Silicon Valley One - Fall 2008 - (Page 15)

the city’s youths. The latter ongoing effort has included community meetings that drew hundreds of supporters. Before becoming involved with PIA, Cosby says, he led his life within the borders of the triangle formed by his travels between work, home and church. “It’s a big change for me, actually, to be working in public,” he says. “I’ve been to Sacramento, and I’ve asked questions of gubernatorial candidates. I’ve been to Washington. I never would have bothered to do any of those things before.” The biggest change, though, is how civic engagement has redefined his understanding of his faith and behavior, he says. “I have an obligation to actually try to make things right. I can’t do everything, but I don’t see any excuse for not trying.” Get Informed, Get Involved Citizens interested in boosting their own civic engagement have plenty of options. Start with the contact information and references below: • GreatNonprofits Web: www.greatnonprofits.org • Nonprofit Board Basics Online Web: www.compasspoint.org/boardbasics • People Acting in Community Together, or PACT Web: www.pactsj.org Email: pactsj@pactsj.org Phone: 408.998.8001 • Peninsula Clergy Network Web: www.peninsulaclergynetwork.org Email: pcn@blueconnect.org Phone: 650.627.0065 • Peninsula Interfaith Action, or PIA Web: www.piapico.org Email: piapico@sbcglobal.net Phone: 650.592.9181 • Silicon Valley Community Foundation: Issue Brief on Civic Engagement Web: www.siliconvalleycf.org/ONE/22f • Threshold 2008 Web: www.threshold2008.org Email: info@threshold2008.org Phone: 650.655.5851 Learning to Lobby Civic engagement also has changed Carol Marchi’s life. “I had never attended a city council meeting. I had never talked to a mayor or gone to visit anybody on the city council,” she says. “It gives me a sense of power and also helps me to see how we need to help powerless people regain that power, help them develop their own strategies for getting that power.” She began lobbying for affordable housing in the city of San Mateo when she realized that the city “does a wonderful job for people of means,” but next to nothing for anyone struggling to make ends meet. When she and her husband bought their San Mateo house 42 years ago, she says, they could afford it on one teacher’s salary. “Now where do the teachers live? Where do the nurses and service personnel live? My own kids face the same problem. It’s difficult for them to buy a house.” Marchi is yet another example of someone who got involved, then stayed involved. Since tackling the housing issue, Marchi has worked to provide afterschool services for children bused in from other parts of the city, helped legal immigrants complete their citizenship paperwork and lobbied for transportation for senior citizens. “This has been a vehicle for me to learn the importance of being involved in the community and how to do it,” she says. Retired nurse Barbara Erbacher also started out advocating for affordable housing in her hometown of Pacifica, but when she heard about a countywide initiative to shore up the public medical plan for uninsured patients, she switched gears. And, like so many before her, she discovered that one person can be powerful. Within a few months, she found herself sitting on the public health plan’s board of directors. “The power is in the relationship. It’s not power of money or ability to grant favors. It’s the power of how many people we can rally to support a particular issue. It’s the power of public pressure and knowing where the public officials’ interests lie and what the interests of the people who are affected by this are,” she says. “In what way can we make those interests merge? How can we find common ground so that the interests of those who need something to happen can coincide with the interests of those with the ability to make that thing happen? That’s the wonder of community organizing done right.” one Freelance writer and Half Moon Bay resident Janet RaeDupree has written for The New York Times, U.S. News & World Report and many other publications. www.siliconvalleycf.org innovation through philanthropy o n e 15 http://www.greatnonprofits.org http://www.compasspoint.org/boardbasics http://www.pactsj.org http://www.peninsulaclergynetwork.org http://www.piapico.org http://www.siliconvalleycf.org/ONE/22f http://www.threshold2008.org http://www.siliconvalleycf.org

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Silicon Valley One - Fall 2008 Contents From Emmett D. Carson The New Face of Need Five-star Philanthropy Ready to Learn Board School Civic Citizens Built to Last siliconvalleycf.org What If?

Silicon Valley One - Fall 2008

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