Development

29% of individuals experiencing homelessness in Sonoma County are Latinx. We sat down with Ana Calles, one of COTS’ bilingual care-managers to talk about how her position supports COTS’ mission to implement policies and practices of social equity that empower a diverse and inclusive environment for staff, volunteers, clients, programs, and the communities we serve.

What brought you to COTS? 

I was previously homeless and stayed in transitional housing with my child. I have always held shelters in my heart and have a passion for helping people. COTS has always been known as a great shelter, and they have many important programs that support our most vulnerable population. When I came for my interview, I knew it was going to be the right fit.  

Tell us about your previous experience. 

I grew up in low-income housing projects with all different types of people. I have always been drawn to helping people and can relate to many different situations. I decided to get my bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice and Criminology as well as my master’s degree in Public Administration. I volunteered to advocate for childcare and early education and support low-income parents. I was on the Board of Directors at NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) and a Warmline Specialist for a year.  

Tell us about a typical day in the life of a bilingual care manager. 

My day-to-day care management load varies. When I see my monolingual Spanish-speaking clients, I am usually working with them to try and find employment/income and/or citizenship paperwork. Working as a bilingual care manager, I am spending more time with clients, giving them rides to the doctor’s office, providing verbal translation, and calling Partnership for rides.  I also make many types of appointments and translate all paperwork and texts that clients receive in English. I focus a lot on job searches where the employer does not mention applicants needing a social security number. 

What are some of the biggest challenges facing your Spanish-speaking clients? 

It can be very challenging to navigate employment options for my clients because some are undocumented. They struggle to find an employer that will hire them without requiring a social security number verification. 

Most of my Spanish-speaking clients struggle to find employment and because of their citizenship status, they cannot receive government assistance, such as SNAP, GA, or SSI. These clients typically have to find an under-the-table type of job and still pay for a room to rent, as they usually cannot be referred to housing due to their lack of social security numbers. While it is a struggle to find them housing, I also make sure they have adequate resources by making sure our documents here at COTS are in Spanish. If they are not, I translate them. 

In a world of constant change and uncertainty, education stands as a beacon of hope and opportunity. For children experiencing homelessness, the importance of staying in school cannot be overstated.

Amidst the challenges and hardships that come with homelessness, maintaining a consistent education can provide a lifeline to stability, empowerment, and a brighter future. That’s why, at COTS, Care Manager Wendy Lindberg works so diligently to support children’s education.

When a new family moves in to KFFS, one of the priorities is their children’s education.  If the family is from out of town, Wendy will register their children in the Petaluma School District.  If the family is local and prefers to stay at their home school, she reaches out to that school district to start work on a transportation plan.

The McKinney Vento Act requires that school districts provide transportation for students experiencing homelessness and that may be in the form of a bus ride, gas cards or even a driving service like Uber.  It can take weeks for a plan to come into place, so in the meantime Wendy supports our parents by assisting with school drop off and pick up.

Wendy also helps our KFFS families navigate the difficult terrain of getting an IEP (Individual Education Plan) for children.  She helps families gather documentation, brings them to appointments and acts as an advocate when needed. She shared how proud she is of the families both at currently at KFFS and those recently housed who set up IEPs with her assistance and are continuing them.

We’re so grateful to Wendy for the incredible work she does supporting our families. By prioritizing children’s education, COTS offers our families stability and hope.

By investing in COTS, you are investing in the education of children, we are investing in a future where potential knows no bounds and where the cycle of homelessness can be broken, one child at a time. We invite you to support this life changing work

Volunteers Make A Difference!

While we believe that Wendy is super woman, KFFS is also fortunate to have community support from volunteers who go above and beyond for our families.  We have volunteers who provide after school homework assistance and organized-play.  It’s an incredible opportunity for community members to support our families and ensure that children stay on top of their schoolwork. Community groups like the Petaluma Valley Rotary Club and Active 20/30 Club also provide material needs to our families.  This August both groups helped provide backpacks, school supplies, school clothes and more for the families at KFFS.

This winter, more groups will come together to support our families over the Holidays.  To learn more about how your or your community groups can get involved, email [email protected].

“Recently, a past client called to share with me the progress they were making with  their child’s speech therapy, thanks to their IEP.  It’s so gratifying to see our families doing so well.”  Wendy Lindberg

At COTS, we love to celebrate our teammates’ successes. So when HUD-PSH (Permanent Supportive Housing) Care Manager Ashley Lovejoy got into her first choice nursing program, the whole team erupted in a series of congratulatory emails. 

“I’ve always naturally been drawn to medicine,” she says. In spite of this, the journey to nursing school has not been simple, or easy. 

“I grew up on and off homeless my whole life, like my whole childhood,” she says. “When I was in high school, my family actually lived in a COTS house. So that’s how I knew about COTS, was my experience with them when I was young.

“I had a great experience with COTS and the caseworkers. They were very encouraging of me, [even when] my mom was encouraging me to drop out of high school when I had a 4.0.”

In spite of her mother’s drug addiction, and with the support of her COTS case manager, Ashley finished high school. She then attempted Sonoma State, but dropped out after taking on too many advanced classes. She got married, then divorced, worked in England and Denmark, and is now a single mom of four boys. 

After her divorce, she and her kids moved back to the States. “Within a couple of weeks of moving back here, I went back to school at the JC. And in a couple of years, I went back to Sonoma State and got my Bachelor’s in Sociology.“

Last May, her journey brought her back to COTS, when she joined the team as our HUD-PSH Care Manager. “I told everyone coming in that I wanted to work for COTS because of my history with COTS, and because I wanted to make a difference,” she says. 

Prior to working at COTS, Ashley’s love of children had always drawn her to pediatrics. But her experience working with clients in the Permanent Supportive Housing program quickly changed all that. “After working for COTS and then working with the clients that I have, building that relationship, I’ve decided I’m specializing in adult geriatrics now, because I see such a need,” she says. 

“I’ve seen with my clients, how fearful a lot of them are. [A lot of our clients are] very hesitant [to seek medical care] because they feel judged. I have one who, once he left the Mary Isaac Center, he refused to see a doctor. Any time he saw one, [he’d say] ‘They don’t care about me.’”

Not willing to give up, Ashley approached Nurse Annie Nicols, who gave her a personal recommendation for a nurse practitioner, and the client agreed to go. “Now he’s been getting medical care for his chronic conditions because of that trust he has in her,” Ashley says. “That’s part of what motivated me to go back [to school for nursing].”

For Ashley, having the Petaluma Health Center on campus has been invaluable in helping her clients. While she doesn’t know where she’ll end up after nursing school, “I would love to go back and work with the Petaluma Health Center,” she says. “My kids have always gone there, and I love the fact that they work with COTS.”

Ashley’s lived experience with homelessness gives her a valuable connection to her clients, one she hopes she’ll be able to bring with her into her nursing practice. “I can connect, and I’m able to build such trust with all of my clients now,” she says. “I’m in a unique position where if I were to come back and work with this population, I feel like I’d be able to hopefully be someone that they felt they could trust. So that is kind of my long term goal.”

When asked what her favorite thing about her job at COTS is, she said, “I love the people. Every every one of our clients have such interesting and unique backgrounds. I’ve got one that I’ve helped enroll in school, and he’s back to school for the first time in like 45-50 years, and he’s getting an Associate’s Degree. I have another one that is going to go to school to become a minister, that’s his passion. It’s really amazing to see.”

We are grateful to have Ashley on our team for the rest of her time leading up to nursing school, and when it’s time, we wish her luck on her next adventure.

Suzy’s Story 

Suzy lived a regular life.  She had a job, a car, and an apartment that she shared with her son. But after a medical event left her son with a traumatic brain injury and unable to work, it became harder to stay housed.   

Eventually, Suzy and her son became homeless.  “I’m from Petaluma, so I’ve always known about COTS” Suzy said, but it was a worker at Petaluma Health Center that encouraged the family to apply to COTS.  While her son began his journey to sobriety at COTS, Suzy hid her addiction to alcohol.    

Her alcoholism got the best of her, and Suzy had to leave COTS.  “I lived in a tent under an overpass for a month.  I was still drinking and was so dehydrated, I had hallucinations.  I had to go to the hospital. I was so sick and weak.”  Suzy was discharged and her son started bringing her the to-go meals COTS offers and eventually she started coming back to COTS for meals herself, applied to live at the COTS shelter again, and she made a commitment to sobriety. 

Suzy met our Head Chef, Janin, who listened to her story and encouraged Suzy to start volunteering in the kitchen.  That’s when things began to change.  Little by little, she regained her strength and sense of self.   

“They took care of me, I got stronger every day, so I could do more and more. And it became a family. And then it reached the point where I was doing it [volunteering] because I wanted to, not because it was air conditioned.  I was doing it because there’s such camaraderie in the kitchen. I had lost myself, and being here with people who care about you, and where you are giving back was, it changed my life. It allowed me a place to kind of heal and find myself. So, it’s a rescue story.” 

Today, Suzy is celebrating over three months of sobriety.  She credits the staff at COTS for making her feel supported and cared for.  When she’s not preparing food in the kitchen, she’s helping pass out dinner.  Suzy sees individuals she met while living in an encampment and encourages them to come inside.  She wants others to know that even when they aren’t sure about COTS, or when the journey back to housing feels insurmountable, that they should try.  “They’ve just forgotten that they can. Because I, I kind of did. I forgot that I could do all this. I can, even though I [was] lost. This says that it has nothing to do with my future. Again, I can set that aside and say from here, I can go forward.” 

Housing is Suzy’s next step, and she is hoping to stay in Petaluma so that she can continue to volunteer.  “I want be a core volunteer, that’s how much this place means to me.”   

COTS is so grateful to the staff who didn’t give up on Suzy and who are continuing to support her in her journey back to housing.  Thank you to the many supporters who made this work possible for Suzy and so many others.