PERSONA The Gates of Opportunity For troubled juveniles in Monterey County, the path to hope runs through Salinas. It goes out Natividad Road past the county jail, the sheriff’s and probation offices and across remote farmland to Old Natividad Road. A right turn there leads to Old Stage Road and the entrance to a 100-acre ranch nestled alongside the rolling San Gabriel Mountains. Summer 2008

CAMERON DOUGLAS

The land is open and vast, a peaceful place that was one of the first areas to be settled by early residents of the Salinas Valley. At the top of the long driveway, a clean, simple campus sits on high ground. There are horse stables on your left, and a sign on the right-hand side reads, “You have just passed through the gates of opportunity. Welcome to Rancho Cielo.”

By the time a teenage boy or girl gets here most have been in trouble, gone to court and been identified as an at-risk youth. They have probably met Joe Grammatico, the Probation Department officer who works on-site and supervises 18 probation staff members. The teen goes through an intense screening process to determine whether or not they are willing to cooperate before becoming one of more than 50 kids currently in the program.

I first met Judge John M. Phillips, the president and founder of Rancho Cielo, in 2005. This year, I went back to check in and see how things have progressed.

CD What drove you to build this place?
JP I got tired of sending young people to prison for thirty, forty, fifty years. I mean, you’re basically discarding a life. I saw an obvious need for early intervention with things like job training and education.

CD How did you find the land?
JP I knew this property existed. It was the old Boys’ Ranch. I used to come here and play basketball with the kids when I was a district attorney back in the 1970’s. After that, the property was pretty much abandoned and lay here dormant for about twenty years, except for some use by the county for dumping and Animal Control. I always thought it had all kinds of potential as a place of hope for young people.

CD How did things look when you started building Rancho Cielo?
JP We took over the property in 2000. We couldn’t raise sufficient funding then to get anything going here. So we started the Silver Star program with the County Education and Probation departments down at the old Natividad Hospital. We couldn’t do anything with this property until the construction industry got behind me. John Anderson of Woodman Development and Don Chapin were major contributors who brought in their connections.

We really started working on things in 2003. We hauled off over 750 end-dumps of trash and tore down old dilapidated houses, carports and fences. When we moved into the facility in 2004, the administration and educational buildings had been completed but the gym was still in disrepair.

CD Now the gym is finished and it looks great. What’s next?
JP We’ve cleaned up the kitchen and it’s ready to be revamped into a culinary school. I need to raise more money for that project. We’ll have to make handicap-access bathrooms and bring in all new kitchen equipment. The plans have been completed and they’re at the county now. The architect who designed it donated all his time. A mechanical engineer also donated his time. Bert Cutino from the Sardine Factory is heading a committee to decide what kind of programs we’ll run in the culinary school.

CD So far, what was the hardest thing to get done and why?
JP The hardest part was getting the initial buildings done. People were very reluctant to get involved in this project because my own feasibility study—which I paid for—concluded we could never do it. So Don Chapin and I came up with a strategy to do what we had to do in order to get the buildings finished enough that we could bring the kids in.

Now the county administration is totally supportive of what we’re doing. Also the Harden Foundation. The Monterey Peninsula Foundation has given us more money to keep going. For every buck we get, we try to stretch it into three with labor and materials that are donated. It’s become easier as people have seen our successes.
CD You’ve mentioned people who have helped you. Any others come to mind?
JP There’s been a multitude of people here. Just looking at the administration building: Cinderella Carpets donated all the carpeting along with installation, and Pete Scudder of Scudder Roofing donated all the roofing material and labor. The Association of General Contractors has been very helpful. The Monterey Peninsula Foundation and the AT&T people were instrumental in rebuilding the gymnasium. AT&T gave us a $100,000 matching grant for that. The construction industry has been phenomenally supportive.

CD How do the horses fit in with all this?
JP Horse programs have been used in prisons and juvenile facilities. We have about twelve head of horses and the program is expanding. We call it “Gaits of Hope.” It teaches the young people boundaries. Certain kids go down and take classes there. They learn to deal with the horses and learn a lot from them. Some of them adopt a particular horse. It’s very beneficial.

CD What other programs do you have going on?
JP We have health education and an aggressive therapy program with social workers on site. We have a music program and an art program. We have First Aid classes. We’re starting a drama class as well as a journalism class, plus a robotics program and a wood shop. We’re going to have an auto body shop in our vocational school when it gets done. Lyceum has partnered with us to do some supplemental classes.

CD How is Rancho Cielo different from a group home?
JP It’s an entirely different concept. For one thing, the kids don’t live here—which is sometimes unfortunate. Some go home to an environment that’s not as healthy as we would like. But we keep their days pretty full. We have a teacher’s aide in every class, so it’s a very intense educational program. We do drug tests three times a week. We have a gang intervention program and alcohol counseling.

We introduce these kids to good things in life they haven’t seen before. Each year, we go to the Aquarium. Whale watching. We took them to a Giants game. After graduation, we take them to a nice restaurant. A lot of them haven’t ever been to a nice restaurant in Monterey. We work the Quail Lodge car rally every year as a designated charity. Last year, we brought in over $10,000. I put some of that money back in the kids’ Student Council account so they could decide what to do with it.

CD Do you interact with local law enforcement?
JP Probation is the mainstay. They provide all the transportation and supervision. We have some other law enforcement people involved, but very few. That’s an area we will probably explore with the Salinas P.A.L. program and with the Salinas Police Department.

Frankly, I would like to get more officers up here to work with the kids as volunteers and mentors. It’s good for young people to learn to deal with law enforcement in ways other than the time they’re getting arrested or up against the side of the car. If they get to know cops and deal with cops on a personal level, it’s beneficial to them and the officers.

CD There’s a new road near the parking lot. Where does it go?
JP We’re finishing up a restoration of two small lakes. We brought in base rock that was donated by the Chemical Lime Company, put roads in, reshaped the lakes and shored up the dock on the lower lake. Tom Adcock of Alco Water brought in a line to supply water. Fish and Game worked with us to help design the lower lake for fishing. We’ll stock it and offer programs to all the kids in the community. It’ll be the only place around here where young people can come and learn to fish. The Salinas Valley Fly Fishers Association is partnering with us.

The upper lake will be more of an environmental habitat. I’d like to see those lakes used, at times, as biological classrooms.

CD You mentioned a vocational school. What will that entail?
JP The next big piece we want to do is a large vocational building. It’ll be called the Ted Taylor Vocational Center and will cost about three million dollars. We’ve raised almost half the money for it already. Joanne Taylor-Johnson, whose family founded and owned Fresh Express, has been leading the charge.

We want to have a farm out here and grow our own vegetables. The kids will learn to process them in the vocational center, and then prepare and serve them in the culinary school. We also plan to have welding, fabrication, tractor mechanics and a carpentry shop. The Taylor family and Taylor Farms have made major contributions to this project, along with the D’Arrigo family and Howard Leach, the former ambassador to France. Between those people, we have a commitment of about 1.3 million dollars towards our vocational school. I’m hoping to have the culinary school open at the end of this year and the vocational school open at the end of next year.

CD How are the kids coming along? Any success stories?
JP Success stories? We’ve got a lot of them. Our latest statistics show a 57 percent reduction in recidivism after six months and an 87 percent reduction after one year. And we’re following through on what the kids do after they’re done here. A few have gone on to college; some are going into the trades. I got one young man a job at Salinas Steel Builders and he’s worked there for a year and a half, doing excellent. He came and spoke at our gymnasium opening.

We have job slots for kids when they leave here—which no one else offers—and we want to expand that. The D’Arrigo Brothers Company is setting up an internship program. Don Chapin has hired some of our people. We have a lot of connections that give us good resources.

CD Thanks for talking with me. I hope this article helps keep you visible.
JP We’re getting a lot more visibility than we ever had before. People are realizing that the problem of these young kids going the wrong way isn’t necessarily just a police problem or the court’s problem. It’s a problem for all of us. I’m seeing more and more positive response from Peninsula organizations and businesses. People are starting to realize that we’ve been locking up our workforce! They’re less inclined to try and isolate the problem as “those kids over there,” and are now saying, “Hey, this is our future generation.”

The concept of building more prisons and increasing the prison budget isn’t working. No one feels any safer. And the prisons aren’t doing a very good job of getting people trained so they can come out and be productive members of society. It makes a lot more sense to put money into programs early on. And in the long run, it’s cheaper. °

You can learn more about Rancho Cielo by calling (831) 444-3503, or visit their website at: www.ranchocielosalinas.com