Day worker center gets $10,000 donation Day worker center gets $10,000 donation (October 22, 2004)

City wants mediation between arguing factions

By Jon Wiener

The newly independent day worker center at the Calvary Church in Mountain View is off life support and breathing again having received several donations last week totaling more than $15,000.

"We have some viability," said John Rinaldi, a former board president of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, who split with the organization over the firing of director Maria Marroquin.

After Pastor Jim Stringer locked the St. Vincent de Paul Society out of the church's multipurpose room, he and Rinaldi reopened the center and rehired Marroquin.

An anonymous $2,400 donation enabled the center to stay open for the month of October. The day workers also voted to dedicate $5,000 from a workers' fund to operate the center.

The most recent donations, including $10,000 from the Philanthropic Ventures Foundation and $5,000 from anonymous individuals in Los Altos, will help give the center some short-term relief.

"It doesn't address our long-term needs. We're not thinking in those terms right now. This is survival mode, and we're really appreciative of everything that comes in," said Rinaldi.

But while the center's urgent funding problems may have been resolved, workers at the center are still getting fewer jobs than they were before the split.

Marroquin said the center is receiving requests for an average of only 10 to 12 workers each day. She attributed the low numbers to a combination of employers thinking the center is still closed, a new phone number for the center and the onset of the traditionally slower rainy season.

A few employers who sided with the workers and St. Vincent de Paul who complained about Marroquin said they are not hiring workers from the center as long as Marroquin is the director.

In an effort to improve the hiring situation, the center has begun an advertising campaign and called former employers to let them know the center is open and has a new phone number (903-4102).

Meanwhile, the city asked Project Sentinel, an independent mediation service, to offer its services to the two factions.

E-mail Jon Wiener at jwiener@mv-voice.com.

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