Community Solutions helps combat human trafficking and assist victims
Published in the March 5 – March 18, 2014 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Marty Cheek
Stuart Scott
To help pay for its services, South Valley’s Community Solutions nonprofit organization holds a popular Helping Hands & Healing Hearts award luncheon every March that honors a community leader dedicated to improving the lives of others. This year’s event will take place Friday March 21 at the Morgan Hill Community and Cultural Center and will honor Deputy District Attorney Stuart Scott as the 2014 Helping Hand recipient.
The social services organization has grown in the breadth of the services it now offers since it started in 1972 as a drop-in center for teenagers. It serves the South Valley region, south San Jose and San Benito County in providing prevention, intervention, treatment and residential services for people in need. It can’t do this without financial and volunteer assistance from individuals and businesses in the region, said Greg Sellers, chair of Community Solutions’s board of directors.
“The support businesses and individuals provide Community Solutions is a critical component of the organization’s success,” he said. “Obviously, donations of time and money are incredibly important–without them Community Solutions would not exist as we know it.”
Of equal importance to supporting Community Solutions’s mission is the help members of the community provide by telling others about its many activities, he added. The social and family issues Community Solutions works on are often difficult, he said, so it is vital to have the support of a community that understands how important these issues are to the health of our entire region.
Sellers is particularly proud of the work Community Solutions has done to combat human trafficking in the region. “As horrible as it is to comprehend, people in our own community are held against their will under horrendous conditions,” he said. “Community Solutions recognized this, and has led efforts to combat human trafficking and assist victims despite the lack of funding and the difficulty of the challenge.”
Community Solutions is both a safety net and a ladder, said Lisa DeSilva, chief development officer for the nonprofit. It provide services for youth and adults when they are facing the most challenging times of their lives.
“But we also provide the support for them to step up out of their current situation to a better, healthier, and happier place,” she said. “You might say we ‘catch’ them at a low point, and then give them a boost up so they can make positive changes in their lives.”
Photo courtesy Community Solutions
State Sen. Bill Monning, Community Solutions CEO/President Erin O’Brien and County Supervisor Mike Wasserman at last year’s award luncheon.
DeSilva is particularly proud of how responsive Community Solutions is to the needs of its clients, many of whom are facing life situations that most people can not even imagine.
“Some have endured unimaginable horrors,” she said. “Others have gotten lost in addiction and mental illness. Many youth have taken bad turns and don’t know how to find their way back. When people walk through our doors, they are often at the lowest point in lives. They trust us with their pain, their grief, and their struggles. We get to witness their transformation from surviving to thriving.”
The Helping Hands & Healing Heart lunch has grown over the years into a popular local fundraiser, said its president and CEO Erin O’Brien, because it both gives the community a chance to understand what Community Solutions does and lets local people support in a fun way an organization they deeply believe in.
This year’s Helping Hand recipient, Stuart Scott, has worked for the past four and half years in the county’s Sexual Assault Unit, prosecuting child molesters, rapists, and other sex offenders, O’Brien said. “The tenacity he shows in the courtroom is matched by his compassion and respect for the children and adults who are victimized by these heinous crimes,” she said. “Our Healing Heart recipient is a hero. Just a few years ago, (a woman named) Guinevere lived a life of fear. She was in an abusive marriage with no family nearby and no money of her own. The danger was escalating and she knew she had to get out, for the safety of her children and herself.”
Through Stuart’s involvement and the services and support Community Solutions provided, and “incredible courage and hard work” on Guinevere’s part, the woman was able to build a new life, O’Brien said.
“She became her own hero and today is a happy and loving mother of two who is pursuing a career to help victims of violence,” she said.
The Helping Hands & Healing Hearts Awards Luncheon is always a sell-out event for Community Solutions, DeSilva said, because it lets donors see how their services have a positive impact on people’s lives.
