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October is Women’s Health Month

Each October, women are reminded to put themselves first and make time for their health. Making

your health a priority helps you stay in optimum shape and keeps illnesses and disease at bay.

Women often put their families’ needs ahead of their own, ignoring minor symptoms year after

year until they affect their health. Using preventive care is one of the best ways to stay healthy,

allowing you to give your all in everything you do for your family and yourself. Each year, get a

well-woman exam. At this exam, you should have your blood pressure checked and talk to your

health care provider about what other screenings, immunizations or family planning you might

need based on your age, health habits, family and medical history. Ideas for putting your self-first:

• Read a good book • Take a nap

• Call a friend • Meditate

• Have a good laugh • Get a massage

• Take a long stroll alone • Take a bath

• Act like a kid • Yoga or Zumba

• Unplug • DO NOTHING!!

Source: http://mma-west.com/assets/files/October-2017-Altitude-Newsletter.pdf

Policy of the Month: Non-Fraternization By Administration In the interest of avoiding actual or potential conflicts of interest, complaints of favoritism, possible sexual

harassment, and potential dissension caused by romantic relationships between employees, and

especially between supervisors and other employees, Community Catalysts of California (CCC) has the

established the following policy provisions:

1. Dating between employees, while not prohibited, is often perceived as unprofessional behavior

and may lead to conflicts in the workplace. Keep in mind that relationships that do not begin or end with

mutual consent can lead to sexual harassment complaints.

2. Employees are prohibited from engaging in physical contact that would in any way be deemed

inappropriate by a reasonable person while anywhere on company premises, whether during work hours

or not. Employee off-duty conduct is generally deemed private, as long as it is not detrimental to

employee performance or the workplace environment. An exception to this, is romantic or close personal

relationships between supervisors and subordinates, which may constitute a conflict of interest.

3. Should a supervisor become personally involved with an employee within the “line of command,” a

conflict of interest could occur. Therefore, all such relationships must be disclosed to upper management

to ensure that steps can be taken to avoid a problem. If potential issues are identified, the company will

work with the parties involved to consider options for resolving the conflict.

4. Failure to work with the company to resolve a situation that may violate the standards set out in this

policy may be deemed insubordination; this may result in disciplinary action up to and including

termination of employment. A refusal to accept a transfer to a reasonable alternative position, if available,

will be deemed a voluntary resignation.

Board of Directors Greg Murphy Chair Roberta Raasveld Vice Chair Carey Storm Secretary/Treasurer David Kuhlman Director Shirley Grace Director Karin Thompson Director James Wheeler Director

Newsletter Staff Contributors Alice O., Ana N., Farley O., Erica B., Adela C., Jennifer B., Jessica R., Tracy H. Editors Gaby H.

Disease Prevention Month Policy of the Month San Marcos Imperial Valley Salinas Santa Clara Corporate Ukiah Ukiah Manteca Merced Fresno Visalia Client of the Quarter Employee of the Quarter

October 2017

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Client Anniversaries 27 Years Martin P. | San Marcos

21 Years Soua Y. | Fresno

19 Years Jeffrey S. | Santa Clara

9 Years Dora A. | Merced

Miguel M. | Merced

Jonathan T. | San Marcos

Wendy G. | Santa Clara

Kathleen M.| Fresno

6 Years Juan M. | Santa Clara

Marie P. | Merced

5 Years David A. | San Marcos

4 Years Salvador C. | Manteca

Ronika S. | Imperial Valley

Thomas M. | San Marcos

Allen B. | Ukiah

3 Years Barush V. | Imperial Valley

Frances W. | Merced

Catalina A. | Santa Clara

Desire R. | Salinas

Rosemary M. | Fresno

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October 2017

Southern California

San Marcos By Alice Olsen What’s Going On? On October 9th, the Southern California DD staff had a Team

Building/Recognition event. It was held at a local park Picnic

style. Staff were recognized by their CM with small tokens of

appreciation and received a note card with "Kind Words"

created by all staff for each individual person. We did our

Annual October "Shake Out" Earthquake drill which is always

challenging due to the tall trees in the park. As usual, the

Photo Scavenger Hunt was a huge success with staff running

here and there trying to find items from their list. A few of the

items the staff had to get group photos/Selfies were:

Team Selfie with the American Flag.

Photo of Staff on the slide.

Photo with a snake. SAFETY FIRST! No real

snakes, just a sign warning of snakes.

Picture of their team with Betty Boop.

Team Selfie in a phone booth.

And so many more.

After our scavenger hunt we all took some time to eat and

socialize. The day was cut short due to strong winds but all in

all, the day was a success.

CAC Halloween Party: October 24, 2017 Vampires, Skeletons, Spiders Oh My! Our annual

Halloween CAC event was a HUGE success with over 40

people in attendance. We bobbed for apples and ate. Had a

costume Contest and ate. Danced and Danced and ATE! It

was pretty fantastic to see so many of our newer clients attend

and meet each other. We had some major break throughs with

a few of our clients who overcame being shy and quiet to

finding their dancing shoes and participating in all the fun

activities.

A huge THANK YOU to DSA Larry Steckling, House Manager

Kathy Hartland and CM Dawn Pennepacker for creating some

amazing memories for our clients.

Client Anniversaries Continued from pg. 2 2 Years Esther T. | Visalia

Johnny L. | Visalia

Rachael N. | San Marcos

Ira M. | Ukiah

Rosemary S. | Fresno

Valerie A. | Merced

1 Year Dominigue D. | Salinas

Crystal C. | San Marcos

October 2017

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Southern California

Imper ia l Va l ley & San Marcos Meet in the Midd le Imper ia l Va l ley By Ana Norris What’s Going On? Our IL client Arturo G. became a U.S. Citizen last

September. Congratulations!!!

South Bay Sal inas By Farley Odad What’s Going On? CM’s Cecilia and Andrea have been very busy attending Vendor

Fairs and job fairs seeking DSA’s.

We greatly appreciate DSA Brenda for taking the time to send

out donations request to the California International Airshow in

Salinas. Here’s the result…few clients and DSA’s enjoyed

taking selfies during the events. Thank you, Brenda, (not

pictured)!!

Halloween time……… ….so ready for trick or treaters!

South Bay Santa C la ra By Erica Barber What’s Going On? We would like to wish our staff a happy birthday- Darlene,

Sandra, and Estefani!!!

Our client Norma spent some time down in San Diego

visiting family. She also won some money at the casino!

Our client Joe has had a rough few months dealing with

different medical issues and we are happy to say that he is

finally all better. He is relieved to go back to work at the

Spaghetti Factory where he has worked for over 25 years.

Teri from San Diego visited us at the South Bay office to

check out our ILS program. It was nice to meet her in person!

Clients enjoyed our CAC event, the Rock Party! Stephanie,

CM, organized this awesome event where we participated in

the #KindnessRockProject. It’s a thing on social media where

you collect rocks and paint them or write inspiring messages

on them and then place them out in the community to be found

by others. Spreading kindness is a win/win for everybody and

clients and staff got to show off their artistic side.

We did a caramel apple fundraiser for CAC and the turnout

was amazing! Approximately half of the clients participated- we

sold 281 apples and raised over a thousand dollars! These

apples are delicious!

Employee Anniversaries 16 Years Randy Denton | Ukiah

15 Years Jennifer Mansfield | Santa Clara

14 Years JoAnn Holliday | Ukiah

Patricia Hazen | Manteca

10 Years Maria Lopez | Fresno

9 Years Darlene Mathews | Santa Clara

5 Years Alejandrina Villasenor | Visalia

Wilson Floyd | Ukiah

Marilyn Flores | Imperial Valley

4 Years Vanessa West | Visalia

Conchita Figueroa | Imperial

Valley

Dolores Delgado | Ukiah

3 Years Lesley Ramirez | Imperial Valley

Samuel Rabb | Imperial Valley

Angela Moore | Ukiah

Saraya Landon | Ukiah

Sheena Hill | Visalia

October 2017

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Clients and Staff painting rocks Dominique

Finished Rocks

Eric Ellen

Garnal, Stephanie, Anna, Larnal

Employee Anniversaries Continued from pg. 4

2 Years Jose Ramirez | Imperial Valley

Deserea Cole | VCS

1 Year Alexander Rockabrand | VCS

Manuel Garza | Merced

W e l l n e s s W in n e r : S t a c y M e ye r !

October 2017

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Corporate By Adela Chavez What’s Going On? Pirates took over the corporate office !

Our DOO, Claudia Hutchinson, brought in a game where

you pick as many pretzels as you can in 30 seconds all

while using a pirate hook. The winner took home a gift

card for dinner and a movie !

We want to wish a very Happy Birthday to our Administrative Coordinator Gaby !

Captain Hook was having some technical difficulties

Pebbles thought she was winning ! The Winner !

October 2017

Redwood Coast Ukiah By Jennifer Bilstein What’s Going On?

Happy Halloween everyone!! We hope you all had a fun holiday! Our clients had a great time at the People’s First Halloween Party. There was music and dancing and good food! Everybody had fun getting together, visiting with old friends, and dancing the night away! A couple clients went to visit a local pumpkin patch, too. The weather was perfect and they both had a nice time checking out all the pumpkins and mingling in the community. A big Happy Birthday wish goes out to our clients Allen and Randy and our DSA Dolores! Hope you all had a fun time on your birthdays. And a big Congratulations goes out to DSA Karen on her wedding! We hope she and her new wife, Katrina, will be very happy together!! On another note, I’m sure you all have heard about the North Bay fires that took place in October. Though Ukiah itself was spared, our community was not. A small town just 10 miles north of us, Redwood Valley, was devastated by the Redwood Complex Fire. The Redwood Complex Fire initially sparked in Potter Valley, an even smaller community just east of Redwood Valley. The winds late that night on October 8th and in the early morning hours of October 9th spread the fire faster than anyone ever could have imagined. In no time at all the fire had spread rapidly and taken on a life of its own. An eerie red glow could be seen from town (Ukiah.) Hundreds of people were evacuated, mostly by phone calls from family and friends and by neighbors honking their horns as they drove past while trying to escape the flaming inferno or by knocks on their doors if there was time to stop. The fire moved so quickly that there wasn’t time for any alarms to sound or reverse 911 calls to go out. Many people were awakened in enough time to get out with only their lives as their houses were already beginning to catch fire. In the midst of all of this, some clients and staff became stranded in Willits due to road closures. The highway connecting Willits with Redwood Valley and Ukiah was closed because the fire had jumped the highway. Fires and flames could then be seen on both sides of Highway 101 and even the guardrails were on fire. Cell phones, internet and landlines were down in Willits making it very difficult for anyone there to get information regarding what was happening. A lot of people in the area have satellite television but "local" channels from San Francisco were not mentioning the Redwood Complex fire at all and only spoke of the fires in Sonoma and Napa counties. One of the many rumors circulating was that the internet at the Willits library was working. Thankfully this turned out to be true. RM JoAnn Holliday was then able to connect with the Ukiah office for updates, as she was one of the staff unable to get to the office. From there she was able to text that she had contacted the clients in Willits and made sure they were safe. She advised the clients to turn their radios to the local public radio station where, mostly accurate, updates were given every 15 minutes. As JoAnn was talking to one client, Heidi, ash was falling like snow and the smoke in the air was very thick. JoAnn helped Heidi prioritize her belongings and prepare to evacuate if necessary, making sure she took her beloved kitties into consideration. (Cont. on pg. 7)

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Redwood Coast Ukiah By Jennifer Bilstein (Cont. from pg. 6) In Willits, many people were without power, natural gas, and a way to communicate with anyone other than the people they met in the street or at the library. The highway opened the next day, Tuesday, but closed periodically as CalTrans attempted to make it safe for travel. Over the next few days temporary cell towers were put into position, PG&E went door to door to light pilot lights starting with communities of the elderly, and some evacuees were slowly being escorted back to their homes in Redwood and Potter Valleys. CalTrans also began to work on permanent repairs to Highway 101. For most of us, things started to go back to normal. JoAnn distributed masks to clients in Willits and continued to check on them. OM Jennifer helped by volunteering in the evenings after work at the quickly assembled, volunteer run distribution centers in Potter Valley and Ukiah. Many other small gestures like theirs are helping to get these communities back on their feet. At the Ukiah office during the fires, communication was also an issue. The emergency cell phone was not functioning; the Regional Center had a planned closing day and day programs closed with very little notice. PL Ramona Tate and CM Angela Moore held down the fort. They reassigned staff, called in extra staff, provided reassurance to staff whose homes were in danger and made sure all clients were safe and fully staffed. Ramona had one of the few working cell phones, her personal phone, and she was on it day and night directing services. At the Association of Service Providers (ASP) meeting a week after the start of the fires, Redwood Coast Regional Center expressed their thanks to Community Catalysts CA and other providers that went above and beyond to ensure all clients were safe. They singled out RM JoAnn Holliday for talking her way past an evacuation barricade in order to be allowed to assist a former CCC client and his elderly mother in evacuating.

The Redwood Complex Fire finally became 100% contained on October 26th. The fire burned for 18 days, burned over 36,000 acres, destroyed 545 structures, and took the lives of nine people, including a 14-year-old boy and his 17-year-old sister. A short time has passed since the initial shock of so many losing so much to this horrible fire. The hills and valley to the north of Ukiah are burned beyond recognition. The remains of homes and businesses, or lack thereof, adds to the apocalyptic landscape and breaks your heart. The once idyllic drive up Highway 101 is now a charred reminder of a very scary few days. Our community has really come together to show tremendous support for one another. Thankfully the support is coming from all over the state, the country, and even the world for many areas of Northern California as there wasn’t just the fires up here, there was approximately 15 or more fires burning, all at the same time, in Northern California. All of our clients and staff were and are safe and doing okay, but it’s been a rough few weeks. We thank all the firefighters from all over the world, all the first responders and law enforcement agencies, all the volunteers…Everyone has been wonderful in our community’s time of need.

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October 2017

North Valley Manteca By Jessica Ramos What’s Going On? On Friday October 27, the Manteca office held a Halloween party.

We had games, prizes, pizza, chips and dip, cupcakes and green

berry juice with floating eyeballs. The winners of the costume

contest were Chris B. 1st place, Clifford J. 2nd place and Glen

Samuel 3rd place. The winners for the coloring contest were

Rosella F. 1st place, Lisa R. 2nd place and Michelle M. 3rd place.

Pass the pumpkin game was won by Lisa R. and guess the candy

count went to Tim K. We all enjoyed the time socializing, listening

and singing Halloween party music and playing games.

After being homeless for 2 plus years, the butterfly club assisted

Rosella with her deposit and she is now in her new apartment and

loving it.

Merced By Tracy Hernandez What’s Going On? A few pictures of our clients at the Halloween dance.

October 2017

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October 2017

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Central Valley F resno By Steven Camacho What’s Going On? The Fresno Office had a fun month. We celebrated Client Nicole's

39th Birthday! Client Marcy is pictured here after getting her hair and

makeup done at the mall! Both ladies had a great time. The Fresno

House Managers and Case Managers hosted a Halloween Party at a

local park for their Clients. Everyone enjoyed socializing along with

great food and of course some sweets!

Visa l ia By Steven Camacho What’s Going On? The Visalia Office had many events this month. As a large group, Clients

and staff went to The Chaffee Zoo in Fresno. Everyone had a great

time. Some Clients had the opportunity to feed Giraffes (pictured is Client

Maria). Other events that Clients participated in throughout the month

included a trip to the pumpkin patch, Halloween parties and dances,

Sunday Fun day where Clients gathered at a chosen house to play games,

watch football, and have lunch together. Instead of carving their pumpkins,

Clients met at a park to paint them, which they all enjoyed. Everyone is

looking forward to the holiday season already!

October 2017

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Client of the 3rd Quarter Rose l la F .

Rosella, her daughter and two grandchildren had been homeless for over two years and were

staying in multiple motels throughout Alameda County when she came to CCC. The motels were run down

and in high crime areas. Sometimes the family would access shelters, if beds were available for four

people, and other nights they would sleep on the streets in shopping mall parking lots.

Rosella’s ultimate dream was to find a place to call her own, take care of her family, and have a

stable life to include basic needs such as food, clothing, and shelter. Working together, Shawn(DSS),

Rosa(DSA), and Rosella searched for places to live that would be within her budget. They looked for

support from the community and The Butterfly Club, and as of November 2017, Rosella and her family now

have a place to call their own. They are overwhelmed with joy because Rosella’s dream finally came true.

Rosella is an amazing, sweet and soft-spoken individual. She has a wonderful smile that lights up

a room and enjoys participating in functions and events presented by the CAC or the CCC team. She is so

talented that she recently won first place at the Halloween coloring contest and received a 10-dollar gift

card to Burger King! She loves spending quality time with her two grandchildren and enjoys relaxing in her

new home.

Employee of the 3rd Quarter Roc io P ineda

Account ing C le rk

Rocio has been very helpful since she stepped onboard at CCC in late 2016. She never

complains, and she is incredibly helpful and meticulous with all tasks assigned to her. She is a fast learner

and always willing to help, even when her plate is full with other responsibilities. Rocio is the true definition

of a team player. When it comes to accounting, she always does a great job in ensuring that outstanding

invoices are addressed. Her follow-up on such matters are integral to CCC staying efficient and it is

comforting to know that Rocio is there to handle such situations with a smile. In addition to Rocio excelling

at her job, she is also a pleasure to be around. Her friendly yet professional demeanor is appreciated and

her presence in the office is transparent as she displays the willingness to help others. Rocio is the go-to

person whenever you have a question, and even if your question has nothing to do with accounting, she

will always go out of her way to find and answer for you. Rocio is a joy to work with and we are very happy

that she is part of CCC. Congratulations Rocio on receiving this deserved honor!

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