La Luz Center expands services to assist Sonoma Valley residents

For many Latino and low-income residents in Sonoma Valley there is one reliable place to turn to for help with food, mental health counseling and other basic needs.

La Luz Center, the three decade-old nonprofit organization headquartered in Boyes Hot Springs, just north of Sonoma, has become a lifeline for many county residents, connecting them with everything from housing and health care to language courses and financial literacy workshops.

For three years, Juan Hernandez has been at the helm of the nonprofit, helping expand its outreach and the kinds of services it offers at the modest facility on Greger Street. Hernandez sees himself as a broker of sorts, working to link local residents with other organizations in the county that provide social services.

He said there are many unmet needs in the Sonoma Valley and services haven’t always been available in an area far from the Highway 101 corridor.

“We find agencies want to collaborate,” Hernandez said. “But unless Sonoma Valley is in their scope of service, it’s a challenge.”

Hernandez, 40, moved to Sonoma County from East Los Angeles, where he was born and raised. It’s also where his father serves as a minister at a Pentecostal church.

Hernandez said the church gave him his first look into the nonprofit world and the importance of “not shying away” from pressing social issues. But it was working with at-risk youth more than a decade ago that set Hernandez on the path he’s on today.

He was coaching football at a high school in a rough part of Los Angeles when one of his players was killed by a stray bullet after a fight broke out at a quinceañera. The death rattled Hernandez, who decided to dedicate his life to creating safer communities for children and families.

He went back to school and obtained a bachelor’s degree in sociology from UC Riverside. He worked for a couple of nonprofits before becoming a high school guidance counselor in Santa Monica. He later returned to nonprofit work, running a pre-college program in East Los Angeles until he applied for the organization developmental program at Sonoma State University in 2007.

He graduated in 2009 and went to work as the educational programs director at Calistoga Family Center before joining La Luz Center in 2012. He quickly learned about the challenges and residents’ needs in Sonoma Valley, said Kimberly Blattner, who has served on the nonprofit’s board for nearly a decade, including two years as its chairwoman.

“He’s immersed himself in the issues in the valley,” she said, adding that under his leadership the nonprofit has sought more grants and expanded its services.

The center, which soon will have its office razed to make way for new 2,400-square-foot building - more than doubling its current space - recently launched a micro-loan program to boost small and Latino-owned businesses in the valley. The nonprofit also has opened a site at El Verano Elementary School to offer parenting classes and services to the students’ families.