SAN CLEMENTE : Forum Lets Service Groups Swap Advice

Looking down the barrel of a large budget deficit about two years ago, city officials wanted to trim costs, and the Human Affairs Committee was high on the list of cutbacks.

But instead of eliminating the program, which deals with a broad range of social needs in San Clemente, city officials decided to reorganize it. Today, they say, they couldn’t be happier with the results, which far outweigh the cost in city staff support.

What changed was the addition of the Human Affairs Forum, a monthly gathering spot for service groups with a cause. The next meeting will be at 3 p.m. March 9, at the Ole Hanson Beach Club, 105 W. Avenida Pico.

When a homeless shelter needs blankets, advocates come here for suggestions on raising money and goods. If a group of gang prevention volunteers needs advice about filling out forms for government grants, the combined knowledge of more than 140 service organizations and individuals is available.

Run by the Human Affairs Committee, the forum is not so much about serving the needy as how to serve the needy.

“It’s about swapping ideas,” said Chris Christofferson, an elder with the First Presbyterian Church in San Clemente. “The first conversation we need to get something started happens here.”

There are no restrictions for membership: Any person or group serving the public can stop by. Tables are set up in a circle and anywhere between 20 and 100 people usually show up to introduce themselves and their causes.

Mary Glendinning came to the group as a concerned citizen who wanted to see bilingual flyers printed and distributed to the Latino community to let them know about the availability of public pools.

Glendinning went to several local groups, where “I met with resistance,” she said. “I went to the forum, I found all kinds of reinforcement.”

Today, Glendinning is a Human Affairs Committee member.

The forum was also a magnet for Christofferson, who first came to the meetings as a representative of his church. Now he’s involved with several service groups, including the Youth Task Force, the Food For All anti-hunger program and a movement to build a shelter for battered women.

“I started with my personal interest and the interest of my church and began to plug into all these other causes” at the forum, Christofferson said. “I’ve always felt people shouldn’t be hungry, and I have a real feeling about gangs spreading into society and this is a place to do something about it.”

Regional organizations also stop by to plug their programs.

An Orange County Homeless Issues Task Force spokesperson talked about a program that recruits churches to provide temporary shelter for the homeless. Updates were passed out on the status of fund raising for the proposed home for battered women, known as Laura’s House.

“These people have a lot of energy, the committee is working out very well,” City Manager Michael W. Parness said. “People tend to look to city government to supply the answers to their problems. If we didn’t have (the committee and the forum), the weight on the city to finance social needs would grow heavier and heavier.”

With money for charitable causes growing harder to find, the Human Affairs Forum might be “a model for how charitable organizations might have to operate in the future,” Parness said. “I think this is a way for these agencies to survive as resources diminish.”