Sheryl Young joined the Philanthropic Ventures Foundation staff team recently as our San Mateo County Program Director. She started in her new role with several site visits to our partners in north and south San Mateo.

Puente

Sheryl took a field trip to Puente in Pescadero to see “radical hospitality” in action. Puente serves the San Mateo County south coast as a community resource center. Director Rita Mancera proudly showed Sheryl the agency’s newest program: a new bilingual parent co-op for toddlers. The faces on the kids tell the story of their love for learning.

During this visit in November, volunteers helped the children make decorations and food for the Dia de los Muertos holiday celebration, which is one of happiness and healing. This is a holiday to feel closer to loved ones, as many Latino families cannot return home for visits or funerals. Many of the volunteers were helped by Puente in the past, and this is truly an example of where supporting community members becomes the path where individuals can in turn support their neighbors.

PVF is honored to support Puente’s focus on youth, enabling them to provide youth job exploration services and college scholarships to young adults.

Daly City Partnership 

Sheryl visited Daly City Partnership to talk with dynamic and tireless Executive Director Pat Bohm and community caseworker Maria Orleman. Daly City Partnership guides collaborative efforts to provide quality programs and services (including a morning preschool, English classes for adults, and care coordination and referral assistance to health care and counseling services) to the northern San Mateo County community. It has been a north county success story as they expanded their operations to take over services formerly provided by the city, making a seamless transition and ensuring that families get the vital services they need—a win-win solution for cities under fiscal constraints.

PVF’s Youth Opportunity Scholarships granted to Daly City Partnership for swim classes, soccer teams, and music lessons for elementary and middle school students have been a life-line to “normalcy” for youth with exposure to abuse and for youth who have many responsibilities outside of school, including taking care of younger siblings and working afterschool and weekends to support their families.

We enthusiastically welcome Sheryl Young to our staff team, and we are excited to further develop relationships with people and organizations in San Mateo County.