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Pomona College Magazine is published three times a year by Pomona College
550 N. College Ave, Claremont, CA 91711
Online Editor: Mark Kendall
For editorial matters:
Editor: Mark Wood
Phone: (909) 621-8158
Fax: (909) 621-8203
PCM Editorial Guidelines
Contact Alumni Records for changes of address, class notes, or notice
of births or deaths.
Phone: (909) 621-8635
Fax: (909) 621-8535
Email: alumni@pomona.edu
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One
Life at a Time
For students who created Pomona Valley Low-Income
Services, fighting poverty means helping individuals.
Fasting as part of a peace protest during his sophomore year,
Michael Gechter ’05 was
feeling disillusioned about his ability to make a difference. While he
believed the fast
for peace in Iraq had symbolic importance, it seemed to be doing very
little to effect
change. “What was exciting to me was realizing that people are willing
to make this big
commitment, and I was frustrated to see that go to waste,” says Gechter.
That evening, on the deck near his room in Athearn Court, Gechter
expressed his
frustration to neighbor David Henderson ’05. “Being my cynical self, I
was like, ‘You’re
damn right it’s not doing anything,’” Henderson says. “So we moved the
conversation inside
my room, and it was right then and there that we decided, ‘Let’s do
something.’”
 From that decision, Pomona Valley Low-Income Services was born, a group
that has, to date, helped to increase the incomes of more than 200
people living in the greater Pomona
Valley—averaging an additional $400 per month per client.
The mission of PVLIS—a volunteer organization that is now more than 30
members strong—is to help people who are either homeless or at risk of
being homeless to reach economic
self-sufficiency. With their “PVLIS: Case Manager” software, volunteers
steer clients
toward significant resources that are available yet unknown to many who
are unemployed,
homeless or struggling to make it. PVLIS caseworkers visit six meeting
locations, helping
clients find employment, housing, legal assistance and the like.
Although employment is
the primary aim of the group, Henderson points out, “Our commitment has
been to being
holistic; to really trying to get at what is going to help this person
the most.”
The software program has hundreds of questions to determine the client’s
needs, whether it
is counseling, legal referrals, employment, child support or other
services. If a single
man recoving from alcoholism is looking for a sober living home, for
example, the program
will produce a list of sober living homes in the area, screening out
ones that are for
women or people with dependents.
Pomona resident Josephine Baca has been coming to the Wheeler Computer
Lab, in Claremont’s Wheeler Park, to use the PVLIS resources since last
fall. The lab is a brightly decorated preschool room, used at night for
computing by the City of Clare¬mont, Healthy Start and PVLIS. Baca, who
is a single mother, brings her two children with her on her visits to
Wheeler so they can use the computers and access the Internet to do
their homework.
Caseworker Julia Ornelas ’06 has helped Baca find housing, additional
work and legal
guidance for divorce procedures, as well as to build a résumé and attain
tutoring for her
son.
“They have so much help with all different kinds of resources,” Baca
says. “Almost anything I ask for, it’s like, ‘Okay, I can look it up for
you.’” On this visit, Baca works with caseworker Ellen Moody ’06 to find
additional work hours for her job as a substitute preschool teacher. “I
haven’t found anything they can’t do,” says Baca. Though the City of
Claremont has its own services for dealing with homelessness and
joblessness—through its partnership with the Claremont Healthy Start
Program—officials are very appreciative of PVLIS’s helping hands and
have offered the organization its own office space.
Gechter and Henderson, both graduating seniors, aren’t sure where they
will be next year,
but both expect to continue to work on behalf of those in need. The two
have already been
an active and vocal part of a contentious effort to build affordable
housing units in Northwest Claremont. They also have visions of
expanding and professionalizing their software so that the services
PVLIS provides to people of the Inland Empire could be accessible to
low-income people all across the country.
“The college, really any college, can turn into a social service—at no
cost and at incredible benefit to the students and to the community,”
says Henderson, who applauds the student volunteers who have “done
incredible things for their clients that I would never have thought to
do.”
Another PVLIS counselor, Karen Wong ’05, whose clientele consists solely
of single mothers, says of the experience: “It makes me realize how
sheltered I am. I’m not upper-middle class, but I’ve never lived in a
situation where my family is financially unstable. I think it’s good to
be exposed to the way you’ve lived and the privilege that you’ve had.”
Much as they value what they’ve accomplished with PVLIS, however,
neither Gechter nor
Henderson is satisfied. “We made an agreement that we were going to end
poverty,” says
Henderson. “But we haven’t done that, so we haven’t succeeded.” And if
that goal seems to
be a bit of a stretch, that’s the whole point. Says Gechter: “I think
that it’s important to never say ‘Okay, I’ve done enough.’”
—Allison Don ’05
For more information about PVLIS, visit the group’s Web site at
www.pvlis.org. |
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