Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Seven year-old Susie Hernandez, left, gets a check up by nurse practitioner Debi Smith at the Columbia Health Center. The clinic is part of the larger Columbia Neighborhood Center, and offers pediatric and adolescent health care to children, with or without insurance, from newborn to 18-years-old.
Center still looking out for residents
First conceived as a gym project, CNC continues to provide many local services
By Daniel Hindin
The Columbia Neighborhood Center is a model for neighborhood services throughout California. It provides parental counseling, free immunizations for children without insurance, open gym time, sports camps, summer trips, volunteer opportunities, English as a Second Language classes, computer classes, and loads of after school activities. They even have a "bookmobile" that travels to neighborhoods throughout the city offering access to books, videos and audiotapes for children and adults. And oddly enough, the CNC began as a very minor school gymnasium project.
Sunnyvale's youth population was growing rapidly in the mid-1990s and the Sunnyvale School District realized they needed a second middle school. When the Columbia neighborhood was chosen to house the new school in 1994, the community rallied around the idea.
"They welcomed it," says Rocio Abundis-Rodriguez, current site manager of the CNC. "But they wanted to make sure that it was of equal status to Sunnyvale Middle School."
The site, which had previously housed Columbia Community School--an elementary school--didn't have a gym.
The district felt that the request for a gymnasium was fair, and they began making necessary plans. As planning continued, it soon occurred to the district that there was a great opportunity for an added bonus.
"In the process [of planning the facility], the state came out with the Healthy Start Planning Grant," says Don Jolly, director of the district's special education program, who was on the original committee to reopen the school. "So in planning the facility, we were now able to plan for social services on site."
With the state funding a large portion of service costs plus an additional operational grant, the city of Sunnyvale and the school district didn't hesitate on the chance to enter into a partnership with Sunnyvale-based Advanced Micro Devices to cover building costs. El Camino Hospital District Foundation also contributed.
What started out as a community's demand for a gym had suddenly become an amazing opportunity to create something new and different. Now the only question was what, exactly, to create.
"The grants allowed us to hire folks on board and do a real comprehensive assessment of the community," Jolly says.
The folks they hired conducted a needs-assessment survey. They asked community members what kind of services they wanted--what would be useful to them.
"As we found what the needs were, we found that we had to bring in even more agencies," Jolly says. "The Columbia area has always had a strong need for services because they have to travel a long distance for health, police, library and other services. And with Highway 101, there's certainly a physical barrier between them and the rest of the city. Rather than have people go to the services, we wanted to bring the services to the people."
And that's just what they've been doing for the past five years.
It took a while to get all of the different ideas together and coordinate between all of the many project partners, but two years after the planning began, on Sep. 21, 1996, the Columbia Neighborhood Center opened its doors to about 1,000 people for a dedication ceremony.
The CNC, "a partnership for education, health and recreation," now houses a gym, counseling rooms, a health information center and administrative offices. They produce a tri-annual bilingual newsletter in English and Spanish that keeps the community aware of the multitude of opportunities available to them.
The program has many contacts throughout the Santa Clara Valley. If they don't offer a service they'll direct people to somewhere that does. Many area services actually offer programs through the center.
Representatives of the center stress it's not just for kids but adults, too. And residents from the entire city are welcome to use it, not just members of the Columbia neighborhood.
"What really intrigued me as an outsider looking in [during 1996] was how much work went into the center," says site manager Abundis-Rodriguez. "I was very impressed with the whole process. They really put a lot of heart into it. But it's interesting because I think there's always more. There are always more needs that can be met."
"I never thought we would be this successful," Jolly says. "We've outgrown our space."
"We're using space in a way that we never intended to." Abundis-Rodriguez adds. "Offices designed for one person are used for six people, and a lot of our services are confidential and that [lack of space] gets in the way."
She says the present situation causes a sort of "Catch-22." There are many local services that want to bring their programs to the center at very low costs, but there is nowhere to put them.
A recent study conducted by the city of Sunnyvale concluded that, despite the success of the center, the Columbia neighborhood is still the number one area in the city in need of more community programs. But because of a lack of space at the center, services that would be extremely beneficial to the neighborhood are being turned away.
However, there is talk of expansion, according to Abundis-Rodriguez. She says there are preliminary drawings of a plan that would add a minimum of 1900 square feet.
In the meantime, Abundis-Rodriguez and her staff have been forced to get creative, using other school campuses to house some of their programs.
The city appears happy with the center's success. It recently completed a Columbia Neighborhood Center Replication Study as part of a campaign to bring more services to more people throughout the entire city.
"I think we're a model that's been very successful," Jolly concludes. "Bringing of services to school campuses is happening statewide now. People have been really pleased and impressed with the wide range of services we provide. I'm certainly hopeful that this will happen for years to come. I think it will continue to grow and evolve."
Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
