Larry Barnett lives in Sonoma where he was elected to three terms on the City Council and served twice as Mayor. A thirty-three-year resident, he currently serves as Chair of Sonoma's Planning Commission. He has been married for 48 years, has two daughters and three grandchildren.
FISH of Sonoma Valley Meets Challenges with Changes
FISH of Sonoma Valley Executive Director Sandy Piotter shared her mid-year report that includes some exciting new FISH programs, changes to existing programs to better service its neighbors, and highlights from its food program including a report by Lauren Scott, Food Room Manager.
Dental Assistance: Sherry Michael is spearheading a pilot program in collaboration with Sonoma Valley Community Health Center that focuses on seniors over 62 years who need financial assistance for essential dental work. The application for this assistance is now available on our website. SVCHC will refer those in need to FISH. FISH will complete the assessment of financial need and, when appropriate, FISH will provide financial assistance directly to the clinic or the dentist. In working with SVCHC, seniors were identified as the group in most need of financial assistance. We are thrilled to work collaboratively and to address dental assistance a one of the basic human needs FISH can help address.
Gasoline Assistance: The gasoline gift cards we offered to homeless individuals for travel to medical appointments changed abruptly when the Valero station in Sonoma closed. With the help of Jeff’s 76 Station, SOS, and our FISH volunteers, we came up with a new solution. SOS remains our key partner in providing gas to the homeless population. Nathalia at SOS accepts the requests and validates them before authorizing gasoline from the FISH account at Jeff’s 76 Station. This arrangement has allowed us to expand our ability to serve the homeless because now Homeless Action Sonoma can call Sonoma Overnight Support and Nathalia is able to authorize gasoline. SOS and HAS work closely with the homeless population but neither have a the ability to provide gasoline for doctor appointments. These changes has expanded FISH’s ability to help more people keep their critical medical appointments.
Welcoming All: Our Dispatchers have been the entry point to all FISH services, and beginning four years ago, FISH was able to have Spanish-speaking Dispatchers join our dispatching team to improve outreach to the community. Recently we discovered that our answering service, the initial contact to all calls before they go to Dispatchers, did not answer in Spanish (once the call was received by our Spanish-speaking Dispatcher, everything worked well).
It was a huge disappointment to realize that there was such a gap for our Spanish-speaking callers. Immediately we began investigating ways to serve our callers in their own language the moment the call is answered. Most of the options we examined really upend how we do business. However, with some valuable advice from a friend of FISH, a solution was identified. We are now in the process of working with the answering service to make these minor alternations and every caller will be welcomed in their own language.
Expanding our Rent Team: Our wonderful Rent Team volunteers, pictured above, met in person just the other day. Anne Neely and Carol Lussier are the newest members to the team. Sherry Michael hosted and orchestrated the discussion around rental assistance. Beyond the critical need for patience, developing comfort asking questions, and natural problem-solving abilities, the group review the unspoken values of the program – “filter people in the program and try not to filter them out” is the first. The second guideline is around making an error – “always err on the side of generosity”. These are the critical values that have sustained FISH for 53 years.
Donations to FISH can be made HERE.
