La Luz and Vineyards Worker Services join forces

In a move designed to provide better and more efficient services to Sonoma Valley’s multicultural community, La Luz and Vineyard Workers Services have consolidated to form one organization.
The unification was approved by both boards of directors at a joint meeting Monday night. VWS will become a distinct entity under the La Laz umbrella, said Executive Director Stephen Dale. Though no immediate changes are imminent, Dale told The Sun that the benefits of consolidation include reduced overhead, elimination of overlapping programs, and improved access to grant dollars. The efficiencies could create a budget 20-25 percent lower than the two groups combined.
La Luz was founded 20 years ago to help new immigrants to Sonoma cope with language, cultural, work and health-related problems. It added a Vineyard Workers Services program to provide seasonal housing for vineyard workers. The VWS became a separate nonprofit agency 16 years ago, and over the years added other services also offered through La Luz.
“Our economy can no longer support any duplication of services,” Dale said. “We need to do what makes economic sense.”
The new joint board of directors, a merger of all 19 board members from La Luz and VWS, elected new officers: President Martha Rosenblatt, Vice Presidents Paul Martinez and Kimberly Blattner, Treasurer Paco Villasenor and Secretary Sharon Delaney. Rosenblatt, Blattner and Villasenor come from the La Luz board, and Martinez and Delaney were on the Vineyard Workers Services board.
“Unification is good,” said Dale. “We’re going to go at it a slow pace, analytically and conscientiously.“