GRATEFUL CLIENTS NOMINATE CAMINAR SAN MATEO EMPLOYEE FOR HOUSING HERO AWARD

September, 2011

On September 28, Adriana Der, case manager in Caminar’s New Ventures Program, was honored as a Housing Hero at the San Mateo County Behavioral Health and Recovery Services’ 4th Annual Housing Hero awards ceremony. The event is designed to recognize community partners that have demonstrated exceptional leadership and service in providing and/or assisting individuals with mental health and substance abuse disorders in maintaining affordable and permanent housing in San Mateo County. This is the fourth consecutive year that a Caminar employee has received this important recognition.

Adriana was nominated for the award by four of her grateful clients in New Ventures who expressed their appreciation for her efforts in helping them obtain safe, affordable, and permanent housing. New Ventures provides case management services that are designed to support clients to live with dignity and independence in our community.

Jerry Hill is one of Adriana’s clients who spoke of her impact on his life. Jerry had been struggling for years with alcohol and drug addiction and untreated major depressive episodes that resulted in periods of homelessness, shelter living, unemployment, and hopelessness. While Jerry was being treated for his addiction, he learned of Caminar’s supported education program at the College of San Mateo. On top of his regular classes, Jerry enrolled in the peer counseling program. He also discovered a talent and passion for photography through one of his elective courses. Caminar staff at the college became a mainstay of his support system; however, permanent and affordable housing eluded him – residency in drug treatment housing, shelters, and room rentals were the norm – until he was referred to Caminar’s New Ventures program.

Jerry states, “Before New Ventures I was worried about my future, my relationships, work, and where I was going to live. I was homeless and living in a shelter. New Ventures got involved and worked very hard to get me in a beautiful one bedroom apartment at Colma Ridge, the first stable and permanent housing I’ve ever lived in.”

Jerry’s story illustrates the importance of stable, affordable housing as a necessary component of recovery. He earned his peer counseling certificate and was hired by Caminar as an instructional assistant in the Transition to College Program. While he is no longer a Caminar employee, he continues to pursue his passion for photography and he is at most Caminar events taking photos.

At Colma Ridge he volunteers to facilitate Healthy Living groups; teaches photography in the Photo Club; and even organizes a monthly potluck for other tenants. He has developed a strong social support system and has reunited with members of his family. Most importantly, Jerry was recently married and now lives with his wife in the Colma Ridge apartment. Jerry is very proud of his apartment and readily offers to show others how focusing on recovery goals results in a meaningful life.

Jerry acknowledges the importance of Adriana in helping him to stay on track. “Thanks to Caminar, I am nine years clean and sober and I believe that anything is possible!”

AN EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF SURVIVAL, RESILIENCE, AND HOPE

November, 2011

On a crisp blue early January morning, Sheri G. sat on the railing just outside her boyfriend's fifth-story apartment, her feet dangling over the street beneath her.

Alienated, angry, and depressed, she’d done drugs most of the night, and a day after escaping yet another recovery program. She pleaded to no one around, "Why can't I stop doing this?" Whether a cry for help or an act of spite, she scooted forward… just inches… out into the cool mid-morning air.

And 50 feet down.

Few people survive a three-story fall, let alone a five-story plunge. Sheri shattered her ankle, fractured her back, ruptured her spleen, and lacerated her liver.

Miraculously, she lived. Even more miraculous is what she's done since, overcoming her addiction and the mental illness that fed it. Sheri suffered what was diagnosed as bipolar affective disorder.

Sheri’s father was a truck driver, her mother a homemaker. Her older brother excelled at sports. Her elder sister wore a homecoming queen's crown. But at the young age of 11, Sheri started cutting herself, using self-torture to sedate her already emerging inner demons.

At 14, her parents divorced. Not long after, her grandfather died. Her father became despondent. Sheri "self destructed."

In junior high, she started drinking. In high school, she began using hard drugs. She dropped out, seeking drugs even at the cost of selling herself. For a time, she lived in her Ford LTD. At one point, she weighed only 98 pounds. She eventually landed in prison for two years.

Despite her seemingly bleak situation, Sheri earned her GED while in prison. She won a "Spark Plug Award" from her fellow inmates for being optimistic and the one among them who always seemed so willing to help. She emerged from prison with hopes of turning her life around in the outside world.

But those hopes dimmed, and quickly. She worked, but had trouble keeping a job. With her mental state on a perpetual roller coaster, she filed 10 W-2s with the IRS in one year alone. Over time, she was in and out of 22 different recovery programs. She was, as she described herself, "a time-bomb ticking."

Finally, during one holiday season, her employer sent her to a 30-day inpatient recovery program. In early January, she wound up in mental lockdown. She escaped, relapsed into drugs within hours, and sought refuge with her boyfriend. While he was in the shower, she went to—and then over—the railing.

She woke up in intensive care to discover her father crying at her bedside, a faint awareness she was loved, and a feeling that things were going to be fine.

Her survival may have been astounding, but her recovery wasn't. She spent a month in intensive care and the next six on her back. She underwent four surgeries. She managed a series of part-time jobs but chronic pain kept her from working much.

Now, years later, thanks in part to Caminar, the 49-year-old owns a hopeful future instead of a troubled past. In 2005, she attended Caminar's Transition to College program. There, she met Jobs Plus program director Michael Schocket, who saw in Sheri someone who was eager, intelligent and, most of all, who had lived the experiences of so many Caminar clients.

Sheri is now an employee of Caminar’s Jobs Plus employment program, helping individuals get established in new jobs even though, once upon time, she couldn't keep one of her own. She meets with each of her clients at least four hours a week, to make sure they understand their duties, their schedules, and the life skills it takes to make it in the workplace.

One client with a severe stutter and learning disabilities had trouble looking people in the eye. Sheri spent time coaching her how to make personal contact. Today the 21-year-old is a courtesy clerk training to become a cashier.

Despite her desperate leap into oblivion, Sheri has become a testament to the human capacity to overcome adversity. She’s enormously grateful to all those who helped her along—like Caminar—and she’s focused her energies on helping others turn the corner as she did.

You, too, can contribute to rebuilding lives, by giving generously to support Caminar. People like Sheri will be forever thankful.

Watch video on Sheri's story

THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS ANNOUNCES ITS NEWEST MEMBER, KAREN MCCOWN

November, 2011

The Caminar Board of Directors has elected Karen McCown as its newest member.

Karen is recognized as an educational pioneer who founded the Nueva School in Hillsborough in 1967, where she published Self-Science, her visionary emotional intelligence curriculum. She is dedicated to continuing her legacy with the founding of Synapse which she hopes will become a model for future schools. In planning the school she met with educators, political and business leaders and Nobel Laureates to consider the educational needs of our society. She saw that the central foundation of a school should be not simply giving students knowledge, but giving them the opportunity to develop wisdom. Her commitment is reflected by her active involvement on campus. She is the chair and co-founder of Six Seconds, a non-profit organization that offers training and materials on emotional intelligence.

Honored as Educator of the Year by the California Association of the Gifted, Karen has presented at thousands of symposia and conferences. She has served on a broad range of trustee and advisory boards for social, emotional, and mental health.

A New Look for Caminar's Newsletter

August 5, 2011

Readers of Caminar's newsletter will notice a fresh, new look to the most recent edition of Caminar's newsletter. You'll enjoy reading about updates to Caminar programs, client success stories, common myths about mental illness and much more. 

If you did not receive a newsletter in the mail but would to receive one, please email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it   with your request. The newsletter can also be view viewed in PDF format by clicking the link below.

July 2011 Caminar Newsletter

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