COPA 20th Anniversary Convention!
We are excited to announce we are turning 20 this year!! On Saturday, May 20th, 2023 (5-7pm at the Golden State Theatre, Monterey) nearly 1000 people will gather from across the region to celebrate COPA’s 20th Anniversary. This convention will be an opportunity for 3 things: 1) celebrate our victories over the past years, 2) obtain commitments from public officials to advance the issues we’re currently working on (such as housing, the flooding disaster in Pajaro, and workforce development), and 3) renew our covenant and show local leaders that we intend to stick around for another 20 years!
We will have faith, business and political leaders from around the region. Confirmed guests include Catholic Bishop Daniel Garcia, Episcopal Bishop Lucinda Ashby, and city and county officials.
To RSVP please email [email protected] or call 831-840-3349. You may also contact your local institution organizer.
¡Convención del 20 aniversario de COPA!
¡Nos complace anunciar que cumplimos 20 años este año! El sábado 20 de mayo de 2023 (5-7pm en el Golden State Theatre, Monterey) cerca de 1000 personas de toda la región se reunirán para celebrar el 20 aniversario de COPA. Esta convención será una oportunidad para 3 cosas: 1) celebrar nuestras victorias en los últimos años, 2) obtener compromisos de los funcionarios públicos para avanzar en los temas en los que estamos trabajando actualmente (como la vivienda, el desastre de las inundaciones en Pájaro y el desarrollo de la fuerza laboral), y 3) renovar nuestro pacto y mostrar a los líderes locales que tenemos la intención de quedarnos por otros 20 años.
Los invitados confirmados incluyen al obispo católico Daniel García, la obispa episcopal Lucinda Ashby y funcionarios de la ciudad y el condado.
Para confirmar su asistencia, envíe un correo electrónico a [email protected] o llame al 831-840-3349. También puede comunicarse con el organizador de su institución local.
It Takes a Community to Solve a Problem
Many issues affect our families, from COVID-19 to healthcare for undocumented workers. COPA helped create solutions to these problems by listening to people, sharing stories, and then using our collective power to achieve important results.
Developing and Training the Next Generation of Civic Leaders www.montereycountygives.com/copa
Action to Extend VIDA Community Health Worker Program Through 2022
In 2020, COPA leaders heard many stories from people who were unable to access the resources to protect their families from COVID-19. COPA brought these powerful stories to the Monterey County Board of Supervisors. They voted in December 2020 to allocate $4.9 million to fund the VIDA community health worker program, which is administered by the Community Foundation of Monterey County.
The VIDA program has been very successful in breaking the chain of infection in the highest risk areas by making sure people can access testing, vaccinations, and the resources needed to isolate successfully. However, funding from Monterey County ends March 31st and the number of community health workers is being reduced from 48 to 18. Although the latest surge is declining, the threat posed by the pandemic is not over, and the VIDA program is needed to help keep schools and businesses open.
Call to Action
Join COPA leaders, our allies, and partners at a Zoom event on Tuesday, March 1st, 6:30 – 7:30 PM, to launch a campaign to extend the VIDA program at current levels through December 31, 2022.
Questions? Contact your core team or contact the COPA office at [email protected] or (831) 728-3210.
Acción para extender el programa VIDA Trabajadoras Comunitarias hasta 2022
A fines del otoño de 2020, los líderes de la COPA escucharon de innumerables personas en pequeñas reuniones que no podían acceder a los recursos para luchar contra el COVID-19. COPA trajo estas poderosas historias a la Junta de Supervisores del Condado de Monterey. Votaron en diciembre de 2020 para asignar $4.9 millones para financiar el programa VIDA Community Health Worker, que es administrado por Community Foundation of Monterey County.
El programa ha tenido mucho éxito en romper la cadena de infección en las áreas de mayor riesgo al asegurarse de que las personas tuvieran acceso a recursos financieros, pruebas y vacunas. Sin embargo, la financiación del condado de Monterey finaliza en marzo de 2022. Aunque el último aumento está disminuyendo, la pandemia no ha terminado y se necesita el programa VIDA para reducir la amenaza continua de COVID-19.
Llamada a la acción
Únase a los líderes de COPA, nuestros aliados y socios en un evento de Zoom el martes 1 de marzo, de 6:30 p. m. a 7:30 p. m., para lanzar públicamente una campaña para extender el programa VIDA, en los niveles actuales, hasta el 31 de diciembre de 2022. Según lo propuesto por los supervisores Alejo y Root-Askew.
¿Preguntas? Envíe un correo electrónico a [email protected] o llame (831) 728-3210
We are reaching out to ask your support... |
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COPA’s mission is to develop leadership in ordinary people so they can engage effectively in public life and work together to make the Central Coast an even better place to live, work and raise our families. COPA is a democratic organization in which member institutions set the priorities. COPA has focused on affordable housing, healthcare, immigration, education, safety and economic development. Yet some of the same problems still face us in new forms, and other problems, such as the pandemic, have emerged. Below are some examples of how COPA has organized in 2021 to better serve our families: |
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Community Health Workers Breaking the Chain of Infection in Monterey County
In September, the Monterey County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to approve continuation of the Virus Distribution of Aid Project, VIDA, through March of 2022 and to assure approval of the $927,000 of remaining funds. COPA originally proposed the VIDA Project last December which the County funded with $4.9 million. This is a program which brings together Community Health Workers from ten community-based organizations around the County to provide testing, education, and supportive services to communities hardest hit by the virus and to go where traditional health services do not always reach—to the undocumented, the uninsured, and the poorest communities in our County. This program served as a model for other communities across the country when it was recognized by the U.S. Health Services Administration with matching support of an additional $4 million.
COPA worked diligently before the meeting marshalling support for the program by meeting with County supervisors and bringing in residents from their districts to speak about the continuing need for the program. COPA also brought firsthand stories told by Community Health Workers whose agencies are COPA members about the critical work they are doing to provide supportive services of food, and shelter to stop the spread of the disease by responding quickly to cases of exposure to the virus with rapid testing at pop-up testing sites. There has also been capacity building of the community health workers themselves 78 of whom received State certification. In total the program has had 339,000 client interations and delivered 8,000 vaccinations since the start of the program in February of this year. |
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COPA Assists Families to Enroll in Rental Assistance Program
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Results of COPA Watsonville Police and Safety House Meeting On October 28th the Watsonville City Council voted overwhelmingly to accept the recommendations of the Policing and Social Equity Ad Hoc Committee that COPA formed. Because of its earlier work on public safety in Watsonville in 2020, Former Mayor Rebecca Garcia and Chief of Police David Honda reached out to COPA to help strategize and create this committee.
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New & Potential Member Institutions
In 2021 COPA added two new members: 1) St. John the Baptist Catholic in King City, 2) Our Lady of Refuge Catholic in Castroville. We are finalizing membership covenants 3) Mujeres in Action, a Monterey County nonprofit; and 4) St. Mark’s Episcopal in King City. |
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Leadership Development
COPA has worked to strengthen Core Teams at new member congregations and trained approximately 350 leaders at five sessions, each with attendance of over 70 leaders. |
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Strategic Planning
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Successful Individual Donor and Sustaining Investment Campaign Fundraising campaigns grow COPA’s financial base. In its Individual Donor Campaign, COPA collected pledges from 51 individuals, a 10% increase over the previous year; and in the Investment Campaign we raised $38,559, a 25% increase over last year. |
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We can’t do this without you! We raise our budget each year from membership dues, Individual donations and foundations. In 2022 we hope to grow our staff so that we can act more broadly on the California Central Coast. We hope to raise $50,000 in individual donations by the end of the year from at least 200 individual donors. Help us create change you can measure & see! COPA is a strictly non-partisan, broad-based organization of 27 religious congregations, labor unions, schools, and nonprofits. Building power in the Monterey Bay region to act on the issues affecting our families. We challenge ordinary people to identify problems facing their neighborhoods & communities, connect individuals and organizations to multiply their power, and mobilize people by the thousands to bring about measurable and effective change. We are a 501c3 non-profit and affiliated with the Industrial Areas Foundation, the nation’s oldest and largest multi-faith organizing network. Sincerely, The COPA Regional Strategy Team |
Board President Wendy Root Askew thanked COPA for originally proposing the program, which has had marked success in bringing vaccine levels up in the County’s most vulnerable communities to the Countywide average rate of 75%. Before the program was begun many of those communities had had the lowest vaccination rates and the highest incidence of the virus.
COPA organized enrollment sessions for the Rental Assistance Program at six member congregations. In total individuals completed 374 applications at these events. COPA partnered with the City of Salinas and Hartnell College to process the applications. This project helped build leadership teams at each of the host institutions and strengthened relationships between institutions. The two Seaside congregations worked together on their enrollment events, as did the congregations in King City. Leaders from Castroville drove to Seaside and to King City to help with their events. Community health workers from the VIDA Program were on hand to help with this initiative. Through internet hookups they were able to complete the online applications.
At the end of October, religious leaders from member institutions met to formulate an Economic Recovery Strategy for the region. COPA’s Regional Strategy Team has been meeting over the course of 2021 to do strategic planning for the organization and to evaluate the organization’s performance at achieving its stated goals. This effort made clear the challenges we face to serve a large area covering three counties; to work on a broad range of issues such as health care, affordable housing and economic recovery; and to build relations among and train grassroots leaders to take action and exercise their power. As a result of this planning, we believe our organization is better integrated from the ground level up through the Regional Strategy Team, within the issues we are seeking to address, and across the geographic areas we serve.| Support us today! | Donate online via our website |
Write and send checks to COPA, 95 Alta Vista Avenue, Watsonville, CA 95076 |
COPA Gathers Support for Continued Funding by Monterey County
To Break the Chain of COVID Infection
On Tuesday September 28th, the Monterey County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to approve continuation of the Virus Distribution of Aid Project, VIDA, through March of 2022 and to assure approval of the $927,000 of remaining funds. COPA originally proposed the VIDA Project last December which received funding by the County at that time of $4.9 million. This is a program which brings together Community Health Workers from nine community-based organizations around the County to bring testing, education, and supportive services to communities hardest hit by the virus and to go where traditional health services do not always reach—to the undocumented, the uninsured, and the poorest communities in our County. This program served as a model for other communities across the country when it was recognized by the U.S. Health Services Administration with matching support of an additional $4 million.
COPA was thanked by Board President Askew for originally proposing the program, which has had marked success in bringing vaccine levels up in the County’s most vulnerable communities to the Countywide average rate of 75%. Before the program was begun many of those communities had had the lowest vaccination rates and the highest incidence of the virus.
COPA worked diligently before the meeting marshalling support for the program by meeting with County supervisors and bringing in residents from their districts to speak about the continuing need for the program. To those meetings COPA also brought firsthand stories told by COPA members who are themselves Community Health Workers about the critical work that had been done by the program in providing supportive services of food, education and shelter and stopping the spread of the disease by responding quickly to cases of exposure to the virus with rapid testing at pop-up testing sites. There has also been capacity building of the community health workers themselves 78 of whom received State certification. In total the program has had 339,000 client interactions and 8,000 individuals have received vaccinations through the program.
Helping families in distress
COPA assists Castroville residents applying for rent relief
From Voice of Monterey Bay, SEPTEMBER 3, 2021
In Monterey County, rental assistance is also available to families living in rooms or garages.
| By Luis Arreguín
Every Wednesday for the last month, members of COPA Castroville have been gathering outside Our Lady of Refuge Catholic church for a noble cause. They are helping community members apply for the rental assistance program authorized by the U.S. government that provides relief for the economic struggles families have experienced because of COVID-19.
But it takes more than just setting up tables and computers and getting together every Wednesday afternoon to help farmworkers in distress.
Once Congress approved legislation to provide economic stimulus for families, some organizations like COPA organized community members demanding an eviction moratorium and the allocation of federal funds to help families struggling to pay rent. The problem for Castroville, and other small rural communities in the area, is that rental assistance was approved only for tenants with formal leases. And when it comes to Castroville, the picture of rentals is completely different.
In this North Monterey County town, many tenants live in garages, studios or rooms rented from homeowners who share their houses to get some economic relief themselves. Those agreements between tenants and homeowners are largely verbal and many landlords did not have any intention of signing documents to prove they were renting their properties. In effect, small tenants in this — and other areas where farmworkers live — would not be able to apply for rental assistance.
| Photo by Adriana Molina
COPA, which stands for Communities Organized for Relational Power in Action, held meetings with its different core teams at different locations throughout California and paid attention to the voices demanding help. As a result, rental assistance regulations were modified to include people living in rooms and garages whether or not they had a lease. Once we learned this great news, we immediately started to plan a way to get this assistance to the people in our town.
Mary Rojo, Ady Santana, Isabel Manzo, Tere Simancas, Lidia Serrato, Adriana Molina and I met with Father Pedro Espinoza of Our Lady of Refuge to discuss how the church could get involved in getting the message out for as many people as possible. Espinoza announced at every Mass that COPA would be helping families file the application for rental assistance outside the church each Wednesday from 5 to 7 p.m. Sometimes, the group would finish around 8 p.m.
We are still providing this support on a weekly basis. As of Sept. 1, about 140 applications have been submitted.
This process at the local level started with a Civic Academy on Zoom one day after a Sunday mass, with Lidia Serrato and Tere Simancas describing the rental assistance program. After sharing stories, regional leaders of COPA such as Arturo Aguila oriented potential applicants on the documents they needed to bring to the church. The Civic Academy on Zoom was a bilingual event at which people affected by COVID-19 narrated how they struggled to keep their jobs and to keep food on the table when they lost their jobs or were temporarily laid off.
| Photo by Adriana Molina
After the Civic Academy, Mary Rojo and Lupita Zamudio prepared flyers to be distributed after Mass at Our Lady of Refuge, and every Wednesday Tere Simancas, Lidia Serrato and I fired up our laptops to input as many applications as possible through the United Way website. Isabel, Ady, Lupita and Mary supported their group by taking pictures of each document, using Adobe Scan to get PDF files which were then submitted to the team in charge of uploading those documents along with the application to the official website.
The work has been completed with an on-site review by an agency in charge of verifying documents and authorizing the disbursement of the funds. Lenin Ramos from Mujeres en Accion and Ana Ibarra from Hartnell College have attended some of these events in Castroville to conduct a thorough review of the applications and guarantee their approval. Some other visitors, such United Way representatives as well as a candidate running for Monterey County supervisor, have visited the booth.
We in COPA Castroville think that we have passed our first test as a new organization and that our journey to become community leaders has just started. The community will have the last word.
For more information about the rental assistance program in Monterey County, visit https://www.unitedwaymcca.org/county-rent-and-utility.
About Luis Arreguín
Luis Arreguín grew up in Querétaro, Mexico, where he worked as a college instructor and a journalist. He immigrated to the United States in 2000. He currently is an adjunct math instructor at Monterey Peninsula College and a US Citizenship teacher for North Monterey County Unified School District.
California IAF Leaders Celebrate Victory
AB832 Applauded for Keeping Families Housed and Rental Assistance Flowing
CALIFORNIA—Today, thousands of leaders across California Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) organizations celebrate the Governor’s and the state lawmakers announced deal to extend the state’s eviction moratorium and rent relief program that was sent to expire June 30, 2021.
The California IAF applauds State leaders for
- Extending the eviction ban to September 30, 2021.
- Paying 100% overdue rent and utilities paid for landlords and tenants.
- Providing up to 18 months of rental assistance for past and future rent
- Allowing either tenants or landlords to receive funds.
- Forestalling evictions until rental assistance applications are attempted.
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Click here to register
The violent incursion of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, January 6 disrespected, demeaned, and threatened the right of every citizen who peaceably engages in the democratic process in our country.
Deliberation, debate, argument, compromise, negotiation; these are the means to advance interests in a democracy. The leaders and organizations of COPA, Communities Organized for Relational Power in Action, an Affiliate of the Industrial Areas Foundation, the oldest and largest broad based organizing institution in our nation, teach and practice these political skills every day. We vigorously engage on issues that impact our families and travel regularly to state capitals, City Halls, and decision-making chambers to advance these issues. That the buildings and halls of power belong to us is made self-evident in our consistent and persistent presence throughout years of effort. Our work is carried out through hundreds of conversations full of respectful dissent, concession, and sometimes victory; in other words, democratically.
What happened yesterday at the U.S. Capitol not only resulted in the deaths of four individuals and the arrests of dozens of rioters, it also endangered the officials, staff members, and public safety officers who were present. Ultimately it put at risk our democratic institutions by introducing violence to what has, until now, been a tradition of a peaceful transfer of power in our national leadership. To arrive at consent at the point of a gun is the weakest form of power, and our nation was weakened in the eyes of the world on January 6 by the use of violence in place of political debate.
As a network of religious, labor, education and community leaders from all walks of life and all political persuasions, we condemn the acts of insurrection and violence in Washington, D.C., and recall the words of Abraham Lincoln in his second inaugural address at the conclusion of the Civil War: "With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan -- to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations."
For Immediate Release: December 21, 2020
Monterey County Board of Supervisors Unanimously Approve COPA Proposal
$4.9M allocated for program targeting neighborhoods hardest hit by COVID
Proposal for community-based health workers and coordinated care
Central Coast -- On Monday, December 21, 2020, during a special meeting, the Monterey County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a nearly $5 million six month Community Outreach & Education pilot program that will target the neighborhoods hit the hardest by COVID-19. This program will hire 100 community health workers, or promotorx, trusted people from community-based organizations starting January 1. The trained community health workers will do outreach, prevention education, promote testing, and navigation to support services using a culturally and linguistically appropriate joint problem- solving approach. Essentially, these workers will help educate families, as well as connect people who test positive with needed services, such as temporary housing for quarantine or isolation, cash assistance, food, medical care and information about employment rights. It will use the Census tracts to target the hardest hit communities.
The proposal approved today was created by COPA’s “Breaking the Chain” team, based on more than 2,000 conversations with families in Monterey County impacted by COVID-19. The pilot program is similar to programs in Fresno, Sonoma, and San Diego Counties.
COPA’s 28 member institutions have heard stories about the need for rental assistance, access to testing, tracing, and supported isolation in this time of pandemic, and access to education and distance learning resources. Stories were shared from COPA members on their struggles to live and work in the Monterey Bay Region during this time of the novel Coronavirus.
Many organizations spoke in support of the proposal including Building Healthy Communities, Center for Community Advocacy, California Rural Legal Assistance, the Monterey County Farm Bureau, The Catholic Diocese, the Hospitality Industry Association, and several others.
Founded in 2003, COPA is a broad-based, non-partisan membership organization working on issues affecting our families, neighborhoods, and communities. The 28 member institutions include faith communities, nonprofits, schools, and labor associations from throughout Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties.
Contact: Mayra Bernabe / 831.786.6520 / [email protected]
Also see:
COPA Civic Academy
COVID-19 Pandemic:
Making Greater Progress Together
Sunday, December 13, 2020
from 2:30-4:00 PM
Guest Speaker:
Sundeep K Gupta MD MPH
Open to all COPA member organizations to learn from epidemiologist Dr. Sundeep Gupta his recommendations for how to effectively fight the pandemic. We have invited County Supervisors to hear first hand experiences of how testing, tracing and supported isolation is not working in our community to protect our families, and to ask for their support.
Dr. Gupta is a Medical Epidemiologist and Family Physician who has spent more than 15 years fighting disease outbreaks both domestically and internationally. He has led numerous outbreak responses, including against HIV epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa countries, Ebola in Liberia, Yellow Fever in Uganda, and Salmonella in the United States.
Dr. Gupta trained in Family Medicine at Natividad Medical Center in Salinas, California. He is a fluent Spanish speaker and has worked extensively with Monterey County's farmworker population. Dr. Gupta trained in Tropical Medicine at Tulane University and in 2004, joined CDC's Epidemic Intelligence Service program to train as a disease detective. He then went overseas and served as the CDC Country Director in Uganda, Malawi and Zambia. He has published approximately 50 scientific manuscripts on food insecurity among immigrants, community-based primary health care, and disease outbreaks.
COPA Candidates' Accountability Forum on
When: Oct 4, 2020 04:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
Candidates Wendy Root Askew and Steve McShane from Monterey County District 4 and John Leopold and Manu Koenig from Santa Cruz County District 1
The Candidates will state their positions on critical issues facing residents of the Monterey Bay area including
Rent Moratoriums; Testing, Tracing and Supported Isolation; and Workforce Development
COPA leads community effort
to extend renter protections and funding for landlords.
Collaboration will prevent homelessness, engage tenants and restore unpaid rent.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – August 18, 2020:
Contact: Mayra Bernabe / 831.786.6520 / [email protected]
SANTA CRUZ, CA – The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors took two important steps today to respond to the pressure on renters unable to earn a living because of the impact of the pandemic on their jobs and businesses. The Supervisors extended the moratorium on evictions to keep tenants housed while providing funds for landlords to cover missed rent payments.
Speaking in support of the Board’s actions, COPA leader Jorge Savala said, “Families have abided by the government call to shelter-in-place to reduce the spread of Covid-19, bearing the consequence of lost income, only now to be faced with losing the roof over their heads. Today’s decision to extend the moratorium on evictions will help to prevent a new pandemic of homelessness.”
Landlords are also feeling the pinch when rents are unpaid. As a result of meetings with COPA in June, Supervisor’s Leopold and McPherson sponsored a $1 million rental assistance program from CARES Act funds for inclusion in the 2021-22 budget.
Supervisor Leopold, having initiated the original moratorium on evictions at the start of the pandemic, added; “I recognized the severity of the problem in our community and worked hard to find the money to help people during their time of need.”
Nery Garcia, COPA leader, thanked the County Supervisors for including these funds that will flow to landlords to cover missed rent payments by their tenants. “We are all in this together. Landlords can’t pay their bills if tenants can’t pay their rent if they can’t work. COPA also requests that the Board of Supervisors work with us to develop a longer-term solution before the September 30th moratorium expires.”
Supervisor Friend responded affirmatively, requesting the staff explore options for a rental payback program by examining Santa Clara, LA County and Watsonville’s programs. Supervisor Friend declared, “As we await decisions at the federal and state level, we are committed to doing all we can locally to solve this problem. Today I asked County staff to explore a rental payback program and work with COPA to discuss solutions with landlords.” In addition, Supervisor McPherson requested the staff to report by the 2nd week in September with 6-month and 12-month options.
COPA is continuing to engage tenants throughout the county by:
- Organizing Civic Academies to teach tenant rights and responsibilities
- Partnering with the County staff to conduct culturally appropriate outreach and workshops to prepare tenants and landlords for the County’s $1 million rental assistance program application process.
- Collaborating with Supervisors Friend and Coonerty and county staff to develop options for rental payback programs that protect tenants and sustain landlords before the end of the September 30 moratorium.
More information:
The Holy Cross Food Pantry saw a ten-fold increase of parishioners and community members needing help when the shelter-in-place order closed businesses, leaving hundreds without work. While supplying food, we also connected parishioners via Zoom calls to teach them about the moratorium on evictions and how to write a letter to their landlord. COPA leaders shared our stories with Supervisors Leopold and McPherson, which inspired them to co-sponsor a $1 million allocation of CARES funding for rental assistance and continue the moratorium on evictions through September 30.
COPA is a broad-based organization consisting of member institutions. We are an organization of institutions, not individuals. Individuals come and go, but institutions such as churches, congregations, synagogues, schools, unions, and membership-based nonprofits are vessels of relationships among people with shared values of faith, democracy, solidarity and traditions of mutual obligation within the life of a community. We organize across institutions to bring together a diverse cross-section of the region, rich and poor, immigrant and citizen, English-speakers and Spanish-speakers, and people of any creed and race. Individual institutions have limited power to change the social, economic and political constraints on their families, but collectively, a mix of institutions can organize around mutual interests to achieve change for the common good.