About us
About the Alliance for Community Transformations
The Alliance for Community Transformations provides responsive and preventative services to individuals and families, and works through partnerships and collective action to create truly safe, healthy and socially just communities where every member thrives.
Our story
Founded in 1990 as Mountain Crisis Services
Mountain Crisis Services was created by a small group of concerned citizens who shared their vision for the first time on June 20, 1990. They provided counseling, advocacy, and shelter in local motels to victims of domestic violence, and continued this work on an unpaid basis for five years. In 1995, a start-up grant from the California Department of Health Services made it possible to hire the first three salaried employees and purchase a small shelter.
In 2004, Mountain Crisis Services brought other community agencies and schools to the table to stop domestic violence before it begins. Together they established Project Respect, a program that thrives today, and is widely recognized for its leadership in the field of prevention.
The work kept growing with the community's needs. In 2008, we opened Valley Crisis Center to bring crisis services to Merced County. The strangling economy severed two small Mariposa agencies from their fiscal sponsors in winter of 2011, and Mountain Crisis Services, which had previously partnered with each for the benefit of our mutual clients, adopted them both. The first, Ethos, describes itself as a revolution of youth that is a catalyst for justice and social change — the place Mariposa's young people turn to for social support, camaraderie, philosophical guidance and skill development. The second, Mariposa Heritage House, a recovery support center founded in 2001, offers drug and alcohol recovery support services that inspire people to redirect their lives.
During the summer of 2012, Mountain Crisis Services partnered with the Mariposa County Probation Department to establish the Center for Opportunity, Re-entry and Education (CORE), a day reporting center that helps newly released people return to the community. In 2014, we partnered with CASA of Mariposa County, established in 2004 to advocate for abused and neglected children in foster care. The Mariposa Family Resource Center provides parenting classes, peer support groups, and family activities for families in Mariposa County.
As the agency grew and expanded to include different programs, we decided that a new name would better fit the work of our programs and our vision for our communities: the Alliance for Community Transformations.
Board of directors
Community leadership
Armando Martinez
President
Claudia Noemi Juarez
Vice President — JD (San Joaquin College of Law), Merced County resident, and Merced County Law Library board member.
Candy O'Donel-Browne
Secretary — a founding member of Mountain Crisis Services with decades of advocacy since the 1970s, and former Executive Director of the Mariposa County Economic Development Corporation.
Chris Bobbitt
Treasurer — 27 years in probation across San Bernardino and Merced Counties; Program Manager at Merced County Human Services Agency focused on victim safety.
Fr. Stephen C. Bulfur
Director — Pastor of St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Mariposa since 1994; ordained 1973.
Kathy Delaney
Director — retired Prevention Specialist and former Executive Director of Mariposa Safe Families.
Interested in board service? Contact info@alliance4you.org or call (209) 742‑6456 to request a board application packet.
Careers
We're looking for passionate, dedicated professionals who share our belief in nonviolence, mutual respect, and social justice. Full-time benefits include 12 paid holidays, 2 floating holidays, paid sick leave and vacation, health, dental, and life insurance, and retirement options.
For help applying, call (209) 742‑6456.
Accountability
The Alliance for Community Transformations is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit, EIN 77‑0272319, serving Mariposa and Merced Counties. Our federal tax returns are public on GuideStar.
Our subsidiary, ACT Holding, Inc., acquires real estate to create long-term stability for the programs serving survivors, families, foster youth, and people in recovery.
Our vision & values
Our vision is that every community in which we serve can take pride in having safe homes and safe relationships.
We are committed to provide help and hope to all who have been deprived of these basic human rights and we are dedicated to work collaboratively to build strong, positive, nonviolent communities.
Confidentiality and safety
It is vital that confidentiality and personal safety be respected at all times. We, therefore, honor the privacy of our clients, staff and volunteers. We claim an atmosphere of emotional, verbal, and physical non-violence in our workplace and in our programs.
Equality and respect
All individuals have inherent worth and are, therefore, valued equally, regardless of gender identity, ethnicity, class, age, country of origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, religion or ability. It is essential to honor our differences, as well as our similarities. Respect is reflected in the way we treat our clients, ourselves, and members of the community. We value the ideas, beliefs, opinions and decisions of others, whether or not we agree with them.
Empowerment
We believe empowerment begins with recognizing and knowing that individually and collectively our clients, staff and volunteers have the strength to make necessary change and to accomplish our goals.
Personal and professional accountability
We hold ourselves and others accountable for decisions and behaviors within both the agency and the community. We recognize that we make decisions that affect others and ourselves and do so with as much information as possible. Our commitment to cooperation and open communication is demonstrated in the way we approach our work.
Social change through education & advocacy
We envision a society of non-violence in which every individual is valued and we advocate for positive changes in the societal systems that may lead to oppression. Our work will not be done until every person in our community is treated equally, until each individual is respected, and the dignity of every person is recognized. To this end, we will educate ourselves and our community to reject violence and oppression in our own lives and in the lives of the people around us.
Sustaining ourselves and our communities
We believe that individual wellness is essential to the health and success of our organizational mission. It is our goal to cultivate an environment that supports wellness in mind, body and spirit for ourselves, our clients and our communities. We do this by creating space and skills for self-care, investing in our communities and supporting environmental sustainability.