
Behind 40 Years of 'People Helping People': Pat Porto's ATCAA Story
Story by: Tori Bors Published: August 24, 2021 Nearly 40 years after she was a young mother of three little ones and new to the area, one of the Mother Lode's servant-leaders and youth programs mavens looks back on her community service path. Pat Porto, Family Resource Services director at Amador Tuolumne Community Action Agency (ATCAA), has overseen a variety of youth and family programs in Amador County. Among them have been a child therapy program; literacy support; the

Behind 40 Years of 'People Helping People': Nichole Dumas-Krieger's ATCAA Story
Story by: Tori Bors Published: August 16, 2021 A service path journey that began for a teenaged food bank volunteer at Amador-Tuolumne Community Action Agency led to what she says is a dream career with ATCAA as an Early Head Start preschool teacher. The agency, founded in 1981 in partnership with Amador and Tuolumne counties' governments and other entities to access local needs and harness federal, state, and local program funding, is one of the state's oldest and most succe

Behind 40 Years of 'People Helping People': Jennifer Montgomery's ATCAA Story
Story by: Tori Bors Published: August 9, 2021 Chances are, if you have walked into Amador-Tuolumne Community Action Agency's Jackson offices, you may have come face to face with its bubbly-bright, dedicated, and welcoming Service Center Secretary. Jennifer Montgomery, both an ATCAA employee and unabashed cheerleader for the agency, shares that she first learned about ATCAA through its early childhood education offerings and subsequently benefited from essential support progra

Behind 40 Years of 'People Helping People': Kim Pierce's ATCAA Story
Story by: Tori Bors Published: August 2, 2021 In an office painted dusky twilight filled with thriving plants, a woman with bright blue eyes tends to her outreach clients and case files with a green-thumbed gardener's gentle, persistent diligence. Having nearly a quarter-century of tenure under her belt across several departments at Amador-Tuolumne Community Action Agency (ATCAA), Kim Pierce is one of the agency's longest serving, still actively employed workers on the payrol