5/18 in Mountain View: Day Worker Center Losing Space

________________________________
Press Release
________________________________
For Immediate Release: May 16, 2007
Contacts:
Elizabeth Fitting - 408-530-8636
Maria
Marroquin
-
650-903-4102


DAY WORKER CENTER MUST FIND NEW LOCATION BY JULY 31

SUCCESSFUL ORGANIZATION IN GOOD FINANCIAL CONDITION, BUT LOSS OF FACILITY COULD
CRIPPLE SERVICES AND FORCE WORKERS BACK TO THE STREETS.


The Day Worker Center of Mountain View, housed for the past 5 years at the Calvary
Church at California Street and Escuela Avenue, is losing its facility on July 31,
2007. The Center has been searching for a new home for over a year unsuccessfully
because of high real estate prices in the geographically appropriate area. Unless a
new facility can be found now, most of the 90+ workers who use the Center will be
joining nearly the same number of workers who already solicit work on the street
along El Camino Real.

In addition to connecting employers and day laborers with jobs in a safe and
business-like atmosphere, the Center also offers valuable programs which will be
lost without a facility in which to host them. For example, over 25 hours of English
language instruction are offered each week at the Center.

Female day laborers would be especially hard hit by the loss of the Center because
it is not culturally acceptable for women to solicit jobs on the street as male
laborers do. These women will lose the only organized way to connect with employers
if the Center is lost.

The loss of the center would also eliminate the only community meeting place for
workers, employers, and volunteers. The Center has provided a positive space for
interaction and the development of mutual respect within the community. Local
police use the Center as a focal point for communication with the local immigrant
community. The Stanford Legal Clinic provides legal support to vulnerable workers
robbed of wages or unable to deal with the legal system.

The Center receives weekly visits from the Gardner Mobile Medical Clinic which
provides no-charge health services to about 85 workers each month. In the absence
of this service, local emergency rooms can expect to experience an increased load.

"The Center provides unique, effective and humane services which benefit our entire
community," says Assembly Speaker pro Tempore Sally Lieber. "And it's an
organization I'm proud to have supported in the past and will continue to support
enthusiastically in the future."

The Center is seeking the support of the community as well as local and county
government to help locate and fund a new center in the appropriate geographic area
for its constituency. The Center is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization and is
primarily funded by grants from groups such as the Silicon Valley Community
Foundation, Philanthropic Ventures Foundation, Sisters of Charity, the Catholic
Campaign for Human Development, and the Mountain View Voice. Other funding sources
include private donations and an annual fundraising event. Current grant funding,
while substantial, will diminish in two more years.

The Center has made tremendous funding strides over the last 18 months, and on May
8th, the City of Mountain View awarded the Center a $10,000 Community Development
Block Grant to support an outreach program to workers on the street (the program is
a partnership with the Mountain View Police Department). The center is extremely
thankful for this grant and will continue to work with the surrounding cities to
secure additional municipal funding. While most day laborer centers in the Bay Area
are funded primarily through city of county funds, the Day Worker Center of Mountain
View has been able to survive up until now without such support. While this has been
a source of great pride for the Center, the reality is that municipal funding from
Mountain View, Los Altos, Palo Alto and Sunnyvale is essential to the Center's
long-term survival.

A press conference about the Center's situation will be held at the Center on
Friday, May 18, 2007 at 9:30 A.M. The Center is located at 1880 California Street
in Mountain View. Assemblywoman Sally Lieber and Santa Clara County Supervisor Liz
Kniss will attend this event in support of the Center. State Senator Joe Simitian
and Pastor Jim Stringer (the Center's current generous supporter) are tentatively
expected as well. A document containing additional background information and
statistics about the Center and related issues will also be provided at that event.


###


******************
Larisa Casillas
Director
Bay Area Immigrant Rights Coalition (BAIRC)
310 Eighth Street, Suite 303
Oakland, CA 94607
Phone: (510) 839-7598
Fax: (510) 465-1885
http://www.immigrantrights.org<http://www.immigrantrights.org/>