she oversaw projects focused on Health in All Policies, health equity, access to care, and accreditation, dedicating her career to addressing health disparities and community well-being.

Krista’s commitment to local community empowerment is exemplified through her leadership in implementing the Health in All Policies approach, aiming to reduce health inequities and create healthier environments where everyone can thrive. Her work with various coalitions, including East Salinas’ Building Healthy Communities and the Early Childhood Development Initiative, underscores her passion for fostering community collaboration and empowerment.

Notably, Krista has been instrumental in the success of the VIDA program, a groundbreaking initiative launched during the Covid-19 pandemic to provide resources to vulnerable communities in Monterey County. As a policy manager at MCHD, she played a pivotal role in utilizing community health workers to reach individuals where they are, ensuring culturally accessible health resources and information.

Under Krista’s leadership, the VIDA program has evolved into a model of community-based public health intervention, recognized for its effectiveness in building trust and bridging gaps in healthcare access. Her vision and dedication have led to the expansion of the program, including the establishment of the Farmworker Resource Center, furthering efforts to support underserved communities.
In addition to her work at MCHD, Krista is actively involved in various community organizations, including serving as President of the YWCA Monterey County Board of Directors. Through her involvement, she advocates for racial equity, women’s empowerment, and social justice, embodying the values of compassion and inclusivity.

Krista’s impact extends beyond her professional endeavors, as she also serves on the Evaluation Advisory Committee for first 5 Monterey County, contributing to efforts aimed at supporting families and promoting early childhood development.

As this year’s Ben Heller Award recipient, Krista Hanni is celebrated for her steadfast commitment to public health, her pioneering strategies for community empowerment, and her relentless endeavors to foster a healthier and fairer future for every resident of Monterey County. The Center for Community Advocacy commends Dr. Hanni for her unwavering dedication to enhancing living standards and healthcare in Monterey County. Her exemplary leadership and unwavering resolve serve as a beacon, inspiring us all to pursue constructive change and social justice within our communities.

DANA KENT, M.D.

Dana Kent, M.D. received a B.A. from Radcliffe College/Harvard University, an R.N. degree from Hartnell College, and an M.D. from Harvard Medical School. She completed the residency program in Family Medicine at Natividad, where she was co-chief resident.

Dana’s advocacy for farmworkers began while she was in college, volunteering for the United Farm Workers. There she met Richard Chavez and Fred Ross, Sr., who recruited her and others to join the UFW for what she thought would be the summer. She worked for the UFW for 3 years: on the boycott in New York; at the UFW’s clinic in Delano, CA; and in the legal department in Salinas. She met her future husband, Bill Monning, who was working for the UFW as an attorney, on Gabilan Street in Salinas, CA in 1976.

In the early 1980’s, in response to the increasing number of Salvadorean refugee farmworkers and their needs, Dana co-founded the Salvadoran Medical Relief Fund, helping that population access health care, housing, and trauma services.

Also in the early 1980’s, Dana volunteered as a clinic interpreter at what would become the Monterey County Pesticide Coalition, in response to a mass pesticide poisoning incident.

During that era, Dana helped perform the demographic research that ultimately secured the funding for Clínica Popular, now Clínica de Salud del Valle de Salinas.

After finishing her Family Medicine residency at Natividad, Dana spent her clinical career as a family doctor in Natividad’s clinics in Salinas and Monterey County Health Department’s clinics in Marina and Seaside, providing care to farmworkers and other historically underserved populations. During her residency, Dana worked in Chiapas, Mexico treating farmworkers in indigenous communities during a cholera epidemic.

Recognizing the devastation of chronic disease in her patients and their families, Dana spent the last 10 years of her professional career turning her attention toward disease prevention in the underserved population, working with Natividad Foundation, where she co-created and co-directed the philanthropically-funded “5 Steps to Prevent Diabetes” program, an evidence-based diabetes prevention program located in community sites throughout Monterey County and hosted by community partners. She was privileged to work with CCA on this project, specifically with Norma Ahedo. During this time, Dana was also Medical Director of Natividad’s Diabetes Education Center, where she again was honored to work with Norma Ahedo and Sabino López in the service of the Center’s farmworker patients.

Dr. Kent lives in Monterey County with her husband, Bill Monning. They have 2 adult daughters and 3 grandchildren. She has always felt that collaboration with others and support from our family has been essential to her work.

LUIS ALEJO

Luis Alejo was raised in Watsonville, the son of farmworker parents. From that inauspicious beginning, Alejo developed a sense of personal commitment to helping his community. Alejo has given expression to that commitment by authoring landmark legislation as a Member of the California State Assembly; legislation that helps disadvantaged and underrepresented families throughout California.

Assemblymember Alejo boasts a long and impressive list of legislative victories. CCA urges all our friends to visit the Assemblymember’s web site (http://asmdc.org/members/a30/) to review his legislative accomplishments. While mindful of those accomplishments, tonight we celebrate Luis Alejo as a loyal and good member of our community.

Luis stayed in our community by choice. His educational achievements—undergraduate degree from U.C Berkley, law degree from U.C. Davis and masters degree from Harvard University—opened doors that could have led him away from us. But he chose to stay; to stay to do good work on behalf of our good people.

Luis is not just a member of our community. He is a leader in our community. CCA-trained farmworker leaders experienced Alejo’s leadership in a very positive manner several years ago, while Alejo was still the Mayor of Watsonville. The farmworker leaders mobilized more than 100 of their peers to advocate for a dental hygiene program that would benefit their children.

The farmworkers spoke eloquently about the need for the program. Opponents, however, became unruly and started attacking the integrity of the farmworkers. From the dais, Alejo masterfully guided the debate, allowing opponents to state their views but preventing them from hijacking the proceedings. At all times during the debate, Alejo affirmed the integrity of the farmworkers who supported the measure. In the end, the farmworkers won the vote; thanks in large measure to Alejo’s skillful leadership.

Alejo has proven to be as skillful a leader during his tenure in the California State Assembly as he was those many years ago as the Mayor of Watsonville. He has earned many accolades along the way in recognition of his work.

We add to the awards that Luis has earned. But we do so not just to recognize his good work, but also, to honor him for staying true to us; for remaining a good and loyal member of our community even as his talents take him to other heights.

KURT GOLLNICK

Kurt Gollnick has been a soccer coach for farmworker kids in East Salinas; a prime mover in the effort to bring recreational facilities to kids who live in the Salinas Valley; a supporter of social justice candidates seeking public office; and, a great mentor for the Center for Community Advocacy (CCA). All the while, Kurt has served as the Chief Operating Officer of Scheid Vineyards, the largest wine grape grower in Monterey County. If a Renaissance Man ever walked the fields of the Salinas Valley it has to be Kurt Gollnick.

At CCA’s behest, Kurt has frequently appeared before the Monterey County Board of Supervisors to advocate for ordinances that promote the construction of affordable housing for farmworkers and other low-income working families. When he does so, Kurt lends the gravitas of his leadership position within the business sector to the efforts of social justice advocates. Several years ago, Kurt played a key role in helping to forge an eclectic coalition of agricultural industry leaders, organized labor groups and social justice advocates; a coalition formed to defeat a ballot measure that would have severely restricted economic and housing opportunities for low-income working families.

More recently, Kurt joined the efforts of The California Endowment (TCE) and local social justice advocates to transform East Salinas from a community where people feel isolated and marginalized to a community where residents feel that they can decide what their neighborhoods should look like, and to a community where residents feel that they have access to the resources that they need to make real their vision for East Salinas. In this tenyear TCE funded initiative, named “Building Healthy Communities”, Kurt has focused his energy on efforts to expand the soccer field complex that borders east and north Salinas. He was also instrumental in overseeing the donation of a large area of land owned by Scheid Vineyards in order to increase available playing fields in Greenfield. Providing recreational opportunity for children and adolescents of all backgrounds is a burning calling for Kurt. In fact, he helped found and currently serves on the board of a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing recreational opportunities for youth and others in the Salinas Valley.

Kurt Gollnick also served on the CCA Board of Directors for six years, until term limits ended his tenure. During that time, Kurt helped to lead CCA through a historic expansion and helped CCA secure important capital assets, including our office building. CCA looked to Kurt’s business acumen to make financial decisions that maintained CCA in solid fiscal condition.

The CCA Executive Director is blessed to interact with many mentors who volunteer their talents to help improve the quality of life in our community. I am, personally, incredibly fortunate to have learned from Kurt Gollnick. I have seen Kurt act with courage to bring together sectors of the community that otherwise have little contact with each other. It takes courage to initiate power relationships between people who, on the surface, appear to be inexorably in competition with each other. It takes leadership to help those people realize that they share certain values and that they can work together to implement those values.

Kurt has acted courageously to exert his leadership in a manner that helps farmworkers and other low-income working families. For that reason, CCA bestows the 2012 Ben Heller Award for Leadership and Courage on Kurt Gollnick.

PETE DELGADO

According to a 2013 Monterey Health Department report, “Monterey County is designated as a primary care shortage area by the federal Health Resources and Services Administration. Most of the county is medically underserved, which includes dental and mental health services.” For that reason, The Center for Community Advocacy (CCA) works hard to improve farmworker access to health care. In this year’s Ben Heller Award recipient, CCA has found a formidable ally.

Pete Delgado and the Salinas Valley Memorial Health Care System (SVMHCS) have opened a medical clinic in Gonzales, a city heavily populated by farmworkers and other low-income working families. The clinic provides improved access to health care to a community that desperately needs it. For this effort, CCA bestows its 2016 Ben Heller Award on Mr. Delgado. The Award is fitting because it is named in honor of Ben Heller, a physician who dedicated his life to caring for farmworkers, both as a doctor and as founding Board Member
of CCA.

Pete Delgado is president/CEO of Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System, where he is responsible for directing the leadership and operations of an integrated network of health care programs, services and facilities. The Healthcare System encompasses an acute care public district hospital licensed for 269 beds, ten urgent care clinics, and a group of primary care and specialty physician practices with 70 practitioners. Salinas Valley Memorial employs more than 1,650 people and its medical staff includes 297 board-certified physicians.

Mr. Delgado was a founding member of the National Forum for Latino Healthcare Executives. This national organization strives to increase the representation of Latinos at the executive level of hospitals across the country. The Hispanic Business magazine recognized Delgado as one of the Top 100 Influential People of 2009. During his tenure at Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System, Mr. Delgado has expanded access to care, greatly increasing the services available to all members of the community, regardless of their ability to pay.

Mr. Delgado has led the effort to introduce SVMHCS’s power and prestige to a farmworker community in the Salinas Valley. CCA sees this as the beginning of a continuing effort to make health care more accessible to farmworkers. CCA is proud to present its 2016 Ben Heller Award to Pete Delgado.

THE BIG SUR LAND TRUST

The Big Sur Land Trust sees a future where natural landscapes, working lands, urban open spaces and healthy communities are cared for by people who share a love of nature and a deep appreciation for the richness of their diverse cultures.

The Land Trust’s values promote healthy lands by conserving and caring for the magnificent natural landscapes, habitats and waterways of our region to ensure a sustainable future; healthy people, by providing opportunities to experience the healthful benefits associated with access to parks and open spaces, fresh food, clean air and water, and a deep connection to nature; and healthy communities, by engaging in partnerships where conservation and civic participation increase community vitality, economic prosperity and social equity.

The Big Sur Land Trust inspires love of land across generations, conservation of our unique Monterey County landscapes, and access to outdoor experiences for all.

Since 1978, the Land Trust’s generous donors have conserved 40,000 acres of treasured landscapes all around Monterey County that have been protected and cared for. While its work remains strongly tied to its founders’ original focus on land conservation, over the last several years the Land Tust has been expanding its efforts to include the well-being of people and stewardship of the land.

For this effort, the Center for Community Advocacy (CCA) has selected The Big Sur Land Trust to receive the 2018 Ben Heller Award for Leadership and Courage. CCA bestows the award annually to a member or members of the community who have shown courage, leadership and a strong commitment to the farmworker community and to the goal of improving housing and health conditions in the Salinas and Pajaro Valleys. CCA is proud to present its 2016 Ben Heller Award to the Big Sur Land Trust.

CSUMB

CCA and the Salinas Valley farmworker community honors the mission of CSUMB to serve historically undereducated and low income populations.

CSUMB makes a positive difference in the lives of underrepresented students through high-quality programs and services that promote educational opportunity, such as the College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP), that serves migrant families by supporting children of farmworkers to succeed in college and beyond. The program provides families with an array of support services and opportunities for cultural affirmation that lead to personal and educational success with a focus on academic persistence to graduation and reducing the equity gap.

Across the curriculum, CSUMB faculty members reflect the institution’s commitment to serving farmworker families, as exemplified by the programs of Hector Dio Mendoza and Angelica Muro, Department of Visual and Performing Arts. Their collaboration in the statewide “Your Actions Save Lives” campaign leveraged the talents of local artists to create empowering public health messages during the pandemic, raising awareness of important health information for the farmworker community. Through a variety of mediums, the role of farmworkers as “essential workers” who put their own lives at risk to keep food on our tables was honored in powerful works of art.

Recognizing the importance of access to health care for low-income populations and the need to address the critical shortage of medical professionals in Monterey County, CSUMB has created an educational pipeline to serve local hospitals and clinics. CSUMB has increased the size of the program by recruiting local students with cultural and linguistic knowledge of our community, and lowered the cost of a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing.

For its dedication and focus on the needs of farmworker and low income communities in Monterey County, the Center for Community Advocacy (CCA) has selected CSUMB to receive the 2024 Hero Award for Leadership and Courage. CCA bestows the award annually to a member or organization of the community who have shown leadership and a strong commitment to the farmworker community and to the goal of improving housing and health conditions in the Salinas and Pajaro valleys.

RANCHO SAN VICENTE COMMITTEE

Each year, CCA bestows a farmworker leadership award to CCA-trained neighborhood leaders who exhibit extraordinary courage while taking action to improve farmworker health and housing conditions. Since 2003 the tribute has been known as the Sam Karas Farmworker Leadership Award, in honor of founding CCA Board member and long-time CCA friend, Sam Karas. Sam died in 2003 after a life time of community service dedicated to helping farmworkers and other low-income working families.

This year’s recipient is Rancho San Vicente, a housing committee located in Soledad California. The 84 housing subdivision includes more than 40 self-help homes. The self-help program provides the opportunity for participants to build their homes. The families of Rancho San Vicente were successful in purchasing their new home, however, the purchase came with restrictions. Due to these restrictions families began to organize seeking ways to improve or modify restriction. In the organized efforts families researched, met with elected official, city staff, stakeholder and other neighbors to expose their case. In 2011 families where referred to CCA for additional support.

The families struggle and hard work came with positive results. Over the year’s CCA and stakeholder helped improve the effects and limitations of the restriction. Rancho San Vicente families currently feel a sense of ownership, a better environment, and have achieved the American dream. What a victory for these families, in the face of fear, uncertainty, feeling these restrictions were unfair, these families persevered throughout all challenges to obtain the change in their community. Rogelio Tinajero, resident of Rancho San Vicente and committee leader expressed “I now feel my home is an asset that will benefit my family’s future”.

While Sam Karas was on the Monterey County Board of Supervisors, a reporter asked Sam why he would work so tirelessly for farmworkers if he was elected to represent the Monterey Peninsula. Sam immediately responded, “Farmworkers are important people, too.” Yes, Sam farmworkers are important people and the recipients of this year’s Sam Karas Farmworker Leadership Award prove you right.

DALILA GUZMAN, MERCEDES BARRIOS, NANCY AYALA, EMELY MARTINEZ, LUIS MEDINA

The Migrant Education School Readiness Program is for children ages 3-5 and their families. The preschool services consist of the three following components:

The first component is a home base service, which consists of visiting the family in their home. It is so wonderful to have the migrant families open their door to allow us to visit their humble homes. These homes can be far out in a rural area outside of Watsonville, or anywhere within the city limits. The home could be set up in a garage, a cart-port, a room in someone else’s home, an apartment, or a trailer. Many of the families are hesitant to say yes, since this is something new and it means maybe having trouble with the homeowner by allowing an agency visit their property unannounced or by receiving prior notification. We do our best to assure them that we will not cause troubles for them in this aspect. We agree to see them wherever they feel comfortable. Sometimes we have to sit outside the property. On occasion, we do need to present ourselves with the owner and explain our visits. This is a huge barrier for us to cross but we are successful most of the time. It is of great importance to us to assure that these most needed families receive the services. Even if it means sometimes getting, poison oak, or running from dogs. We always end with a laugh and make the experiences the most positive.

Once we are okay to visit, we schedule the day and time, which is a very flexible schedule for us. It could be any time of the day, afternoon, evening. As the visits progress, we build a trusting bond with much trust, where the family receives all of the community service information they may need individually such as health care, food, clothing, schools etc. They may ask us to help fill out forms for them since they may not know how to read or write, and finally we are able to introduce the preschool program to them. Once the 6 visits are completed, we offer them the opportunity to enroll in a center, but if they cannot attend, we will continue to visit during the year.

The second component is a center base bilingual preschool service, which is scheduled 4 days per week for 3 hours long in seven locations throughout Watsonville. During the learning time in the centers, one or both parents attend an English class while their child learns in our pre k classroom. Once a week, the parents meet as a group with the preschool teacher and they receive special trainings offered by the community. Such as the Second Harvest Food Bank to acquire healthy eating habits and free food. We collaborate with the Center for Community Advocacy to offer the families all of the services offered by the center such as renter’s rights, health awareness and other agencies in the vicinity.

The third component is a swimming class. Each Friday the families are welcomed to come and learn swimming skills as a family.

SABINO LOPEZ

The Sam Karas Award for Farmworker Leadership usually honors a group of farmworkers who form a neighborhood committee that advocates for improved housing and health conditions. This year, the award goes to the man who has helped to forge all of those committees. Sabino Lopez, CCA’s Deputy Director and Lead Farmworker Trainer, created the model that CCA uses to help farmworkers organize neighborhood committees. He is also the person who has successfully implemented the model, both by hands-on direct involvement with neighborhood leaders and also by teaching CCA’s other Farmworker Trainers to implement his model. Sabino has been doing this, and helping to guide CCA’s organizational development, since 1990, when CCA first opened its doors.

It’s high time that CCA honors Sabino’s work. It’s also a good time to do so because Sabino is retiring. Sabino was one of a small group of persons who fashioned the blueprint for CCA. He wanted an organization that gave farmworkers the tools they need to, themselves, create positive change. Other organizations were providing wonderful services to farmworkers; services that farmworkers sorely needed. But, the organizations, by and large, treated farmworkers as an audience—as a recipient—rather than as activists who could, themselves, deliver the changes that their community needed. Sabino set out to change that.

He created a model that fosters new farmworker leaders who engage their peers in conversations about positive change, leaders who form alliances with persons and institutions that can help realize change and leaders who guide collective action to address the needs of the farmworker community. The model is impressive enough. But, Sabino’s commitment to it is even more impressive. After helping design the blueprint for CCA, and before CCA had nothing more than a dream for attracting funding, Sabino was recruited to join the “Janitor’s for Justice” movement in San Diego. In San Diego, Sabino helped office building janitors gain higher wages, better benefits and improved work conditions. Sabino became a star in the Justice for Janitors and he was well on his way to a comfortable career. He bought a condominium and settled his family in for a stable life in San Diego. But before he had left Salinas, Sabino gave his word to Lydia Villarreal, CCA’s founder: he would return to work for CCA if CCA ever got funded.

Just as Sabino was settling in to a successful career and a stable family life in San Diego, CCA received its first grant. Lydia called Sabino. Sabino told Lydia that he would return because he had given his word that he would. Sabino left a promising career and comfortable life in San Diego to return to Salinas to help a fledging non-profit with only one start-up grant. He did so because he is a man of his word. Because Sabino has remained a man of his word, because his word has generated improved living conditions for thousands of farmworkers and because his word has made CCA into a premier social justice organization, CCA proudly bestows the 2015 Sam Karas Award for Farmworker Leadership on Sabino Lopez.

COMITÉ DE ACOSTA PLAZA

Perception is more powerful than reality. How often have we heard that saying? And how often have we felt powerless to force perception to conform to reality?

The farmworker leaders whom we honor tonight have, for years, tolerated a perception that unjustly obfuscates the reality in which they live. With CCA’s help, these leaders have launched a campaign to correct that perception. They are convinced that they and their neighbors, with help from the goodhearted people of Salinas, can make reality become more powerful than perception.

The Acosta Plaza neighborhood lies deep within the heart of East Salinas. Situated off Sanborn Road, a main transit artery in East Salinas, between two heavily populated and transited streets, Laurel Drive to the south and Garner Street to the north, Acosta Plaza hosts more than 300 condominiums, some of them owner occupied but many of them rentals. It is home to at least 2,000 persons.

Acosta Plaza residents work hard, attend church, do well in school, participate in sports and other recreational activities and treat each other respectfully. Acosta Plaza residents sponsor and volunteer to stage neighborhood events that celebrate children, promote healthy lifestyles and spruce up their neighborhood. Our area’s newspapers, television newscasts and radio stations, however, seldom mention these attributes and activities.

Instead, the media rushes to Acosta Plaza only to report violence in the neighborhood. Somber looking reporters, their faces flushed by makeup and highlighted by portable television lights mounted on vans with towering satellite antennas, narrate the story of yet another shooting in East Salinas, broadcasting images of heavily armed police officers presiding over a frightened neighborhood and a frightened people. Chagrined-looking anchors, back at the studio, claim lament at having to fuel the violent perception of East Salinas, as if they have no choice; as if nothing else worthy of their newscasts happens at Acosta Plaza.

The farmworker leaders whose work we celebrate tonight formed, with CCA’s assistance and financial support from The California Endowment, the Acosta Plaza Neighborhood Committee. The Committee aims to not only change the perception that others have formed about Acosta Plaza, but also, to transform their neighborhood from one where residents feel isolated and voiceless to a neighborhood where residents have access to resources that help them improve their sector’s quality of life. To accomplish this, the Committee sponsors neighborhood events that create community (Dia del Nino, Festival de Cultura, health fairs, clean-up days). At these events, the Committee recruits other neighbors to their efforts and, with CCA’s assistance, helps to develop the recruits’ leadership capacity. The Committee also meets with public officials and philanthropic leaders to research assets that the Committee can secure to help its cause. Finally, the Committee mobilizes their neighbors into civic action that generates allies and wins resources to enhance their neighborhood.

The Acosta Plaza Committee provides extraordinary leadership to a neighborhood that desperately needs it. The Committee’s efforts will transform not only the neighborhood but also, how others perceive it. For this, CCA bestows the Sam Karas Farmworker Leadership Award to the Acosta Plaza Neighborhood committee.

ACOSTA PLAZA COMITÉ

CCA’s mission is to help farmworkers and other low-income working families create and lead neighborhood committees (comités) that advocate, on their own, for improved housing and health conditions. Working with neighborhood leaders and comités, CCA helps people transform their individual and neighborhood status from one characterized by deficit and failure to one defined by assets and success. In doing this work, CCA has learned one very important lesson: transformation occurs only when neighborhood people, themselves, lead the charge. Neither individuals nor neighborhoods can be transformed from the outside. The transformation has to occur from within.

We honor a neighborhood comité, the Acosta Plaza Comité, which is energetically engaged in the business of transforming, not just a neighborhood, but, an entire community.

Acosta Plaza is a low-income community in East Salinas that exhibits many of the socio-economic stresses that characterize low-income communities. The residential development is huge, containing 304 units. The community has low educational levels, low income levels and disproportionate crime rates. Over the years, the community has been portrayed, perhaps unfairly, as one riddled with gang violence and physical deterioration.

Although Acosta Plaza has its share of challenges, Acosta Plaza also has wonderful residents and appealing physical attributes. The Acosta Plaza Comité, with help from CCA, is working to change their community from one where shortcomings and deterioration color people’s perception of Acosta Plaza to one where good people and safe neighborhoods are the face that all Salinas sees.

To achieve their goal, the Comité is striving to transform Acosta Plaza from a community where residents feel vulnerable and manipulated to a community where residents feel empowered to (1) decide how their community should progress and (2) access the resources that are necessary to build the community that they want.

Initially, the Acosta Plaza Comité has organized three “clean-up days” at the residential development. The first will allow residents to dispose of materials that they no longer need instead of storing them on their premises. The second will allow residents to dispose of materials that presently clutter the public areas of the community. The third will restore recreational areas that have become unusable through neglect.

Thereafter, the Comité will focus its efforts on securing a vacant plot of land within Acosta Plaza and dedicating its use to community-based activities. The Comité will help CHISPA, a local affordable housing developer, secure title to the vacant land. The Comité will then poll Acosta Plaza residents so that the residents decide what specific use to make of the land. The Comité will also advocate to convince the City of Salinas to re-zone the land from its present intended use (high density multi-family units) to a use that allows community-based activities (e.g., community center; child care center, etc.).

The Acosta Plaza Project made possible by a grant from The California Endowment to four collaborating partners: CCA, COPA, CHISPA, and Second Chance. The grant is part of The California Endowment’s 10-year, multi-million dollar effort to transform all of East Salinas into a vibrant, healthy community. The effort also includes grants to Hartnell College, the Salinas City Libraries and the Salinas Regional Sports Authority, among others. The Acosta Plaza Comité and CCA gratefully acknowledge The California Endowment’s commitment to improve the quality of life for all Salinas residents.