History of The Community Coalition of Eastern Santa Cruz County

The Community Coalition
Submitted by Jeffrey Cooper

The Community Coalition of Eastern Santa Cruz County began in 1998 as the Youth and Family Services Coalition (YAFSC), which invited local non-profit organizations, schools, law enforcement and others to begin to meet regularly to better connect the needs of local families and young people with the resources available. These included a range of social service organizations that had resources or programs that could benefit people locally, but had not been promoted here. The YAFSC became the forum to network the exchange of local information and a means of promoting these programs locally.
The YAFSC initiated monthly meetings to bring these groups and people together on a regular basis. It also facilitated the acquisition of grant funding to support a range of programs and activities in our community, particularly for the youth. It organized and conducted many programs for youth including many outings to UA sports events, bowling, skating and more. The YAFSC was a participant in the Teen Institute, which is part of the Youth Empowered for Success program, in which many Patagonia high schools were able to participate.
A fundamental strategy has been to form partnerships and collaborations from within the Coalition. In 2005, the YAFSC became the Community Coalition of Eastern Santa Cruz County, an independent non-profit organization, funded by grant programs. The name was meant to reflect more broadly the role of the Coalition in bringing together non-profit organizations, service providers, school and other education officials, local government and law enforcement.
The Community Coalition engaged the community with a strategic planning process that would focus the resources and energies of the Coalition in the most effective ways. A primary objective of this effort was a refocus on youth issues. While the grants that initially support the Coalition have been completed, additional ones have been submitted. Currently, the Coalition is entirely volunteer.
The Community Coalition opened the “Den” on the Patagonia Schools campus in January 2008 to strengthen the community bonds with the schools and students. The Den is intended to facilitate better connections between the community and the schools and to provide various youth programs and activities to support and enhance the efforts of the school districts.
The Coalition is the portal for the provision of services and support for our community from numerous social service agencies and organizations. The Den provides a focal point for information on services and support available to the community. The Community Coalition facilitates inter-generational community-wide programs to strengthen community bonds and to support the health and vitality of our citizens.
The current Coordinator of the Community Coalition is Jeffrey Cooper.
The Coalition meets the 2nd Friday every month at 9:00am at the Patagonia United Methodist Church.
Email Jeffrey at yafsc@yahoo.com for more information or to get on the Coalition email list.