City reaches out to children, families

OK's over $500,000 for new programs

By Daniel Hindin

The city of Sunnyvale will soon be going into a different sort of recreation business: a mobile one. City employees will drive vans full of arts and crafts materials, sports equipment, games and portable furniture to schools, parks and other neighborhood gathering places for use by children, teens and families.

This is just one creative new programs that will go into effect now that Sunnyvale City Council has approved a $514,264 plan to better meet the needs of the city's youth and families.

More than half of the plan's entire budget will fund the mobile recreation program.

Another pilot program works to prevent youth and family crime. In this program, city personnel will encourage public awareness and youth participation. The department of public safety also will open its doors for select community events.

The city will develop specific policies directed at encouraging local businesses to provide on-site child-care services.

While these three efforts aim at creating new activities for youths and families, there are two new programs to make residents more aware of what services are already available.

The city government will increase public awareness of its services--new or otherwise--through its website and a plethora of other multimedia options.

In addition, the city has created a completely new position, that of a youth services coordinator. Whoever fills this position will be expected to support these new programs by acting as an advocate for youth and families, and as a liaison between community agencies and the city government.

City officials emphasize these are only preliminary programs. Rocio Abundis-Rodriguez, site manager of the Columbia Neighborhood Center, played a major role in developing the plan. He will report back to the city council in December on its progress. At that point, or possibly further down the road, portions of the plan may be altered. Successful programs will continue while failed ones may undergo changes, or new ones may be created in their place.

"In our internal meetings," Abundis-Rodriguez says, "we decided what programs could be done within the next year and what would have the most initial impact. We see this as being a multiyear process. All we're saying is that this is what we want to start with."

Another element of the plan is the formation of eight action groups. The purpose of the groups is to bridge communications among different community agencies. Officials hope this new forum for interagency communication will lead to creative collaboration.

Mike Kalb, principal of Sunnyvale's Nimitz School, has joined the action group that would increase services and activities for school-age children. Through the group, Kalb plans to network with local agencies in the hopes of bringing more of these services to Nimitz, a school that, by Kalb's account, is deficient in after-school and other programs.

Nimitz faces a particular dilemma in its efforts to provide programs for its kindergarten through sixth grade students. Kalb and Nimitz's administration have a difficult time with funding because, while Nimitz is located in Sunnyvale, it falls under the jurisdiction of Cupertino Union School District.

"For years," Kalb says, "one assumed we were getting funds from the other."

But now, through the city's new plan, Kalb acknowledges he is getting more support from the Sunnyvale.

"I see service from the city starting here," he says. "I just want to applaud the city for doing this. When you're dealing with the city, it's not like things can happen overnight, but I'm very happy that I'm starting next year with the city's parks and recreation department on my side."

According to Abundis-Rodriguez, residents may begin to see some results of the new plan almost immediately, while others may take years to develop.

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