Manuel Santamaria visited Puente de la Costa Sur for the first time in 1999. He had just joined the Peninsula Community Foundation, one of two organizations that later merged to form Silicon Valley Community Foundation. He was there to learn more about this new organization from its founder, Rev. Wendy Taylor. He wasn’t expecting what he found: “third world” conditions for field workers who had inadequate housing, poor sanitation, and no health care safety net. Many Mexican-American families in the area suffered similar deprivations. “There was no formal infrastructure there to help people,” says Santamaria, now Director of Grantmaking with Silicon Valley Community Foundation. “Folks didn’t have access to many of the health and human services offered ‘over the hill’ not to mention adult education, like night classes if they were trying to learn English. The men worked in the fields, the women stayed home, and the kids went to school.” As part of its grantmaking strategy to facilitate immigrant integration, Silicon Valley Community Foundation supports community groups whose emphasis is on opportunity and equality. Santamaria, like Rev. Taylor, saw an important opportunity in Pescadero. That year, the community foundation gave Puente its first major seed grant to establish a strategic plan and an operating budget. This year, Puente celebrates 15 years of serving as the South Coast’s community resource … Continue reading Why we give to Puente: Silicon Valley Community Foundation