100 Years Years of Solicitude of

Centenarian Makes Her Life All About Helping Others

“I intuitively felt they needed help,” says Fort, a longtime Arden Park resident. “I tried to develop protocols that would give them a better chance to move up the ladder.”

As described by the Institute of Education Services, MESA/MEP “recruits Black, Hispanic and Native American students and provides assistance, encouragement and enrichment programs to help them succeed in the fields of mathematics, engineering, science, and computer science.”

Fort served as ARC’s MESA and transfer center director and articulation officer and counselor, a liaison among the three regional public college systems, Los Rios, Cal State and UC.

“I really loved working with students,” she says. “Educators are kind of a strange breed. We help people to the next step.” She loved the work so much she continued part time at ARC until she was 87.

When not on campus, Fort volunteered for various organizations, including the executive board of Business Volunteers for the Arts, UC Davis Leadership Council and UC Davis Medical Center.

The medical center has a special place in her heart. It saved her husband’s life. After her now-deceased husband, Robert, was in a serious car accident, he spent three months in the hospital’s intensive-care unit. He was given a 10% chance to live. He not only survived but, Fort says, “he came back fast.” They spent that Christmas in the Caribbean.

Fort was so impressed with the faculty, nursing staff and doctors’ embrace of her husband and the care he received that she volunteered for the hospital board. Robert used his talents as a charitable gifts and trusts attorney to help fundraise for the medical center.

The hospital introduced Fort to Joan Stephens Hadley, a med center employee who became a close friend. “She is one of a handful of strong, trailblazing, compassionate and indefatigably determined women leaders with whom I’ve been lucky to know and call my friend,” Hadley says of Fort.

It might seem hard to imagine working until you’re age 87, but when you meet Mary Ellen Fort, who celebrated her 100th birthday in December, it’s easier to picture.

By Jessica Laskey Giving Back: Volunteer Profile

Though Fort loved her job at American River College, what she enjoyed most was that the work allowed her to help people. After earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in psychology and counseling at Sacramento State, Fort taught psychology at ARC. Then she went into counseling and eventually helped develop the Mathematics, Engineering and Science Achievement and Minority Engineering Program, which became a national standard for helping minority students get into science, math and tech studies.

Sacramento is lucky to have Fort, who sings the praises of the city she’s called home for 100 years.

“The people here are very warm and embracing,” she says. “They’re not afraid to try new things. We have good theater, art, music. It’s hard to put a finger on it. Sacramento has a message all its own.”

Jessica Laskey can be reached at jessrlaskey@ gmail.com. Previous profiles can be found and shared at InsideSacramento.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: @insidesacramento. n

City Fumbles Efforts To Solve Homelessness

Progress on the homeless crisis needs five components: monetary resources, political will, a model for housing and services, a place to implement the program and adequate service providers. asking for cleanup and enforcement efforts, then reverses the directives.

With collaborative effort, the city and county can make real progress.

But first, elected officials must admit homelessness is a crisis. We often hear the words “crisis” from the City Council. But the actions enable people to camp in squalor on our streets.

That’s not compassion. And it’s no way to solve a crisis.

An example is “Camp Resolution,” where staff was told to move people illegally squatting on land deemed unfit for humans by state water authorities.

This was a tremendous waste of money. Staff was demoralized. An opportunity lost.

Not enough resources have been allocated to programs that create real change. With state and federal pandemic funds, we had opportunities. But much of that money was spent on other projects. Homelessness was not effectively addressed.

Many models have been built to address the housing and behavioral health needs of homeless people. Permanent housing and supportive housing are a piece of the puzzle, but extremely expensive.

By Jeff Harris City Skeptic

City staff did outreach at the camp. But on the night before cleanup, Councilmember Katie Valenzuela brought so-called homeless advocates to a City Council meeting. The work was canceled.

The city can’t bear the financial burden alone. Private philanthropy needs to engage. City Council needs to stop tossing out one-off projects and create a cohesive plan to shelter and treat as many homeless people as possible.

A lot of money is squandered on knee-jerk reactions to storm events for underused respite centers. As the “Camp Resolution” story shows, City Council gives staff the runaround,

The city has supported a lot of affordable housing. But to deal with the sheer numbers of unhoused people, the best option is interim housing. Our congregate shelters are only marginally successful and difficult to manage.

For interim housing, I’m talking about small structures such as pallet shelters, modular stackable shelters or tiny home communities where behavioral health needs can be addressed. In a declared emergency, building code restrictions are relaxed, which brings down costs.