Grantee Community Profiles

Calistoga

(Image from Tripsavvy)

The presence of thermal hot springs made Calistoga, located in northern Napa County, a popular tourist destination long before the region developed into the wine mecca it is today. With a population near 6,000, much of Calistoga’s workforce is employed seasonally in viniculture and hospitality. Nearly half of local families earn less than $50,000 per year and more than 75% of local students qualify for free or reduced-price school meals. More than 70% of incoming kindergarten students are English Learners.

Between 2002 and 2005, Cowell awarded seven place-based grants in Calistoga, highlighted by a capital grant for a modular building to house a family resource center on the campus of Calistoga Elementary School.  Inspired by the progress of the family resource center and its emerging partnership with Calistoga Joint Unified School District and other agencies in a Community Schools Initiative, Cowell re-engaged in Calistoga in 2015. Through 2021, our investment comprised 25 grants totaling $1.5 million for the Community Schools Initiative; to build a Boys & Girls Clubhouse; and to strengthen academic and social-support programs for students at local schools.

Mayfair, San Jose

Cesar Chavez, who founded the United Farm Workers Association, came of age in the East San Jose community of Mayfair when the area was known for orchards and canneries.  Today, Mayfair is a vibrant urban neighborhood of 10,000 residents that stands at a complex and uneasy intersection. Poverty is endemic to the community and educational attainment is low, with fewer than one in 10 adults having attended college. Yet, residents uphold strong traditions of mutual support, civic advocacy and cultural celebration. At the same time, as housing costs escalate and new infrastructure links San Jose’s neighborhoods to the city center as never before, East San Jose is again a community in transition.

From 2012 through 2021, Cowell’s investment in Mayfair comprised 47 grants totaling $3.6 million. Our support has principally sustained two inter-connected enterprises:

• The In Our Hands initiative of Somos Mayfair seeks to activate residents as leaders and align effort around the singular goal of ensuring that all neighborhood children arrive at school ready to learn and achieve basic literacy by the end of third grade. The initiative has trained and supported more than 200 resident promotores who have engaged more than 6,000 of their neighbors in programs focused on health, education and economic advancement.
• The Si Se Puede collaborative links and aligns the efforts of four community-based agencies who work with families and youth to ensure access to basic needs such as food, housing and transportation, to foster cultural expression and exchange, and to engage residents in creating safety, opportunity and recognition.

Napa

As the largest city in a region world-famous for its wines, Napa exemplifies the beauty, abundance and disparity of California. Many adult residents hold multiple, low-paying jobs in viniculture, hospitality and related sectors.

From 2006 to 2015, Cowell made 30 place-based grants in the McPherson  neighborhood, near downtown Napa. At that time, close to 90% of the 650 students at McPherson Elementary School were eligible for free or reduced-priced lunches and more than 65% were classified as English Learners.

Grants helped to develop the Neighborhood Initiative, spearheaded by On the Move, a local nonprofit, in collaboration with school and school district leaders.  Together, the Neighborhood Initiative partners are committed to lift expectations and increase equity of opportunity for students in neighborhood schools, to improve quality of life for families, youth and children, and to open a diverse, inter-generational pipeline to civic engagement and organizational leadership.

Since 2015, the Neighborhood Initiative has expanded to students and families at five neighborhood schools where working-class, mainly Latino families are concentrated. It now encompasses three family resource centers, in-school and after-school youth leadership programs, and academic support programs that link and align the efforts of elementary, middle and high schools. The scope and focus of Cowell grants also has expanded; through 2021, our investment comprised 60 grants totaling $7.3 million.

Sanger

(Image from The Fresno Bee)

The town of Sanger is located at the eastern edge of the San Joaquin Valley, 12 miles from Fresno, close to the foothills below Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks. Its population of 25,000 comprises mainly Latinos (85%) and Whites (13%). Agriculture drives the local economy, providing seasonal field work and blue-collar jobs in packing and processing plants. In local schools, 73% of students qualify for free and reduced-price meals and 38% began school as English Learners (ELs). However, Sanger is also a burgeoning bedroom community for commuters to Fresno.

From 2007 through 2021, Cowell’s investment in Sanger comprised 49 grants totaling $5.6 million. Grants helped Sanger Unified School District (SUSD) become one of the highest-performing, high-poverty districts in California. Other highlights include the development of the Sanger Family Resource Center, which provides services and programs at multiple locations in the community. Cowell began making “exit” grants in Sanger in 2019.

Tahoe Truckee

The Tahoe Truckee region runs north from Lake Tahoe, in Placer County, over a mountain pass to the town of Truckee in Nevada County, and is home to 30,000 year-round residents. The local economy is driven by seasonal tourism, so low-wage service jobs predominate. Vacation homes ring the lake, while nearby trailer parks and converted summer cottages are crowded with working families, of whom many are first and second-generation Mexican-Americans. At Truckee Elementary School, 55% of students are Latino, 40% are English Learners (ELs), and 55% qualify for the federal lunch subsidy.

Cowell’s engagement here began in 2000 with some of our earliest place-based grants in the unincorporated lakeside town of Kings Beach. Over seven years, Cowell made 30 grants in Kings Beach. Major results included start-up of the North Tahoe Family Resource Center, construction of a Boys and Girls Club adjacent to Kings Beach Elementary School, and production of affordable multi-family housing comprising 524 units.

In 2007, Cowell expanded our definition of the community in order to address the widening distribution of families living in poverty throughout the region. Through 2021, 107 grants totaling $9.1 million established an Endowment for Strengthening Families at the Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation and helped to: grow wellness and enrichment programs for middle and high school-aged youth; enact systemic improvements in the Tahoe Truckee Unified School District; and support the merger of four existing family resource centers into Sierra Community House, a regional family-strengthening organization. Cowell began making “exit” grants in Tahoe Truckee in 2018.