Community Action Partnership works to empower families and combat poverty in Sonoma County

Parents closely watched as Lilia Meza showed them how to sew felt eyelashes on a white sock puppet. She then demonstrated how to attach a red felt tongue.

“Remember, kids will imitate,” Meza said in Spanish as the dozen or so parents in the Avance class at Santa Rosa’s former Lewis Opportunity School campus considered whether to place the tongue in the middle of the puppet’s mouth or off to the side.

As parents assembled the puppets, their young children played with blocks, clay, dolls and other toys in the portable rooms next door, while teachers sang them nursery rhymes. The parenting and child development class is one of six run by Community Action Partnership of Sonoma County, a Santa Rosa-based nonprofit that offers a wide range of aid and education programs.

Meza teaches toymaking in the Avance class, where participants learned to make two-sided doll face pillows - one side with a smiling face, the other with a frown - to teach their children about feelings. During her toymaking lessons, Meza offers parents tips about how to play with their children and the adjectives and verbs to use with the toys.

“It’s interesting; every toy has a different function,” said Liz Hinojosa, one of the parents in the class. “I try to apply what I learn to help my kids.”

Hinojosa, who has two young children in the program and lives in Santa Rosa, joined Avance in September after learning about the program from an in-home nurse. She said Avance teaches parents how to help develop their children’s fine and gross motor skills, as well as language.

“I’ve learned about child behavior at various stages. … It teaches us how to understand our kids from early age to adolescence,” Hinojosa said during a recent class, which included a lesson on social behavior in children.

Avance, which currently has about 120 families enrolled at various sites, is one of several education programs offered by Community Action Partnership, also known as CAP.

Founded in 1967, CAP has worked to empower families and combat poverty in Sonoma County. It is among the more than 1,000 community action agencies created across the nation following President Lyndon B. Johnson’s 1964 declaration of “unconditional war on poverty.”

Formerly known as Sonoma County People for Economic Opportunity, the nonprofit serves about 11,000 people annually through its many programs and services, Executive Director Susan Cooper said. They include rental and security deposit assistance, tax-filing support, transitional housing, emergency shelter and Head Start, a preschool program the agency has offered for five decades.

“We have around 20 different programs. A lot of the programs are to help people help themselves,” Cooper said.

After the 2017 North Bay wildfires, CAP teamed up with Catholic Charities, Jewish Family and Children’s Services, Tzu Chi Santa Rosa and other organizations to launch the Rebuilding Our Community Disaster Recovery Center. The center, located down the hall from CAP’s offices, serves as a one-stop shop for survivors of disasters, including last year’s floods and the Kincade fire. It connects them to financial assistance, housing and mental health support, as well as provides them access to clothing, food and furniture.

“We’re the backbone agency for it,” Cooper said about the resource center. She said her organization alone has given out $1 million to fire and flood survivors.

A retired dentist, Cooper also boasted about the free oral health care services CAP provides to children throughout the county. With the help of dental clinics and other agencies, she said her organization has provided in the past decade free dental screenings and other services to about 20,000 kids through programs such as Give Kids A Smile Day, Dental Days at WIC and the School Smile Program.

Give Kids A Smile Day will be held this year on Feb. 7, 8 and 29. Registration is required.

The nonprofit, which employs 200 staff members, depends mainly on federal, state and local government grants to fund its services, Cooper said. About 20% of its $11 million annual budget comes from private donations, she said.

Cooper said many families are familiar with Head Start but initially don’t know about the many other services CAP offers. She said the nonprofit now is starting to focus on a more holistic, two-generation approach. CAP launched a pilot program about a year ago that connected 45 families with a “mobility coach.” The coach helped them identify family goals and seek resources, including intensive English courses and internships.

“We know children do better when their parents succeed,” said Cooper, who would like to one day hire additional mobility coaches and expand the program. “That’s a big dream,” she said.

This year, more than 430 children were registered for CAP’s Head Start program, Cooper said. CAP plans to soon open a Head Start preschool at the Lewis campus, which houses its Via Esperanza family resource center and serves as a site for some of its Avance classes and Pasitos playgroups.

Avance typically serves families with children up to age 3, while Pasitos playgroups focus on families with 3- to 4-year-olds. CAP runs 27 Pasitos playgroups, which serve a total of 300 families, said Marta Tilling, assistant director for CAP’s school readiness programs.

The weekly parent-child playgroups feature stories, songs and fine-motor activities, and they provide parents with the tools they need to prepare their children for kindergarten.

“You are your child’s first and most important teacher, and your house is the first and most important school,” Tilling said.

Miriam Aguilar, 28, joined Avance after learning about it from her friend, Francisca Mejia, 30. The Santa Rosa women sat together as they worked on their sock puppets earlier this month.

“I like it because they give you good advice on how to educate your babies, and (they) teach you how to play,” said Mejia, who has an 11-month-old boy.

Aguilar said the class taught her how to identify her 4-month-old baby’s cues to quickly respond to his needs. “If I wasn’t in this program, I probably wouldn’t know how to talk to him,” she said.

Jenny Hernandez participated in Avance four years ago when her daughter was 2. The pair joined Pasitos a year later.

Hernandez, 40, of Santa Rosa said the programs not only taught her about child development and toymaking, they also connected her to other parents. “We do not have much family here. My family is in Mexico. The social connection is amazing,” she said.

The programs also inspired her to return to school to become a teacher.

“I went to college and studied child development,” said Hernandez, who now serves as a teacher in the Avance program.