Volunteers Help Get the Job Done | PEG TV Coming
Plans for New Childcare Center Underway | Creating a Caring Community on the Peninsula
Events, Forums Scheduled | City Offers More Ways to Get Involved

The City’s communications tools, volunteer opportunities and projects geared to address the needs of youth and families help build and maintain a healthy community. Such programs offer ways to participate in the decision-making process, ensure that residents are informed about news and issues and provide the City with vital community input on many topics.

Year in Review
Volunteers Help Get the Job Done
Helping hands last year united the City like never before as citizen involvement in volunteer activities grew 72 percent from the previous year.
More than 1,500 people donated many hours of much-appreciated time to help make Monterey a safer and more enjoyable place to live.
Volunteers could be found in every department of the City, pitching in for special events as well as undertaking long-term, ongoing assignments.
Our citizens assisted City staff with pre-school and after-school programs, filing and computer work, database creation and entry, a redevelopment research project and taking photographs for ID cards.
They helped with community forums; shooed sea lions from waterfront locations; prompted parade entries; counted traffic on the Recreation Trail and at street intersections; cleaned streets, beaches and parks; assisted with community collaborative efforts and much more.
As we sloshed through the storms of El Niño, more than 300 local residents, including military service personnel, braved the rain to fill sandbags, unplug storm drains and aid in traffic control. Volunteers with our Neighborhood Emergency Response Teams (NERT) alone gave 2,594 hours and were very active during the storms.
Another project, “Make a Difference Day,” saw volunteers cleaning El Estero Park, polishing the De Anza Walk sculpture and refurbishing tree wells.
The Police Department’s Volunteers in Policing has grown to 20 citizens and now includes an Explorer Scout program and downtown patrol unit .
Additionally, the Monterey Public Library’s academic enrichment and homework program, Homework Pals, has expanded to five sites with a sixth site on the horizon.
New programs and more exciting activities are coming up this year.

PEG TV Coming
Soon important community information and programs will be broadcast on local cable TV.
We finalized our franchise renewal agreement last year with the local cable company to provide channels and resources to begin a community-based Public, Education and Government (PEG) access program.
We also contracted with a new nonprofit, Access Monterey Peninsula, to help us develop a work program for broadcasting important community information, and provide opportunities to our community to air their own television programming.
We will be gearing up to go on air sometime next fiscal year.

Looking Ahead
Plans for New Childcare Center Underway
Awareness, advocacy and action are key to developing a childcare strategy rooted in collaboration. As the City begins to develop a plan for using the now-vacant childcare facility on the Presidio of Monterey, we understand that both public- and private-sector resources must be utilized to make the program a success.
The former Presidio of Monterey Child Development Center once served military families. Now the building sits empty, and the City is working to see if there are opportunities for reopening the center. One possibility is to lease the property from the Presidio on a long-term basis and then find a qualified licensed childcare provider to operate the program. City staff is working with community volunteers to identify licensed childcare providers who may be interested in this opportunity.
As this concept moves toward reality, we will look to all segments of the community – businesses and nonprofits to neighborhood groups and government agencies – to take an active role.

Creating a Caring Community on the Peninsula
Community of Caring Monterey Peninsula is continuing to grow! A coalition of the three Peninsula public school districts, local colleges and universities, the seven Peninsula cities, public and nonprofit agencies, businesses, youth and the community at large, Community of Caring Monterey Peninsula is dedicated to teaching and supporting youth and families in everyday life. The City of Monterey has been an active partner since its creation.
Many of the City’s programs, both new and old, are being pursued under the Community of Caring umbrella. Examples include the Homework Pals program in the Monterey Public Library, the Youth Diversion and School Resource Officer programs in the Police Department and our many recreation and leisure services programs.
Community of Caring is an active, vibrant program, and you are encouraged to become involved. For more information visit the program’s Web site at http://communityofcaringmp.org/, or call 646-3760.

Events, Forums Scheduled
Keeping our community up-to-date and creating additional opportunities to gather community input continues to be an important goal for the City. We are sponsoring additional community workshops and activities this year to help make this happen.
Already this July we held an Historic Preservation Workshop where local and national experts discussed the pros and cons of historic preservation. If you missed the workshop, you can still get the scoop - the video series is available at the Monterey Public Library.
Our popular Citizens’ Tour of the City is scheduled again this year for late September, and we hope to see you in 1998 at “Community Connections,” our town hall meeting held to gather input on community priorities.
In addition, Internet access is now available at the Monterey Public Library. Workstations are currently set up and available for use.
Don’t forget to let us know what you think about these and other City services by completing the citizen survey included in this report.
Please take a moment to fill it out and mail it in. We want to know how we’re doing and hear of new ways to better serve you.
Look for scheduling information in upcoming editions of City Focus. Also look for calendar updates in the local media.

City Offers More Ways to Get Involved
Adhering to the belief that “people do make a difference,” the City is expanding opportunities for volunteers to participate in the rich and varied programs offered by the City this year.
As staff will attest, volunteers make many of our programs possible.
“Volunteers contribute to the success of many activities, lending their precious time and diverse talents to a variety of programs and events attended by citizens of all ages,” says Recreation Superintendent Jeanne Calzada.
For example, programs encouraging teen involvement through partnerships with local agencies are on-line. The City envisions a project linking adult volunteers with preteens to create and collect personal-care kits for City disaster shelters.
Additionally, plans are underway for national “Make a Difference Day” to be held October 24. One-day projects will highlight individual as well as family participation.
The City will also focus on creating a Recycling Team to educate residents about the importance of recycling and encourage recycling at special events; and we’ll be working with Monterey Peninsula College and county agencies to place volunteers in work-experience opportunities for those transitioning off of welfare under the CalWorks program.
The City is also gearing up to participate in the California Sesquicentennial commemoration, marking 150 years of statehood. Additionally, the Monterey Volunteers in Policing (M.V.P.) Patrol Unit promises to unite residents with the Police Department to help make the City a safer community
We are looking for individuals and groups to join us in our efforts. To become a volunteer, call our Volunteer Services Program Coordinator, Susan Schiavone, at 646.3719.

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