GILROY
– The old adage says that if you give a boy a fish, you can feed
him for a day – but if you teach him to fish, he will be fed for a
lifetime.
GILROY – The old adage says that if you give a boy a fish, you can feed him for a day – but if you teach him to fish, he will be fed for a lifetime.
Thanks to a dedicated Gilroy police officer, many of Gilroy’s poorest neighborhoods are now fishing for themselves.
Though Rachel Muñoz stands little more than 5-feet tall and smiles more often than she glares, the determined Gilroy Police Department community service officer has been able to penetrate some of Gilroy’s toughest neighborhoods – something not easily done by a person wearing a GPD uniform. And thanks to Muñoz’s presence, a number of local neighborhoods are cashing in on the results.
“Before Rachel came here there were mattresses in the yards, graffiti everywhere and the kids had no place to play because of the garbage,” said Sharon Root, a long-time resident of the Rogers Lane neighborhood, which until the past couple of years maintained a notorious reputation for drive-by shootings and other gang-related problems.
“Now, we know how to organize to clean up our neighborhood thanks to Rachel,” Root said. “We can hold the property owners responsible now, and we can clean a lot of things ourselves. There is no more graffiti, no more mattresses, and a lot more people know each other.”
Designated as the GPD’s neighborhood revitalization specialist, Muñoz has spent the past four years trying to solve the problems of Gilroy’s most impoverished neighborhoods from within.
Organizing community meetings, going door-to-door in apartment complexes to distribute educational flyers, creating neighborhood associations and providing ideas – and funding opportunities – to create neighborhood activities, Muñoz has become an ambassador between low-income Gilroyans, the GPD and the city.
“You have to organize within neighborhoods to come together and discuss the ways social and criminal issues affect everyone who lives here,” said Muñoz, who’s been a GPD officer for seven years. “If residents of an afflicted area want to improve their quality of life, they need to be proactive, and that’s what I try to help them with.”
That help came in the form of checks last month.
In March, 10 Gilroy neighborhoods which Muñoz works closely with received a combined $25,364 in grants from the San Jose-based non-profit Community Foundation Silicon Valley
That money is more than half of the $44,771 the CFSV awarded to a total of 20 neighborhoods throughout the Silicon Valley this year, and more than Gilroy neighborhoods have ever been awarded in a year from the foundation.
The 10 individual Gilroy grants – ranging between $1,810 and $3,215 – are designed to help residents revitalize their neighborhoods through activities such as social events, awareness programs and beautification efforts that encourage neighbors to participate in their community.
Muñoz helped create the neighborhood associations which applied for the grants, and then tutored them on filling out the grant applications.
“A lot of it is that people just don’t have the confidence to deal with some of these things that will help them so much in the future,” Muñoz said. “But when people get together, it facilitates positively in the community so that crime and criminals become deterred. The outcome can be amazing.”
Working with neighborhood residents to teach them how to recruit people for associations, work with budgets and organize events, Muñoz’s lessons have empowered several Gilroy neighborhoods to improve not only their physical appearance, but their feeling of pride as well.
“This isn’t something a lot of people want to do because it’s very hard and draining to try to open up the communication lines between the police department and some of these communities,” said Sgt. Daniel Castaneda of the GPD’s Neighborhood Resource Unit, who is Muñoz’s supervisor. “We don’t have the neighborhoods we had before – in ’93, ’94, ’95 – the gang-infested communities. A lot of that is because of Rachel and her dedication. She teaches residents how to take it upon themselves.”
And residents have learned.
Even in a neighborhood like Rogers Lane, which records a high tenant turnover rate and is made up almost entirely of low-income, non-English speaking immigrants, Muñoz has made a difference, according to residents.
Last year, using some of the newly formed neighborhood association’s $3,350 grant from CSFV, more than 60 Rogers Lane residents spent a Saturday piling neighborhood trash into two rented dumpsters, cleaning the banks of a nearby creek and painting over graffiti. Following the cleanup residents were treated to a barbecue, and local kids jumped in a playhouse complete with an inflatable trampoline.
Other neighborhood events such as a “Safe Night” party where police and fire officials discussed safety with residents, and a Christmas celebration at nearby San Ysidro Park were also paid for by grant money given to the Rogers Lane Neighborhood Associates.
“I always wanted to do something, but I didn’t know how to get started,” said Root, who has been president of the Rogers Lane Neighborhood Association since it was formed with Muñoz’s help four years ago. “Renting trash bins, handing out flyers and filling out a grant application were things I never thought I could do. But it’s not that hard once you know how to get started.”
