COMMUNITY BRIDGES

The goal of Community Bridges is to accomplish more for our community in the most efficient way possible. We know that while each of our 10 programs is remarkable on its own, together, we're unstoppable. Each year, we support more than 20,000 children, families and seniors throughout Santa Cruz County with a variety of diverse services catered to the individual needs of each person we serve.

Our diverse family of programs work together to meet the needs of vulnerable infants, children, and seniors. We do this through the work of our ten programs that operate in 20 locations throughout Santa Cruz County. These programs are grouped in the following focus areas:

CHILD & NUTRITION
Child Development Division - our experienced, bi-lingual teachers offer early education opportunities, developmental screenings, and family support at six centers throughout the county. Services are offered on a sliding scale, and subsidized care is available for qualifying families.

Child & Adult Care Food Program - a nutrition assistance program that ensures low-income children and adults attending licensed facilities receive healthy meals every day.

Women, Infants & Children (WIC) provides education, food stamps, and breastfeeding support to more than 9,000 low-income pregnant women, infants and children each month, helping families thrive.

SENIORS AND TRANSPORTATION
Elderday Adult Day Health Care - the only program of its kind in Santa Cruz County, serving up to 80 elders and adults with physical, emotional, or cognitive impairments each day. It provides the services this vulnerable population needs to stay healthy and maintain the highest level of independence possible.

Lift Line - providing free door-to-door transportation to disabled or sick children, seniors, and disabled adults to medical appointments. This free service is available for low-income residents of Santa Cruz County, and transportation is available to locations as far as San Francisco.

Meals on Wheels - this program serves more than 600 meals per day to low-income, frail, elderly and disabled residents. With no required payment or waiting list, those in need can count on a warm meal at one of our five centers, or delivered straight to their doors.

FAMILY RESOURCE COLLECTIVE
Our Family Resource Collective works with individuals and families to build safe, healthy and compassionate communities through education, resources, and advocacy. It includes four centers:
1. La Manzana Community Resources (in Watsonville)
2. Live Oak Community Resources (in Live Oak)
3. Mountain Community Resources (in Felton)
4. Nueva Vista Community Resources (in the Beach Flats neighborhood of Santa Cruz)

With 40 years of experience serving the people of Santa Cruz County, we pride ourselves on providing the resources that lead to positive change in peoples' lives. Our agency is highly regarded an expert and trusted leader in the human services field.

Every day, our programs work collaboratively to build the safety net in our community and discover solutions to emerging issues. This structure also allows us to accomplish more at a lower cost. By sharing a fiscal, human resources, fundraising, and contracts department across all programs, we are able to achieve a low administrative overhead cost of just 7 percent.

In 1977, Community Bridges started as an emergency food program, serving warm to meals to the elderly, children and families. Since that time, we've evolved into one of the largest non-profits in Santa Cruz County.

Santa Cruz County is unique - from it's natural beauty, to the people who live here. We know that the best way to make positive change is to embrace those differences. And our ten programs do just that.

In 2017-2018 fiscal year, we provided our community with the following:
2,264,734 nutritious meals
82,885 food distributions
62,332 free, door-to-door rides for seniors and disabled residents
33,600 days of subsidized child care and early childhood education
17,569 days of medical and emotional support for seniors
3,773 hours of after-school and summer programs for youth
7,700 hours of one-on-one crisis support and advocacy
6,357 hours of parent education

We are proud of this work, but know there is always more to do. With your compassionate investment of money or time, you can join us in strengthening our entire community.