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Community Corner

Live Oak Family Resource Director is Honored by United Way as a Community Hero

Elizabeth Schilling got the award for a program that helps kids get out of gangs and into the community.

Like many communities struggling with public safety, Live Oak in Santa Cruz is not immune to gang activity and violence.

Elizabeth Schilling, founder and director of the Live Oak Family Resource Center for 10 years, Monday received a Community Hero Award for her work to make the community safer, from the United Way of Santa Cruz. Nineteen other community members received the awards at the ceremony at Dominican Hospital.

Schilling's recognition for public safety stems from the center's human services campaign that started in 2006, which provides a forum for people to share their stories about the pressures they experience living in their communities.

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"Like any community, there have been stabbings and murders and gang activity and there is both perceived fear and actual things to be scared of," said Schilling.

Through monthly meetings of the centers public safety strategy team anda group called COPA (Communities Organized for Relational Power in Action), the center acts on different stories and what people are working on in their families, Schilling said.

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"Together we are a mediating institution that can bring those people together to act around public safety and no one person can act on public safety alone...you need others and that's what we model here and draw people into," she added.

The center began a narrative about prevention, intervention and suppression and encouraged cooperation with law enforcement and working with kids.

Probation departments refer kids and the center helps them get on the right track by improving their life skills and getting them jobs. The center also pairs up people who need intervention with case workers and advocates because they've been either referred by probation or assigned community service.

Parent volunteers and programs for kids are supported by COPA which has started indoor sports programs such as a Junior Giants baseball team and a futsal indoor soccer league that hosted more than 200 kids at Del Mar Elementary School last summer.

Schilling said she is inspired by this year's award to work more deeply on public safety work and begin a youth advisory council for the community for Live Oak youth, run by Live Oak youth. 

"We are in the very beginning stages and this is news for the center," says Schilling.

The United Way of Santa Cruz honored Schilling for dealing with the stress of parenting and family relationships.

"She has strengthened the community by offering programs for teens on probation and neighborhood organizing. She launched a free youth futsal league that provides a safe place for elementary kids to exercise and also encourages adult volunteer mentors. Her creative mind, optimism and ability to implement have provided Live Oak an alternative to family and gang violence," said Dominican Hospital president Nanette Mickiewicz, M.D.

 

 

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