Marin County is giving a boost of support to the West Marin Fund to help increase collaboration among West Marin’s nonprofits and expand the fund’s grant program. The new pilot project will allocate $235,000 over a three-year period, in part to restructure the administrative model of the West Marin Collaborative. The collaborative was founded in 2013 and brought together community-based organizations helping to connect Spanish-speaking residents with services. Sarah Hobson, the executive director of the West Marin Fund, said the county pilot project has been almost two years in the making. “This is really significant, and it’s a recognition of the role of nonprofits in West Marin and how many people really don’t get the services they need here,” she said. This fall, the founder and volunteer chair of the collaborative, Maria Niggle, stepped down to take another job. In anticipation of her departure, the West Marin Fund and its partners developed a framework for having a group of pillar organizations, rather than a single person, take over leadership. The county funds will allocate $105,000 for a new administrative position that will coordinate the collaborative’s bimonthly meetings and facilitate a new grant program for the West Marin Fund. Another $100,000 will support that new program, which will provide grants ranging from $100,000 to $200,000 to nonprofits aimed at underserved populations, including Spanish-speaking residents, homeless people, seniors and veterans. Another $30,000 will provide technical assistance to nonprofits that must change resource models to enhance services for underserved populations. The West Marin Fund expects to contribute $500,000 to the project. Support for the project was overwhelming among West Marin’s leaders, who showed their support in letters and speeches to the Board of Supervisors last month. In a letter to the board, Marshall resident George Clyde said the funds would build upon work accomplished by the West Marin Fund, which is especially necessary in the unincorporated area. “With our rural infrastructure and our ranches with many resident farmworkers, there are special needs that need special creative solutions,” he wrote. Through its community outreach, the collaborative identified what Ms. Niggle called a concerning gap between available social services and access to the Spanish-speaking community. In response, she formed Abriendos Caminos, or Opening Paths. The group has held events celebrating culture and addressing issues around labor rights, housing, education, immigration and more since 2016. Abriendos Caminos is now a program under West Marin Community Services. The collaborative also helped facilitate a mobile dental clinic that travels across West Marin, including to ranches, to provide dental services to underserved families.