Local Agencies
More than 15 programs addressing the needs of disadvantaged in Santa Clara are part of Parish life at Saint Jude's, supported financially and in many cases by parishioner volunteers.
Family Supportive Housing's San Jose Family Shelter provides shelter for families who find themselves unable to find affordable housing. It can accommodate 32 families and is unique among shelters in that the entire family unit, including fathers, is accommodated. The shelter provides counseling and medical assistance to enable the residents to achieve economic independence. Meals and childcare are provided. It includes a Head Start program. School age children attend regular classrooms nearby. St. Jude's dinner teams (including youth group members) have served here once a month for over 20 years.
In addition to volunteers from the St. Jude's community, the parish has made annual contributions of Outreach funds toward the operating budget of the shelter.
The SJFS is only homeless shelter in Santa Clara County that allows parents and children to stay together as they work to stabilize their lives. St. Jude’s has been a valued part of their support network since its founding. Several times each year we provide dinner to the residents at the shelter. Contact Jeff Hultquist (jhultquist@me.com) if you would like to become involved. Consider other ways that you might help. There are interesting and varied tasks, from evening care for preschoolers and a homework enrichment program, to dinner servers and kitchen aides, to workshop facilitators. To learn more, contact Christi Moyer Kelly, Volunteer Coordinator, at 408.926.8885 x.106
Bill Wilson Center
The Bill Wilson Center's mission is to support and strengthen the community by serving youth and families through counseling, housing, education, and advocacy. Bill Wilson serves over 10,000 clients in Santa Clara County annually through some 12 different programs that are inspired and highly effective. Bill Wilson maintains runaway and homeless youth shelters and provides family and youth counseling. They have a special focus on serving teens in Foster Care who often loose what family support they have had as they "age out" of Foster Care after turning 18. Another program is the Centre for Living with Dying, which provides emotional support to adults and children facing life-threatening illness or the trauma of having a loved one die. St. Jude's parishioners, including high school aged youth, have volunteered at Bill Wilson Center. The parish has provided Outreach funds to support the valuable work that Bill Wilson Center does for all of the communities of Silicon Valley.
Julian Street Inn
Julian Street Inn is the only South Bay shelter that provides emergency shelter to clients diagnosed with mental illness. 70 beds are available for men and women who have been diagnosed with a mental illness and are actively engaged in the mental health care system. Clients may stay for up to 60 days. Individuals receive one-on-one counseling and support, as well as participation in support groups. The groups are designed to help clients increase their coping skills, maintain sobriety, and develop resources to help them maintain independence.
For more than a decade, St. Jude's has provided financial support to the Julian Street Inn and teams of volunteers who cook meals for the shelter.
Correctional Institutions Chaplaincy
The Correctional Institutions Chaplaincy (CIC) is a long-standing non-denominational and non-governmental program reporting directly to the faith community that brings ordained and lay ministers into the adult and juvenile penal institutions in Santa Clara County. The CIC serves 11 facilities ranging from family shelters to juvenile hall to the main jail and conducts over 30 worship services and a variety of related activities. CIC has ministered to people associated with St. Jude's and is one of a limited number of resources that prisoners see that are directed toward rehabilitation.
St. Jude's has supported the CIC with funding and, in the past, with musical/liturgical involvement at Elmwood, and through the prison ministry of The Rev. Connie White. CIC is seeking creative ways to spread the gospel through drama, art, etc. as well as a variety of liturgical experiences and support activities. Speaking to a St. Jude's Adult Forum, Executive Director David Robinson encouraged us to open our hearts to this ministry. There are many ways to be involved -- through prayer, legislative advocacy, one-on-one visitation, Bible study, worship services, drama, art, or storytelling, support for literacy programs, as well as aftercare support.
Friends Outside in Santa Clara County
Friends Outside in Santa Clara County deploys programs to assist families living in the county who have a spouse, child, or relative in custody; to prisoners incarcerated in the Santa Clara County jails; and individuals who have recently been released from jail or prison. Friends Outside seeks is unique in combining a focus to family and rehabilitation to help individuals overcome the immediate and long term effects of incarceration. Their programs are intended to act as a bridge between those they serve, the community at large, and the criminal justice system.
Incarceration places the entire family at risk. The remaining spouse and children suffer shame, a sense of loss, and frequently family income is drastically reduced. Necessities such as clothing, food and supplies are often beyond the reach of limited budgets. The first time the family has experienced incarceration, there is confusion and embarrassment. Incarceration, unlike other catastrophes that happen, is not seen by society as a situation that deserves compassion. St. Jude's has provided annual support to Friends Outside because its programs provide one of the few places where families in this situation came come to for help and not feel judged.
SJSPIRIT Campus Ministry at San Jose State University
SJSPIRIT, is the part of the Episcopal Canterbury Community of ministries to young people. Led by SJSPIRIT Chaplain, the Rev. Roger Wharton, it provides outreach to college students and young adults in Silicon Valley who are on a spiritual path or are interested in exploring the spiritual world. They invite people of all faiths, or no faith, traditions and backgrounds to participate in a welcoming, affirming and open community that offers spiritual education and guidance. They gather for worship, rituals and recreation as they strive to connect with our God given purpose in life, with other people, and with the planet. They also have some presence at West Valley Community College, and join with other area churches to keep a progressive Christian presence on campuses. At various times St. Jude's clergy have partnered with SJSPIRIT, and over the years Saint Jude's has provided annual financial support.
Rebuilding Together Silicon Valley
Rebuilding Together brings volunteers together to rehabilitate the homes of low income homeowners, particularly the elderly and disabled, so that they may live in warmth, safety and independence. The majority of the low-income homeowners served are elderly or disabled individuals, or residents who are physically and financially unable to maintain safe and warm living conditions for themselves and their families. St. Jude's Outreach first took on a Rebuilding Together Silicon Valley project in 2007. Since then, under Jeff and Mary Hultquist’s leadership, parish volunteers have worked on two projects a year, helping elderly living alone, a half-way house and others in need of making neglected repairs.
Habitat for Humanity Silicon Valley
This local chapter of Habitat for Humanity builds a small number of houses each year in the Silicon Valley. The funds contributed to Silicon Valley Habitat are used to purchase land and materials. Construction is accomplished by volunteers working under the direction of professional construction people, most of whom are themselves are volunteers, The houses are provided to low-income families for the cost of materials and with a 30 year loan at 0% interest. Qualifying families must complete at least 500 hours of work alongside volunteers. Silicon Valley Habitat has built 37 homes.
numerous volunteers from St. Jude's, from youth to adults, have worked on Habitat job sites over the years. Linda Morris has regularly organized St. Jude's workdays. Several parishioners work regularly with habitat, including Syd Jacobsen and Howard Hill.
Books Aloud
The Books Aloud "Reading by Listening" program provides a wide variety of recorded reading literature to eligible individuals of all ages. Their mission is to keep the "Magic of Reading" alive for the blind, visually impaired, learning disabled or physically disabled individuals who are unable to read conventional print, hold a book or turn pages. More than 100 Books Aloud volunteers record books-on-tape that are distributed free-of-charge to 2,200 clients, from the blind, to autistic children, to older individuals with macular degeneration, to sufferers of muscular dystrophy, diabetes and arthritis. They make mini-libraries available to schools and other organizations that serve these populations in Santa Clara County, including the Live Oak Senior Day Care center on St. Jude's campus. For more than 25 years Joyce Herzog, a St. Jude's parishioner, has volunteered weekly at Books Aloud, recording books of all kinds for the individuals they serve.
Santa Clara County Black Infant Health Program
In 2010, Sant Jude's provided financial support to the Santa Clara County Department of Health in support of their Black Infant Health Program that seeks to provide education and support to African-American families and women who are pregnant to improve the health of their offspring. African-American infants are nearly three times as likely to die in their first year as White infants. In 2004, the infant mortality rate for African-American infants was 12.0 deaths per 1,000 live births as compared to 4.6 per 1,000 for non-Hispanic White infants and 5.2 for Hispanic infants. African-American infants in California are twice as likely to be born with low birth weight as White infants. In 2005, the percentage of African-American babies born with low birth weight was 12.8 percent, compared to 6.5 percent for non-Hispanic Whites and 6.2 for Hispanic infants. The risk of having low birth weight babies is higher for pregnant women who are poor, African-American, younger than age 17, have little or no prenatal care, have inadequate diets, pregnancy weight gain is less than 20 pounds, and who smoke, abuse illicit substances, or consume alcohol.