[ Volunteers young and old worked together to upgrade the city's only service center for teens and young adults transitioning out of care programs. (I was one of the old ones.) ]
I'm typing this column with paint-covered fingers and a goofy grin on my face, after spending a six-hour day on the “Community Build” at VOICES (Voicing Our Independent Choices for Emancipation Support), Napa's 5-year-old service center for youths age 16 to 24 who are transitioning out of foster homes or other care programs.
There were nearly 50 of us in all, including the energetic young VOICES staff, many teenagers and more than a dozen adult community members in addition to the Napa Patch crew: advertising manager Sandy O’Dea and her husband, insurance man Tim O’Dea, plus my beau and me.
I’d been wanting to take part in one of the community builds since I heard about them last month; Sandy’s and my employer, Patch/AOL, provides for several days of community service a year and V.O.I.C.E.S. just seemed like a no-brainer choice.
Director Ian Stanley, 33, says that about 700 young people a year use at least some of the services V.O.I.C.E.S. provides, which can range from meals—not all these youths have homes—to medical clinics, computer access and job and college counseling.
The program rents its Lincoln Street center, formerly a well-used day care operation, from the Gasser Foundation for a below-market rent, with the understanding that VOICES will maintain the property.
That’s where the community build days come in. With volunteer carpenters and electricians to do the tricky work, the rest of us were teamed up to take on various tasks and upgrades: One group weeded the garden and border plantings while others were assigned to tackle various painting projects inside and out.
It felt great to be able to help fix up the place, which has a friendly, family feel to it even with several rooms in the process of being repainted. In one of them, I worked side-by-side with a number of teenagers including George, a senior at Napa High; Isbal, a freshman at Vintage and Vanessa, a Napa frosh; James, who took on an entire wall as his own and Daisy Ann, who sang like a gospel angel and could hardly be persuaded to stop painting at the end of the day.
Local restaurants, pizzerias and bakeries are generous VOICES donors: We had pastries and bagels before the work day started, and relaxed over a lunch of pizza, pasta, salad, sodas and cookies.
By 3 p.m. we were saying our au revoirs – not good-byes, because both my partner and I had a great time at the work party and will definitely be back.
The next community build day at VOICES is April 30. To find out more, visit http://www.voicesyouthcenter.org/ or call the center at (707) 251-9432.
