Plans for a permanent comfort station to be built at at the Galilee Center in Mecca, Calif. were on display outside the center on December 22, 2014. Construction on the station began this month and will continue till July. Photo: IVAN VALENZUELA/Coachella Uninc.

AMBER AMAYA and IVAN VALENZUELA/Coachella Uninc.

MECCA — A new structure being built in Mecca, Calif. will provide field workers a safe place to shower and do laundry.

The comfort station fulfills a promise Riverside County made 15 years ago to provide a permanent comfort station in this unincorporated community in the Eastern Coachella Valley.

The county agreed to build the station in 2000, after California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA) filed 30 complaints with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, alleging that the county had attempted to close down two mobile home parks in the Eastern Coachella Valley based on the race of the residents who lived there.

The nonprofit legal services organization and the county were able to come to a voluntary settlement that included establishing a permanent center in downtown Mecca. The county was expected to break ground on it before October 2000.

But it wasn’t until this month that construction on a permanent station began.

“The county thought it was complying by having a temporary station,” said Blaz Gutierrez III, a staff attorney for CRLA. “But it was a mile and a half outside of Mecca. And for various periods of time, it didn’t have the laundry facilities. It’s been broken into because of how remote it is; it’s not convenient.”

The temporary station, funded by the Riverside County Department of Public Services and operated by the non-profit organization Desert Alliance for Community Empowerment, provided migrant farmworkers with restrooms, showers, laundry facilities and parking. But the temporary DACE station was still not in close proximity downtown Mecca, as the settlement agreement dictated, according to Gutierrez.

Gutierrez said it wasn’t until 2013, when a CRLA client sued the county, that Riverside County agreed to build the permanent station in the Galilee Center, a nonprofit organization located in downtown Mecca.

For the past year, the Galilee Center has been working with the county to get the permanent station built on its property in Mecca.

The permanent station will have at least five shower stalls, toilets, sinks and lockers for both men’s and women’s restrooms. The laundry facility onsite will have eight washing machines and dryers.

In December 2014, the $2 million project was approved 4-0 by the Riverside County Board of Supervisors. The 8,000 square foot structure will be connected to the center’s current offices and thrift store. Construction is expected to be completed in June.

Lupe Torres, a manager at the Galilee Center, estimated that more than 200 workers a day will use the new facility.

“It’s important for us because without it, the families go without taking a warm shower or washing their clothes until the weekend,” Torres said.

About $1.2 million of the funds will go towards construction of the facility. Another $750,000 will be put towards a 10-year plan that will help operate the comfort station. But, Torres said, more funds would need to be raised to continue operating the station.

The center will be open Monday through Friday from 1:00 pm to 7:00 pm and Saturday and Sunday from 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm. And it will operate during the two county-designated agricultural seasons, the winter season, designated as November 1- March 31 and the summer season, which is from May 1 through July 31.

Gutierrez said the permanent station will help farm laborers who work in nearby fields, but he said there is still room for improvement.

“The idea of people having clean clothes and appropriate sanitary facilities and being able to shower, that is huge. But there is still going to be some discussion,” said Gutierrez. “There are going to be people who aren’t able to have access to that facility. A lot of nighttime agricultural workers have odd hours. It might be inconvenient for them to get to the facility, but the fact that facility is there, is very good.”

On Thursday, July 31, the Regional Access Project Foundation took infused waters and fitness demonstrations to a Movies In The Park event in Mecca, Calif. Photo: AMBER AMAYA/Coachella Uninc

IVAN VALENZUELA and AMBER AMAYA/Coachella Uninc

Mecca — As part of their Rethink Your Drink initiative, the Regional Access Project Foundation created infused waters for Mecca residents at a Movies In The Park event on Thursday, July 31.

Community members interviewed by Coachella Unincorporated said they liked the taste of the infused waters, and said they would try making the fruit-infused water for their families.

Editor’s Note: This report is part of a series on the Rethink Your Drink initiative supported by the Regional Access Project Foundation.

On Wednesday, July 23, United Cerebral Palsy of the Inland Empire opened a year round program in Mecca, Calif. Sofia Campos works as the director of program services for all UCPIE programs in the Coachella Valley. Photo: IVAN VALENZUELA/ Coachella Uninc

IVAN VALENZUELA/Coachella Unincorporated

United Cerebral Palsy of the Inland Empire has renewed a program for children with special needs in Mecca, Calif. The program will be housed in the Mecca Boys & Girls Club, where an after-school program and summer camp will provide services for children with disabilities.

“It’s been a lot of work and commitment from the organization, the board of directors, our leadership, our CEO, and all the staff involved,” Sofia Campos, the director of programs for UCPIE, said.

The organization used to have five locations in the Coachella Valley. But in 2009, when California eliminated funding for all social recreation programs, UCPIE was forced to close three of its centers. The board of directors decided that through self-funding, grants, and donations, the Indio and Palm Springs locations would remain open.

Since 2009, UCPIE has been working to reopen the three centers they were forced to shut down, including the locations in Mecca, La Quinta, and Desert Hot Springs.

Throughout the day, during the summer, and on afternoons, during the school season, children from seven to twenty-two years of age can use the center for services that may have been previously inaccessible in certain areas of the Eastern Coachella Valley. The services include the in-home respite program, where trained coaches that are certified in cardiopulmonary resuscitation and basic first aid partner with local families so parents can have time to tend to errands and work. UCPIE also offers Skillbuilders After-School programs, where students can participate in recreational and educational activities that help with childhood development.

“There wasn’t anything else available in Mecca,” Campos said. “For children with special needs, busing them as far as Palm Desert or Indio is very challenging for parents. Their needs are vast, and they need as much support and as many services as possible.”

Campos said that for parents in the Eastern Coachella Valley getting medical help for their children can be difficult.

“It’s actually more difficult to provide services in a city like Mecca than in an affluent community like La Quinta or Palm Springs. Because of the families’ fear. A lot of them are afraid to get services or to talk about getting help.”

Campos said UCPIE is able to partner with local families because of the trust that the organization has built with the community.

“I’m from the east valley,” Campos said. “Our site supervisor is from the area and our three instructional coaches are residents of Mecca. They all grew up there, so they already know us and trust us enough to make it easier for them to enroll [in health services].”

Many of the staff members working at the centers are hired locally. Educators are brought in from local school districts and from parent support groups.

Campos said that the UCPIE has plans to expand beyond Mecca and the Coachella Valley. The organization hopes to open new centers in Coachella and Cathedral City and eventually have programs in every city within the Inland Empire.

“My biggest wish for parents and families is for them to have their needs met, so that their child could be just like any other child,” Campos said.

More more information on the United Cerebral Palsy of the Inland Empire program in Mecca call: 760-321-8184 or email: [email protected].

KARLA MARTINEZ AND AMBER AMAYA/Coachella Uninc

Coachella — Eastern Coachella Valley residents can expect to see a lot more of Hearts for Art’s bright red van. The mobile art program, run by the Old Town Artisan Studio, is putting on two weeklong clay camps in Mecca and Thermal during the month of August.

“We are going to teach [students] how to make sculptures and how to work on the wheel. We are also going to teach them how to glaze with low fires and high fires,” Triny Rios, an art instructor for Hearts for Arts, said. “The whole experience that you would get at the studio, they’re going to get it at the camp.”

Hearts for Art is partnering with the Desert Alliance for Community Empowerment to host one of the clay camps at the DACE facility in Thermal. This camp is open to students, ages 6 to 12, and will take place August 11-15.

The mobile art program also received a grant from Building Healthy Communities to put on a clay camp at the Boys & Girls Club in Mecca. This camp is specifically reserved for students at the Mecca location.

Rios is excited to bring the clay camps to students in the Eastern Coachella Valley. Working with clay, she said, teaches students their hands are powerful tools that can be used to for creating.

“If you look here to the Eastern Coachella Valley, you see a lot of agriculture. A lot of the parents are picking grapes, or working with their hands, and they’re working with the earth,” Rios said. “The way I see it, [working with clay is] a way to show kids you can work with your hands, but your hands aren’t just for work, they’re for creating. We are working with clay, specifically, because you’re coming back to the earth so it’s kind of this organic circle.”

Hearts for Art put on clay classes last year at the Raices office in Coachella, funded by another grant from Building Healthy Communities, but that was before the art program had their signature red van. Rios said the program would rent a U-Haul or pack everything into a car in order to teach classes in the East Valley. Thanks to a fundraiser at the beginning of 2014, the Old Town Artisan Studio was able to purchase the red van, and now the program is able to easily bring art to the East Valley.

The Old Town Artisan Studio also offers classes throughout the year at its studio in La Quinta. On Saturdays, the studio offers free classes — the free classes are set to start up again in September.

Visit the Old Town Artisan Studio’s website to view their class calendar, www.oldtownartisanstudio.org. Email [email protected] or call 760-777-1444 to find out when the Hearts for Art red van will be in the Eastern Coachella Valley again.

MARIA GARCIA and BRENDA R. RINCON/Coachella Uninc

MECCA — A grassroots committee of mobile home park owners and residents, along with several elected officials, is urging voters to pass Measure D, which they believe will improve Coachella Valley Water District (CVWD) representation for the Eastern Coachella Valley.

“It is important because currently eastern Coachella does not have an equal representation based on district links that are currently available right now. There’s a good proportion voting members who are primarily Hispanic that their votes are not counted because the voting are only the minority compared to other people who are voting,” says Mecca resident Sahara Huazano, a youth member of the Comité de la Calle Pierce. “So they’re not truly choosing the representative among the CVWD board of directors. It violates one of the laws of California.”

Last fall, el Comité de la Calle Pierce initiated legal action to change CVWD’s electoral system, believing the current system violates the California Voting Rights Act. CVWD’s five-member board voted unanimously to support the change requested by Comité de la Calle Pierce, but later decided to allow the voters decide by putting Measure D on the upcoming June 3, 2014 ballot. If passed, Measure D will change the CVWD election process from the current at-large system to by-division.

“In the past…it didn’t matter who was running for the board, everyone in the whole valley voted for that person. So even if the person represents Mecca, for example, people from Rancho Mirage and Indian Wells would vote to decide who represented Mecca,” explains Megan Beaman, attorney for the Comité de la Calle Pierce. “Under the [new] system only the people within their own district would get to vote for their own representative. Using Mecca as an example again, only Mecca residents would get to vote for their representative.”

Supporters of Measure D believe that the by-division system will create better representation for all CVWD customers by ensuring that board members are elected only by the voters within their divisions, rather than by all voters in the CVWD region. Beaman says this change will make representatives more accountable to the residents of their divisions, bringing government “closer to home.” Advocates of the change also believe that it will reduce the likelihood of dilution of minority groups’ votes, and ensure that divisions are balanced appropriately by population.

A letter to registered voters from CVWD states, “The cost to CVWD of implementing Measure D is not significant and will not require an increase in water rates or other fees charged by the district.”

Sam Torres, mayor pro tem for the city of Indio, says the benefits of by-division representation will extend beyond the Eastern Coachella Valley.

“If you come from the area you represent, you should be equipped with a better understanding of situations that your residents face,” says Torres. “If we vote for it and pass it, it’s going to allow those distinct communities to vote for their own representatives, rather than anyone at-large voting for who they think is going to do the best for the south, the east, the west and the north.”

In addition to Torres, Measure D is also supported by the following elected officials: Assemblymember V. Manuel Perez, State Senator Ben Hueso, Coachella Councilmember Emmanuel Martinez, Coachella Councilmember Arturo Aviles, Coachella Mayor Pro Tem Steve Hernandez, Coachella Mayor Eduardo Garcia, and Desert Recreation District Director Silvia Paz.

Coachella Unincorporated reporter Karla Martinez (left) interviewed her mother, Mirna Rodriguez, and grandmother, Maria Flores, for a Global Girl Media video project. Photo: COACHELLA UNINC

Editor’s Note: Coachella Unincorporated reporters Karla Martinez and Maria Garcia participated in Global Girl Media’s spring program, along with other Eastern Coachella Valley girls, at the Boys and Girls Club in Mecca. Sponsored by The California Endowment, the intensive five-day program is part of the “Mother/Madre” project in which young women interview their mothers as a way to build self-esteem, pride, understanding, and bring about healing.

The girls worked on a mini documentary-style video featuring Karla’s mother and grandmother. The video will be finalized this spring and we will share it at that time.

The following are Karla and Maria’s reflections on their Global Girl Media experience.

Karla Martinez: Discovered Strength Through Storytelling

I recently had the honor to attend the Global Girl Media spring program and learn everything that goes into filmmaking. I was able to experiment with camera techniques and editing. The coordinators were encouraging and supportive as I learned the skills I was being taught. The group also included other students, some who had taken the course beforehand and served as mentors. Watching their videos motivated me to begin mine as soon as possible.

I was chosen to tell the story about the women in my life, presenting me with the opportunity to interview the two most important women in my life: my mother and grandmother.

Organizing the interview questions, along with the group, gave me the chance to communicate my family’s experience with everyone. I opened up about the difficulties my mother and grandmother had gone through during their lifetime, and how that has affected me. The women in my family have all had children and married while very young, but I want to take a different path. I realized the strength of a woman can be showed when her story is told on camera. This is an amazing way to emphasize and demonstrate the real feelings and details behind a life.

I have developed an interest to interview and film stories about the people in my community because I now understand the importance of having your voice heard and understood. I am so thankful I had the opportunity to participate in this program, and I would do it again anytime.

Maria Garcia: Met New People and Learned New Skills

I was really excited to participate in this program, but at the same time I was very nervous. Everyone from Global Girl Media was really nice and helpful when we arrived at the Mecca Boys & Girls Club on Monday. I got to meet new people, and I also met another girl who had once gone to my elementary school.

I experienced something I’d never thought I would. Apart from setting up a camera and sound, I learned how to edit and help with translations because there are always different ways and wording it to make the video better. On the day of the actual shooting, I got to experience the many sides of my friend Karla Martinez, who doesn’t show her emotions very much. I’ve seen her laugh, joke around, and act serious — but I had never seen her cry and it was something new to me.

Learning the full story of Karla’s family didn’t shock me because she had told me before, but I was somewhat in awe because of everything that she has gone through with her family.

GGM was a fun experience, and I hope to do participate again someday.

The streets near Mecca Elementary School are undergoing a million-dollar makeover.
Photo: COACHELLA UNINC

IVAN VALENZUELA/Coachella Uninc

MECCA – The streets near Mecca Elementary School are undergoing a series of improvements as part of a $1 million project recently approved by the Riverside County Board of Supervisors.

Work began this week, during Coachella Valley Unified School District’s spring break, and is expected to last two months. The project focuses on the sidewalks, repaving of streets, and improvement of drainage. These upgrades have long been needed by Mecca Elementary School students and the residents who utilize Coahuilla, Date Palm, and Fourth streets.

“This Coachella Valley community has special needs,” said John J. Benoit, Riverside County Supervisor, in an interview with Coachella Unincorporated. “It is a place where I have focused, and the County has focused, a lot of attention. Because of the community’s demographics, it can’t be self-sustaining the same way [as] Indian Wells, Palm Desert, or Rancho Mirage. So we have recognized those needs and aggressively pursued alternative ways to improve the overall ambience and lifestyle in those areas, and I think it’s very clear in Mecca…where we’ve had success in doing that.”

The improvements are a continuation of a five-phase plan that started in 2010 and was halted shortly after the third phase in 2013. Funds for the improvements, previously funded through redevelopment funds, were no longer available after California eliminated Redevelopment Agencies in 2011. Up until then, Redevelopment Agencies (RDAs) were county and city departments authorized to use a portion of property tax dollars to improve areas that had become neglected or blighted.

Funding for this round of improvements is mostly provided by Riverside County gasoline taxes and through the state’s Safe Routes to School program.

With the remaining two phases set to start, residents are hoping that these improvements are part of a larger picture.

“The improvements are needed, long overdue, and a step in the right direction, but we still need more improvements in other areas of Mecca,” said Eduardo Guevara, who lives one block away from the school. “But it’s a good start.”

When asked about other areas in Mecca that need attention, Guevara noted, “I would like to see the same kind of improvements, like sidewalks and roads being repaired all over Lincoln Street. There aren’t any sidewalks. I know children that studied with my son that mentioned that they walk all over the other side of Mecca, and they have to walk down Lincoln Street. They complain about the security issue, but mostly it’s about the dust and walking in the dirt.”

The two-phase project should be completed in June. When asked about future plans in the development of the eastern valley, Benoit stated, “There are in the legislature now, and over the last two years since RDA went away, several proposals that up until now, none have been approved by the governor. We’ve built 7,300 or so low to moderate income housing units with RDA. We no longer have that tool. We hope that they’ll come along and give us another tool to replace it.”

Guevara is optimistic about the upcoming improvements.

“I don’t think it’ll take too long,” he said. “I think that, from what I’ve seen and read, the area is going to get better.”

A young resident hula hoops at the grand opening of the community park at San Antonio del Desiert mobile home park. Photo: COACHELLA UNINC

MARIA GARCIA, KARLA MARTINEZ and BRENDA RINCON/Coachella Uninc

MECCA — The children of the San Antonio del Desierto no longer have to worry about getting hurt while they play because a safe playground has replaced the rocky dirt patch at the center of their mobile home park.

“I’m relieved there is finally somewhere I can take my two little brothers to play and not have to worry about them getting run over or falling and getting hurt,” said young resident Ashley Sandoval, age 9. “Now it will be easier for me to entertain them having this park here.”

Sandoval and her family joined their neighbors at an opening celebration of the play and community space on March 15, 2014.

Pueblo Unido Community Development Corporation (PUCDC), which manages the 95-unit park, had long envisioned a park for its residents. The project picked up steam after The California Endowment (TCE) awarded a grant to Kounkuey Design Initiative, a non-profit organization, to help make the residents’ vision a reality.

“The idea was a formulation from PUCDC way before we formally engaged in rehabilitation process of the park. Our experience with ‘polanco’ mobile home park rehabilitation gave us the perspective to study the site and begin the design to locate different components, including the proposed new spaces, community park, playground and child care and community center,” said Sergio Carranza, executive director of PUCDC.

Construction began in spring of 2012, after a series of community meetings that identified access to affordable food, a central gathering space, and safe recreation for youth as priorities.

Carranza added, “PUCDC introduced KDI with community members to seek feedback and recommendations for the actual space components…additionally, PUCDC mobilized residents on weekends to do light volunteer work at the park. Other more complex construction activities were done by PUCDC’s team of contractors.”

“This project would be KDI’s first ‘productive public space’ — formerly underutilized spaces, like vacant lots or dumping sites, transformed into active, attractive community hubs that simultaneously improve people, place, and environment — in the United States,” said Jessica Bremner, program director with KDI.

KDI has built similar productive public spaces in Haiti, Morocco, and Kenya.

“Our hope is that the new public space will allow a space for community growth and support. Through our time working with residents over the last three years, we have come to know them as people who fully embrace the word community – whether it is caring for each others’ children, sharing food, or encouraging each other through hard times,” said Bremner.

The park includes a community garden where this community of farmworkers can harvest and share their crops with each other.

“We hope that the community garden will provide new sources of income and nutritious food for the community, whether through new businesses connected to the garden (such as a salsa making business explored by one of the women in the business development training program),” said Bremner.

The KDI grant is part of TCE’s Building Healthy Communities (BHC) initiative.

“BHC [believes] that a child’s residence should not determine their quality of life and their health,” said Silvia Paz, manager of Eastern Coachella Valley BHC. “We all know that in the Eastern Coachella Valley there’s a lot of inequality when it comes to equitable access to recreational spaces, and that is why BHC will change this by making investments such as this.”

Longtime resident Manuel Vargas, 69, hopes living conditions continue to improve at San Antonio del Desierto.

“I have been living here for 10 years and there have been many changes. The electricity went out and the water wasn’t very safe…now, they made a new well,” said Vargas. “There are new plans to put pavement, as well as better roads and a different entrance for safety. There will be less danger for the kids that go to school and have to wait on the road.”

Liz Arredondo, age 7, is happy she will no longer be stuck at home watching television all day long.

“I’m excited to finally be able to hang out with my friends in the playground because I was always bored at my house,” she said. “I feel lucky to live here and play games with my brothers and sister.”

Former vandal Jose Rodriguez spent Monday cleaning up Avenida Las Palmas in Coachella as part of the Clinton Foundation Day of Action. Photo: AURORA SALDIVAR/Coachella Uninc

AURORA SALDIVAR and BRENDA R. RINCON/Coachella Uninc

COACHELLA – Three years ago Jose Rodriguez was more likely to be found vandalizing neighborhoods rather than cleaning one up.

But on Monday’s Day of Action, organized by the Clinton Foundation and led by Chelsea Clinton, Rodriguez was one of approximately 100 volunteers who participated in the beautification of one block of Avenida Las Palmas in one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods.

Rodriguez, 18, said he began to care about his community when he stopped “hanging out with the wrong crowd” and joined the Boys & Girls Club in nearby Mecca.

“I really love that we were able to guide him in a different direction,” said Trinidad Arredondo, a youth mentor at the club. “When we provide an opportunity to help, Jose is here and fully engaged…a lot of the time we don’t’ provide these avenues for young people to participate.”

Young people definitely made their presence felt at the Day of Action, which kicked off the third annual Clinton Foundation Health Matters Conference. The Clinton Foundation has hosted eight Day of Action events in various locations since 2002.

Rodriguez hopes the Day of Action in Coachella will inspire youth to take pride in their neighborhoods. “I think youth seeing all the work that went into getting this street cleaned, they will think twice about vandalism,” said Rodriguez, who is now a Boys & Girls Club employee.

“Everyone is getting their hands dirty”

Coachella resident Kate Sheridan, 18, spent the day helping the Coachella Valley Housing Coalition install the landscape and expand the driveway of one of the homes on Avenida Las Palmas.

“You go to the other side of the city and everybody is out shopping, older people, ‘snowbirds,’ and then you come here and everyone is getting their hands dirty,” said Sheridan, who volunteered alongside her husband, Patrick Sheridan, 20. “It’s really cool.”

Youth from throughout the Coachella Valley and across the nation showed up to lend a hand.

“I would probably be at home playing an instrument, sleeping or reading,” said Peyton Brown, 13, a student on winter break from John Glenn Middle School in La Quinta. “Everyone is here working hard. With their yards clean, it will give (the residents) a better place to relax.”

The First Tee, a Florida-based junior golf organization brought 22 youth from throughout the country to attend the Health Matters and Healthy Habits conferences this week in La Quinta. The students arrived one day early to participate in the Day of Action.

“We like to volunteer and help out in communities,” said Alyssa Rosas, 18, a student from Joliet, Illinois. “What we like to do is not only teach kids the game of golf but life skills, what they need to do to become successful.”

“We are going to make it a better place” 

Volunteering at the Day of Action was the reward for the winners of an essay contest on the importance of volunteerism at Valley View Elementary School in Coachella.

“We are here because we won the contest, but we are having a lot of fun helping out,” said Ashley Ayala, 11.

The students raked leaves and planted flowers alongside their teachers and other community volunteers, getting an up close look of a community in action.

“When a group of people come together to help each other, it warms your heart,” said Jasmin Reyes, 11.

Yadira Solis, 12, added, “Sooner or later, our kids are going to live here and our grandchildren. We are going to have to it make it a better place.”

Additional Day of Action photographs by AURORA SALDIVAR

MECCA – Children and their families are invited to free family movie nights at the Mecca Community Center Park as part of the Desert Recreation District’s Movies in the Park series, taking place on Thursday nights through Aug. 8.

The first screening, sponsored by Supervisor John J. Benoit, is “Madagascar 3” this Thursday, July 11. Children’s activities start at 6 p.m. The movie will be shown at dusk.

The Mecca Community Park is at 65-250 Coahuilla St.

Other films will be “The Hunger Games” on July 18, “Kicking & Screaming” July 25, “Oz The Great and Powerful” Aug. 1 and “The Amazing Spider-Man” Aug. 8.

For more information, call Desert Recreation District at (760)342-7305.