– A $25,000 Coachella Valley Spotlight grant was awarded to the Coachella Valley Housing Coalition (CVHC) for its afterschool programs. The funds from the H.N. and Frances C. Berger Foundation accompany media coverage from News Channel 3. CVHC offers children residing in its low-income housing developments access to enrichment opportunities that enhance their academic readiness. These include tutoring, homework assistance, STEM-infused Lego® robotics, access to computer technology and instruction, organized physical play activities, and arts and crafts.
“While a stable, safe and decent home provides enormous possibilities for low-income families striving to chart a more secure and hopeful future, children need more than housing to overcome barriers to success,” said Pedro S.G. Rodriguez, Executive Director of CVHC. “That is why an important component at each of our multi-family communities is offering a myriad of educational, cultural and recreational programming that aim to enrich the lives of children. CVHC is honored and grateful to the Berger Foundation for this award.”
Onsite programming is administered during the academic school year for children and youth, ages 5-18, who reside on CVHC properties, located in Mecca, Thermal, Coachella, Indio, La Quinta, Palm Springs, Palm Desert and Desert Hot Springs. Each of the on-site programs costs about $39,000 annually to operate. The grant funds will help increase engaging opportunities on each of the CVHC multi-family properties.
“The Coachella Valley Housing Coalition is making a substantial impact in our communities by providing safe and accessible afterschool programs,” said Catharine Reed, Vice President of Charitable Programs for the H.N. and Frances C. Berger Foundation. “This is definitely an opportunity to ‘help people help themselves,’ a longtime mantra of the Berger Foundation and its founders.”
In 1982, a group of community activists and local community and business leaders founded CVHC to address the substandard living conditions farmworkers and other low-income persons were enduring in the Coachella Valley. Since then, the nonprofit organization has fulfilled its mission of constructing safe, decent and affordable housing developments for the working poor. CVHC’s multi-family program has built 39 developments with more than 2,853 affordable rental units. While the organization’s single-family, self-help homeownership program has assisted low-income families build 2147 homes with approximately 6,300 residents. CVHC serves approximately 15,000 people per year.
“The leadership of the CVHC is inspirational as it continues to prioritize safe, decent and affordable housing, plus a sense of a community, for thousands of local families,” said Jerry Upham, General Manager of Gulf California Broadcast Company, which owns and operates KESQ News Channel 3 and KPSP CBS Local 2.
Through the Coachella Valley Spotlight partnership with the H.N. and Frances C. Berger Foundation and News Channel 3, Coachella Valley Housing Coalition was featured on News Channel 3 programming, in public service announcements and on kesq.com throughout the month of August. For more information about the Coachella Valley Housing Coalition, visit www.cvhc.org or call 760-347-3157.
