by Aviva Goelman
THANK YOU!
Earlier this year, due to city budgetary decisions, we were about to reduce Charu Mody's hours. Charu,
our social worker, is employed with us through a CDBG grant, (community development block grant)
and is partially subsidized by the center. The Federal government provides money to the city through
HUD (Department of Housing and Urban Development) which then designates a Redevelopment and
Residential Rehabilitation (3R) Committee to interview non- profit organizations in Costa Mesa. That
committee recommends to our City Council which organization they feel gets what amount of money.
The 3R committee did not feel that the seniors at the Costa Mesa Senior Center need to have a parttime
social worker and cut a big chunk of the funds. They felt that Women Helping Women, Skip,
homeless and youth organizations needed the money more then our seniors.
Having a social worker mattered to our seniors who attended the City Council meeting with fortitude
and showed their loyalty and support for our popular social worker as they believed in the value of
what that person offers them.
I want to extend my thanks to everyone who spoke
up at the meeting and for your unflagging support. It
made an impact and gave us back our social worker.
I look forward to working with all of you in the
future on the many issues on which we share a
common concern and approach.
GREAT JOB!
“Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and
warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk
beside the fire: It is the time for home.
By Edit Sitwell
