People of Progress…addressing community needs and part of the United WayEdit
By ronlargent Leave a Comment
Categories: Uncategorized
We are so fortunate to have so many good programs addressing the basic needs of food and housing in Redding, Shasta County, and Northern California. One of these organizations is People of Progress, under the able direction of Melinda Brown. Here is some background on this agency….one of 33 in the United Way of Northern California.
Mission Statement
To strengthen individuals, families and our community with special emphasis on issues that affect low income people.
People of Progress began in 1974 as a food co-op. The first social service program we offered was child care soon followed by a small grant for an education program to increase understanding of and usage of food stamps in three northern counties. One early program was a community farm in French Gulch which led to our two community gardens now in Redding. Our programs have evolved and expanded as we are now one of the major foodbanks and emergency assistance programs in our area. In addition to our own programs, P.O.P. has always been very active in a variety of community issues and opportunities always advocating for healthy thriving inclusive communities for everyone — not just those with comfortable incomes. We have formed collaboratives and committees that specifically and successfully addressed a number of issues resulting in successful programs or program modifications in local government and in other agencies.
OUR GOAL is to serve our community by helping to build individual and community stability and responsibility. Annually, we help over 10% of the entire population of Redding alone who need immediate emergency assistance.
For 30 years we have been devoted to providing food, clothing, shelter, transportation, prescriptions, etc. to people in need. We will serve over 14,000 people this year with over 170,000 meals, 4,000 motel shelter nights, and help over 150 households retain/obtain housing or keep their utilities on. We work closely with other organizations and agencies to link clients with additional programs and services.
We generate much of our funding from our two Thrift Stores. Two state and two federal grants provide funds to purchase food, motel vouchers and rent assistance. A Shasta County CSBG grant and a City of Redding CDBG grant provide partial operation funding for this program. We pick up food donations daily from Food 4 Less. Generous donations from individuals, businesses and churches help support our program and we’re a United Way member agency.
For additional information, you can visit their website at www.peopleofprogress.org
You can learn more about the United Way at www.norcalunitedway.org or www.liveunited.org or call us at 530-241-7521, or e-mail me at ronlargent@norcalunitedway.org
Showing posts with label CA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CA. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Lake College in Redding, CA
Lake College in Redding has done a great job helping many....thanks for being part of our community...and here is to hope the new Technology Institute can carry on as Lake has...
Denver firm takes over Redding's troubled Lake College
A Denver-based firm has taken over Lake College, the private vocational school whose financial troubles and possible sale have been rumored since early January.
The college closed Friday and promptly reopened as the Institute of Technology. Students arrived on the Redcliff Drive campus Friday morning to find a large banner announcing the school's new name covering the Lake College logo on the white, two-story building.
Lake College students were told Friday they will be able to complete their certificate programs at the Institute of Technology through a "teach out" program under an agreement approved by the federal Department of Education and the national Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges of Technology (ACCSCT).
The Institute of Technology has its headquarters campus in Clovis with branches in Modesto and Roseville. The school seeks federal permission to open a branch in Redding at the former Lake College campus.
Jim Haga, CEO of Brightstar Education Group, the firm that owns the Institute of Technology, said there are "big plans" to expand program offerings in Redding once branch approval is granted.
Brightstar will first swap out all of Lake College's computers for new machines. Soon, crews will start remodeling the Redcliff Drive building to create 5,000 square feet more of classroom space inside, said Haga, a former Kaplan Higher Education executive.
The firm intends to hire more instructors and staff as it boosts enrollment from the current 140 students to about 250 students over the next year, he said.
Brightstar hopes eventually to add associate degree programs in criminal justice, accounting and human resources at its Redding branch. The firm also plans technician certificates in pharmacy and heating, air conditioning and ventilation (HVAC).
The Institute of Technology has gotten state Board of Vocational Nursing permission to offer a licensed vocational nursing program at the Redding location, once the branch is approved, Haga said. Brightstar would pay for students to take their nursing boards, he said.
Richard Schofield, who was vice president at Lake College and will continue in a similar capacity at the Institute of Technology, called the Brightstar takeover a "step in the right direction."
"For a long time we had limited resources," Schofield said. "This will allow us to offer a much higher quality of education."
Lake College students are relieved they're going to be able to finish the programs they started, said Kathi Daily, student services adviser. She described the change in the college as "exactly what Redding needs."
Nursing student Rick Ortega said he initially had questions about the teach-out agreement forms students received Friday. Students have been asked to sign and return these forms within 10 days.
Ortega said he was suspicious after a long silence from campus administrators about what was happening with the college. Instructors had gone weeks without pay during the transition and no adequate explanation was given, Ortega noted.
But Ortega said he's confident the teach-out agreement with the Institute of Technology is legitimate after further conversations Friday with administrators, who were finally free to talk openly since the federal Department of Education had approved the takeover.
"It looks like maybe things really worked out," Ortega said. "Hopefully it will turn out to be a big success. I feel extremely good about it, but I'm still really upset the transparency wasn't there, especially since no sale went through."
Haga confirmed Brightstar never actually bought Lake College, although the firm tried to strike a deal with owners Jim Koenig and Gary Armitage.
Koenig, a Redding real estate investor, and Armitage, a former Santa Rosa-based financial planner, are named in multiple lawsuits claiming investor fraud. The two men also face possible indictment by the state Attorney General's Office for an alleged Ponzi scheme involving $250 million and some 2,000 mostly elderly investors.
The Redcliff Drive building was headquarters for Koenig's firm, Asset Real Estate Investment Co. (AREI), until it moved in late 2006 to a new building less than a mile away on Hemsted Drive.
Koenig owned the Red- cliff building until February, when it transferred to Lakeside Mortgage Fund LLC through a trustees deed foreclosure, according to Shasta County Assessor records.
Lakeside has been another Koenig-related corporation, and Koenig at one point earlier this decade briefly took over the firm. But Koenig has no current control of the Redcliff Drive building, Haga said.
Brightstar will lease the building from Lakeside and remodel it with that firm's permission, he said. There are no plans for Brightstar to own its Redding campus.
Brightstar made the first overture to Koenig and Armitage to buy the Lake College business, which was struggling financially. The Institute of Technology had three central valley campuses and a fourth made sense from an operations standpoint, Haga said.
Haga declined to comment on his negotiations with Koenig and Armitage or describe the deal with the federal government in detail.
"Lake closed and we partnered with the U.S. Department of Education to conduct a teach-out of their students at our expense," Haga said in an e-mail.
The Institute of Technology will keep "the majority" of Lake College instructors through the teach-out period, he said.
Lake had laid off at least three employees in a restructuring before the takeover. Those employees could apply to work at the Institute of Technology, Haga said.
But any outstanding payment obligations of Lake to its employees stay with Lake College, he said.
"Whatever happened, happened in the past," Haga said. "Lake College is closed."
Jennifer Bare, a Clinical Medical Assisting and Medical Office Administration and Billing instructor, has filed a wage claim against Lake College with the state Department of Industrial Relations for $4,137.86 in back pay owed since early January, records show.
Bare was the only Lake College employee to file a wage claim as of Thursday, said Erika Monterroza, public information officer with the state Department of Industrial Relations.
Martha West, a University of California at Davis law professor, said the Institute of Technology teach-out agreement with the federal government sounds like it's designed to protect tuition-paying students but not necessarily school employees.
"These people are just left high and dry," West said of instructors. "They have to get in line with the other creditors."
Brightstar Education Group, founded in 2004, plans to expand in California and other states with a $50 million capital investment from parent company Arlington Capital Partners, a private equity firm, according to the firm's Web site.
The three Institute of Technology campuses are ACCSCT-accredited and offer medical, business, technical, culinary and other vocational programs.
Lake College was also ACCSCT-accredited.
Reporter Scott Mobley can be reached at 225-8220 or at smobley@redding.com.
This was in the Record Searchlight today....thanks, Scott.
www.ronlargent.com
www.ronlargent@kw.com
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Traffic Cameras--Good or Bad?
Grand jury:says....
Redding should add more red lightcameras...
.a good reason to live in Redding, CA
Redding's traffic cameras
• Cypress Avenue and Churn Creek Road
• Cypress Avenue and Bechelli Lane
• Lake Boulevard and Market Street
• Pine and Tehama streets
• Shasta and Market street
In spite of national reports casting doubt about the effectiveness of red-light cameras, the Shasta County Grand Jury recommends that the city of Redding add them to intersections “at every opportunity.”
In its latest report released today, the grand jury touted the use of the cameras as a “phenomenal law enforcement tool” that reduced collisions by 48 percent in the first half of 2008 at the intersections at which they were installed.
Wrecks citywide were down by 21 percent over the same period, the jurors wrote.
“Redding Police Department traffic experts postulate that a primary cause of the dramatic improvements of traffic safety is the presence of red light cameras,” the jurors wrote.
In spite of concerns to the contrary, there’s also been no evidence the cameras increased rear-end collisions at camera-equipped intersections, the jurors wrote.
But the jurors also noted that the cameras didn’t seem to reduce collisions citywide during 2007, the camera’s first year of operation.
The jury also found that costs to taxpayers are negligible, but the cameras so far have generated no revenue for the city.
Taxpayers pay less than $30,000 each year to pay for part-time officers who review the cameras’ videos and photos, shot when a motorist triggers the camera’s in-ground motion sensors.
The $325 fine generated each time a motorist is caught running a light pays for the rest of the program.
In 2007 and 2008, all of the $116,000 the city collected in fines went to Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Redflex Traffic Systems, the company that operates and installs the cameras, the jury found.
Under the city’s contract with Redflex, the company will pay Redflex up to $200,516 in fees before the city can collect any cash.
In recent months, the cameras have drawn national attention as studies have cast doubt on the cameras’ effectiveness while the companies that operate them rake in cash.
Although national studies show fewer T-bone crashes at lights with cameras and fewer drivers running red lights, the number of rear-end crashes increased.
Meanwhile, companies like Redflex expect increased revenue for years to come, while cities around the nation install them them to bolster their revenue streams.
Redflex alone saw after-tax profits of $10.6 million in fiscal year 2008, up from $7.3 million the year before.
Aaron Quinn, spokesman for the Wisconsin-based National Motorists Association, said that there are cheaper safety alternatives to red-light cameras, including lengthening yellow-light times.
“We say, the red-light camera wouldn’t have stopped anyone from getting hit,” Quinn told The Associated Press. “Once (a city) sees one city getting it miles away, and that first city makes a bunch of money, they want to do it, too. It’s like a virus.”
Reporter Ryan Sabalow can be reached at 225-8344 or rsabalow@redding.com...the Redding Record Searchlight
Monday, February 2, 2009
dale Gonyea in Redding, CA on Tuesday
At the age of five, Dale Gonyea got up very early one morning and, without a single lesson, spontaneously began playing the piano. His parents were astonished because they did not have a piano. They decided he needed therapy or music lessons. Therapy was expensive. They bought a piano and a career was born.
At ten, Dale saw the movie West Side Story and was furious he hadn't written it. He is a
He has also written numerous songs for Disney, including the Sport Goofy anthem, "You Can Always Be Number One" and the Genie's song, "Nothing in the World Quite like a Friend" for The Return of Jafar, the sequel to Aladdin. Aside from national jingles, his songs have been performed by Rosie O'Donnell, Kaye Ballard, Ray Stevens, among others and his
The Los Angeles Times proclaimed him "heir to the piano-comedy throne" during the run of his solo theater piece, A Twelve O'clock Guy in a Nine O'clock Town. During his subsequent theater piece, An American in
Television appearances include Evening at the Improv, HBO Young Comedians, TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes, Paramount Comedy Theater, and as a special musical reporter on Entertainment Tonight.
Among the highlights of his career, he spent an amazing year living in
He shared the bill with Dick Shawn at the Pasadena Playhouse and has opened for Crystal Gayle, Glen Campbell, and Andy Williams among others. Recently, he has been touring the
In his spare time, he ponders life's weightier issues, such as "What makes the sky blue?" "Where does infinity end?" and "What did Ernest Hemingway?"
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Business in Redding, CA
Is there any project that's generated so much anticipation while spurring more conspiracy theories than Trader Joe's?
There's enough material here for an Oliver Stone movie.
Of course, Trader Joe's doesn't help by being so reluctant to elaborate every time we report a delay for the Redding store's scheduled opening.
Trader Joe's will open Feb. 1. That was the word in August from the developer who's building the store near the corner of Hilltop Drive and Browning Street.
But a friend told me last week that she was told by a Trader Joe's employee in Chico that the Redding store won't open until at least the summer.
There's a problem with the parking, the TJ worker said.
Parking? The shopping center was OK'd by the Redding Planning Commission in January 2007. The use permit addressed parking.
For the record, this isn't the first time employees at other TJ stores have fanned flames of doubt.
Earlier this year, the buzz was employees were telling folks up here who made the pilgrimage south for their TJ fix that the Redding store was delayed because it was having trouble obtaining its wine and beer license. Never mind that Trader Joe's had already received approval from the Alcoholic Beverage Control Department when this rumor started circulating.
Alas, neither Trader Joe's nor the developer returned my calls last week.
Competition is good
I've lived in Redding for nearly 20 years. Ever since I can remember, the beef has been that there are no decent sports bars in this town.
Now, in the span of two months, two new sports bars have opened here.
In September, Johnny's on California Street downtown was the first out of the gate.
On Wednesday, Bleachers Sports Bar & Grill opened across town on Hilltop Drive, two doors north of Subway. Owner Tyree Bolton started work on converting the former Chuck E Cheese's building into a sports bar more than a year ago.
Bleachers is open daily until midnight and serves lunch and dinner. In addition to some 30 televisions, the bar has video games and pool tables.
Let the games begin.
Zillow alert
The bane of some in the industry, Zillow.com last week released its home value report for the third quarter.
Values in Redding, which encompasses Anderson and Shasta Lake, declined 4.2 percent year-over-year to a Zillow Home Value index of $259,832. That's compared to a nationwide decline of 9.7 percent to a value of $202,966.
Nearly 65 percent of the homes in our area lost value over the past year. That's a veritable real estate boom compared to what's happening in Merced, where values fell 32 percent and 99 percent of all homes have depreciated over the past 12 months.
Coming back to Redding, homes in Shasta Lake have been hit hardest, according to Zillow. Values there dropped 6 percent from the second quarter to the third quarter, and 21 percent compared to a year ago.
Zillow has its detractors, including real estate agents and appraisers, but the site contends its methodology eliminates the bias present in median sale prices. That's because it looks at values for all homes in a region, not just the ones sold.
More Thai food
Racha Noodle is expanding across town.
The popular Thai restaurant in south Redding is opening a second location on Dana Drive.
They will call it 5 Thais Tasty Thai Food and it's in the Metro Anderson Tri Center inside the former The Cool Breeze Yogurt Cafe, which closed earlier this year after more than 15 years in business.
The 5 Thais of Racha Noodle won't give an opening date, only saying the new location is coming soon.
Unemployment in Redding, CA
When John Nogle was laid off three months ago from his position at the Shasta County Opportunity Center, he knew it would be difficult to find another job.
In that respect, the Shasta Lake resident hasn't been disappointed.
"I'd tell people looking for a job to take whatever's out there - it's slim pickings," Nogle said one recent weekday morning at the Smart Business Resource Center in downtown Redding. "Even if it's a minimum-wage job, it's better than nothing."
Nogle's hardly alone.
Unemployment in Shasta County in October jumped to a 15-year high as continued declines in the construction sector helped spark the increase. Construction jobs in the county last month totaled 3,700, a 21 percent drop from the 4,700 who were employed in the trade in October 2007, the state reported Friday.
Shasta's jobless rate in October was 10 percent, up from 9.5 percent in September and 7 percent from a year ago. Last month's unemployment rate tied October 1994 and was the highest since October 1993, when it reached 10.7 percent.
In Shasta County, there were 8,900 unemployed in October, up from 8,300 in September, and nearly 3,000 more people without jobs in October 2007. The number of people applying for unemployment benefits in Shasta County last month was 2,469, up from 2,039 a year ago.
California's unemployment rate jumped to 8.2 percent in October, the highest rate in 14 years, just as a state fund that pays unemployment benefits was about to run out of money.
State officials are preparing to ask the federal government to step in with a loan on Dec. 1 so they can continue paying jobless benefits to California's now more than 1.5 million unemployed, nearly a third of whom have lost their jobs in the last year.
Shasta County saw year-over-year job gains in farming, manufacturing, local government, and educational and health services.
For Nogle, who's divorced with three school-aged children, job hunting has been mentally exhausting. But he doesn't have time to dwell on his bad luck.
Nogle's rent is $510 a month and he lives on $800 a month in unemployment benefits. He makes about two trips a week to the Smart Center, which has a database of job openings across the state and also helps job-seekers with resumes, cover letters and interview tips.
"It's been pretty hard. I will go to the Salvation Army to get canned goods and make sure we have food on the table," said Nogle, who made $9 an hour at the county before state budget cuts eliminated his job. "I want welfare to be the last resort."
Nogle's 13-year-old son helps out when he can by doing odd jobs like mowing neighbors' lawns.
"I won't let anything get me down - with kids you can't," Nogle said. "I told my oldest that just because you're down right now, doesn't mean it's the end of the world."
Nogle has applied for a temporary position at Sierra Pacific Industries in Anderson. He might find out Tuesday whether he gets the job.
For Sylvia Partridge, who quit her medical assistant job in Medford, Ore., and moved here to be closer to her family, finding job listings aren't difficult. But it's tough landing an interview when as many as 30 people apply for one job.
"It's very competitive," Partridge said while searching for work at the Smart Center.
Partridge applies for about two jobs a week. She's discovered that hourly wages in Shasta County are below what she made in Medford, Ore.
"I left making $13.41 (an hour) and most of the jobs I've applied for are 10 to 12 dollars an hour," said Partridge, who rents a home in Anderson.
Partridge's husband, who works in retail loss prevention, still lives in Medford. The couple's house is for sale but Partridge's husband won't move until she finds a job.
Meantime, she lives with her two children.
"I haven't applied for unemployment. I'm getting by, so it's OK," Partridge said. "I watch what I spend. There's no eating out; we do what we need to do."
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
4th of July Freedom Festival Cancelled
If you haven't heard, the 4th of July celebration in Redding, CA...one of the highlights of the year in that it is usually a huge 30 minute show funded by the McConnell Foundation, has been cancelled due to the fire danger and the still smoky skies in Northern California.
Word is that it will be rescheduled in August.
But, in the meantime, best wishes for a Happy 4th whereever you are.
Ron Largent
The Largent Team
Your Commercial Real Estate Connection to the North State
www.ronlargent.com ronlargent@kw.com
Word is that it will be rescheduled in August.
But, in the meantime, best wishes for a Happy 4th whereever you are.
Ron Largent
The Largent Team
Your Commercial Real Estate Connection to the North State
www.ronlargent.com ronlargent@kw.com
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