EnLACE empowers Monterey County residents to build stronger, healthier communities.

The sand under the play structure at Durant Park, near Molly Calvert’s Seaside house, was so littered with cigarette butts and broken glass, she didn’t feel comfortable taking her baby there to play. Neighborhood strolls on cracked, uneven sidewalks made it hard to take her little one on walks.

Calvert wasn’t sure what she could do to change any of that – until a friend told her about the enLACE program. The name combines the Spanish word for “link” with the English acronym for Leadership and Civic Engagement. The program is funded by the Monterey County Health Department and free to participants.

Launched in July 2014, the course was first offered exclusively in Spanish in locations including King City and Salinas, to teach attendees the ins and outs of civic engagement – how to do everything from vote to volunteer to influence city councils. A few months ago, the first English-speaking class launched in Seaside, meeting two hours a week for eight weeks.

EnLACE Coordinator Angélica Chavez says people – herself included – didn’t know what to expect when the program began. But as participants graduated and started talking about their experiences, she adds, “It has gained popularity and people know about it.”

Chavez encourages enLACE graduates, 50 to date, to keep working together after the course ends.

“We are a very strong 50,” she says, “who can make a change.”

The dozen students in Calvert’s class focused on goals that could improve life for Seaside residents 20 years from now, like installing clean water fountains, removing soda machines and reducing secondhand smoke.

Guest speakers included Dr. Bettye Lusk, board president of the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District; Gonzalo Coronado, a chronic disease prevention coordinator with the Monterey County Health Department; and Mary Jo Zenk, program manager of CSU Monterey Bay’s Institute for Innovation & Economic Development.

“Why help people with illness without changing what got them sick in the first place?” asked Monterey County Health Department Health Equity Coordinator La’Quana Williams at the Seaside graduation ceremony June 18, while the students noshed on tacos and cake.

The message, for these students, is that each person can act to change what’s unhealthy in the community’s environment, improving the safety and well-being of everyone in it.

Chavez offers another metaphor with a PowerPoint image of a tree. Healthy soil (the work of community leaders) allows the roots (children) to thrive, ultimately benefitting the entire tree (the community).

Regular people help make that soil healthy by working together and leveraging resources to push for changes, however small.

“It’s a journey, and what is most important is you dive in somewhere,” says Colleen Beye, a board aide for Monterey County Supervisor Jane Parker and an enLACE guest speaker.

Learning to navigate bureaucracy is part of the plunge. Seaside resident and enLACE student Patricia Ogino is still working up the courage to speak during public comment at a City Council meeting, even though the idea intimidates her. “[I’m] important enough to matter,” she says. “I am a member of the community that has a say-so!”

Another enLACE student, Gilroy resident Art Barron, says he took the course at the request of his employers. Barron, who manages resident services for Eden Housing properties in Marina, Salinas and Soledad, says enLACE helped him network on the Peninsula.

“I need to ingrain myself a little more here,” he says.

Now Barron, Ogino and another classmate have formed a committee offering marketing assistance to the new Seaside Youth Resource Center. Barron hopes it will connect at-risk youth, especially in the Latino demographic that now makes up more than 40 percent of the city’s residents, with tutoring, mentoring and other positive opportunities.

“We’ll be a liaison between the resource center and the community,” Barron says.

EnLACE inspired Molly Calvert to connect with Friends of Seaside Parks, which petitioned for new wood chips to replace the dirty sand at Durant Park. Next, she hopes to channel her activism into making the sidewalks of Seaside wheelchair accessible.

She now has the resources to tackle the problems that affect not only her and her child, but everyone in an increasingly healthy and involved community.

To learn more about enLACE, contact Angélica Chavez at 755-4514. The next eight-week course (in Spanish) starts Aug. 6, 5:30-8pm at Sherwood Elementary in Salinas.