SPOTLIGHT: Sun Street Centers

Big Reach

Sun Street Centers plans a home for sober living and intensive youth outreach.

By Pam Marino

In 55 years of helping people struggling with addiction, Sun Street Centers has perhaps not faced a greater challenge than the fentanyl crisis that has impacted so many people in Monterey County, most of them teens and young adults. That’s part of the reason why the nonprofit’s Big Idea for MCGives! is construction of a new facility that gives them the space to focus on helping youth struggling with addiction to fentanyl, other street drugs and alcohol.

The youth program will include an intensive outreach program, as well as empowering entire families of youth in early recovery “to help them be part of the solution,” Executive Director Anna Foglia says.

The idea doesn’t stop with youth outreach, which will be located on the first floor of the planned building in Salinas. It also includes sober living on the second floor for men and women in recovery who would otherwise be homeless, Foglia says. The goal is to

serve an additional 300 clients a year downstairs while providing transitional housing for up to 40 people annually upstairs.

“Our founders Martin and Nancy Dodd would be over the moon,” Foglia says. Martin Dodd helped men in recovery and Nancy Dodd brought the first Al-Anon meetings to Salinas. Sun Street Centers opened in 1968 on the current

site. Foglia refers to it as “hallowed ground...The people who have come and gone, we can feel their presence, so to be able to expand is thrilling.”

The mission of Sun Street Centers has remained constant in its 55 years: to prevent alcohol and drug addiction through education, treatment and recovery, regardless of one’s income level. They currently have residential treatment programs in Salinas and

King City, and outpatient programs in Salinas, Marina, Seaside and King City. They also operate several outreach programs aimed at preventing youth from using drugs and alcohol.

The land for the new building was purchased three years ago and Foglia says they’re now in the homestretch to make the new facility a reality. They’ve raised 80 percent of the $4.4 million needed for construction, including $1

million from the Monterey County Health Department. Just $500,000 away from their goal, they’re working to raise what they need by Dec. 31, so they can break ground in January.