The Heart helps hundreds with ARRA-funded Calworks Housing Program push

The morning she walked into Sacred Heart Community Service, Teresa was 24-years-old, a single mother of two babies, and one week from eviction.

She wasn't alone either. Dozens of families came to the Heart for appointments on two Saturdays in August. They met with members of the Sacred Heart Housing Team, which is rushing to help as many people as possible before the ARRA-funded Calworks Housing Program expires on Sept. 1.

A customer going over paperwork with a Housing Team member

In just those two weekends, the Housing Team helped 77 households request a total of more than $120,000 to address emergency housing and utility needs. Overall, housing staff and volunteers helped 106 adults and 101 children living in our own local neighborhoods.

The stories housing staff and volunteers hear are often heartbreaking. Teresa, while sitting in the corner of the Housing office, recounted her story with tears in the corners of her eyes.

"I have never seen myself in this situation, and it's really hard," she said.

After a year of unemployment, she was planning to attend school to become a kind of licensed cosmetic skincare specialist called an esthetician. But to reserve her space in class, she needed to buy an expensive kit of supplies. With little money to spare, Teresa took a risk and bought the kit. But the cost of the esthetician supplies was just too much, and Teresa soon fell behind on her rent. After a couple months, she was on the verge of being evicted from her home with two infants and nowhere to go.

"I have a week. After that that I will have to go to a shelter," Teresa said while waiting for her appointment with the Housing Team. "I have a two year old and a one year old. I don't want them to see that kind of situation. I want the best for them, and I'm trying … I'm trying my best."

Thankfully, the Sacred Heart Housing Team was able to work out a plan to help Teresa catch up on her rent, and with a little luck, she hopes to soon be back on her feet and working on her goal of becoming an esthetician.

For more information about Sacred Heart Community Service, visit sacredheartcs.org.

Heart benefits from ARRA-funded Summer Jobs for Youth

Sacred Heart Community Service became the beneficiary of lots of youthful energy this summer when we were chosen as one of the sites for the stimulus-funded Summer Jobs for Youth Program through the City of San Jose and Work-2-Future. We have ten young people working for us in various areas such as the Clothes Closet and the Food Pantry.

"The kids have really stepped up. For them to come here and work out of their comfort zone is hard work. They stepped into chaos and I commend them at that age for coming out to work,” said Karen Moretti, essential services lead, who is in charge of the Work-2-Future teens working in the pantry.

Here are a few of their stories:

Sisters at Work

Sisters Erika,17, and Lilliana,15, landed jobs together this summer working at Sacred Heart Community Service. This is the first job for both sisters who plan to use the money they earn to buy school clothes at the end of summer to take some of the financial pressure off their parents. Both sisters agreed that they enjoy working in the pantry because they meet a lot of interesting people and have even made friends with some of the regular customers. Erika thinks the hardest part is getting up in the morning to work the early shift, but admits it is something she has grown accustomed to. “This is a really great experience. This job kept me from sitting at home doing nothing,” said Erika. “And, it’s something I can add to my resume."

College Sophomore Takes Advantage of Stimulus Opportunity

Annika, a seventeen-year-old sophomore at San Jose City College, is working in the Heart’s Food Pantry at this summer. She started in late June and will continue to work through mid-August until school starts again. Annika takes the bus everyday to and from work. She plans to save the money she earns this summer. Although Sacred Heart is not Annika’s first job, it is her first job at a non-profit. Previously, Annika worked at Great America and Finish Line. Annika enjoys getting to know the ‘regular’ customers and says she is pleased to observe that many are genuinely thankful for the help they receive. She has also made friends working alongside the other Work-2-Future teens.

Local Teen saves money for a car

Chavonne,15, has been working in the clothes closet this summer as part of the Work-2- Future program. She works the floor, sorting clothes and at the counter she checks customers out, which she really enjoys. Chavonne likes working in the clothes closet and interacting with the customers. “If they are having a bad day, I just know I have to back-off and give them space. I don’t take it personally,” said Chavonne. Sacred Heart has been her first job and she thinks it has been a great experience. Chavonne decided to apply for the Works-2-Future program because not a lot of places hire 15-year-olds and she wanted a job for the summer. She wants to save the money she earns and put it towards a car. Chavonne’s time at Sacred Heart ends on August 13th and then she will return to school.

Nearly 1,000 Participate in ARRA-funded Summer Jobs for Youth Program

On several days in early July City Hall was filled with youthful energy as nearly 1,000 teenagers and young people lined up to participate in the City’s Summer Jobs for Youth Program. This is a federally-funded stimulus program which allows impoverished young people to learn valuable job skills while earning a paycheck over the summer.

The youth need to be recipients of CalWorks, Food Stamps or meet other low-income requirements, such as meeting Workforce Investment Act (WIA) eligibility requirements. The goal of the program is to prepare participants for future career opportunities by providing a meaningful work experience, work readiness training and learning about civic engagement.

The jobs offered include temporary positions at local non-profits, such as the Heart, and retail establishments such as Target and JCPenney’s, as well as two new city-run programs: a Neighborhood Beautification Project and an E-Waste and Recycling Project.

Youth ages 15-17 may work up to 26 hours a week and earn $10 an hour, while youth ages 18-24 may work up to 40 hours a week at an hourly rate of $11 an hour.
Ten young people will be working at the Heart this summer, helping out in a variety of ways such as in the pantry, the clothes closet and at the welcome desk.
The program is run through the city’s Office of Economic Development and is coordinated by ARRA-funded employees. Many of the youth come to the program through the Work-2-Future job program. The youth go through the same basic orientation that other city employees go through.

City of San Jose employee Helen Norman helps to coordinate the program and says that the kids get a lot out of these summer jobs. “I see a lot of kids who are uncertain when they start because it’s their first job, but they have confidence by the end of the summer and feel hopeful about their future,” she said.
Norman says she is impressed that the city was so supportive of the program that when they lost their location to run an orientation the city council offered up their council chambers for the orientation.

The city also attempts to teach the youth how to handle the money they earn by providing workshops on financial literacy, and by putting 3.75% of their paychecks into a deferred payment plan which they can cash out at the end of the summer or continue to use as a savings plan.

We will be introducing you to some of these youth in upcoming blogs.

Young Father of Two Back to Work Thanks to ARRA-Funded Job

Unemployed for six months, with two children and another one on the way, Adam, 29, had to find a way to support his family. He landed a job working in the Heart's Food Pantry through the Santa Clara County Cal Works program.

SCC Works is an American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funded program helping hundreds of local, unemployed individuals get back to work in the valley.

Adam performs a number of different tasks, like unloading food donations, working the forklift, and distributing food to our customers.

Every day, Adam takes the bus all the way from Gilroy to work at Sacred Heart. Adam is now the sole provider for his family because his wife left her retail job after becoming pregnant with their third child. He is proud to say that his family not longer needs food or other assistance since he's back at work and earning a paycheck.

"I do what I got to do," said Adam of the long commute to the Heart, "and to the best of my ability."

Adam's co-workers say he is very personable and an asset in the pantry. Although his work can be strenuous he is not afraid to take on difficult tasks that others might complain about, according to a co-worker.

Before he was laid off, Adam worked in a grocery store doing a lot of the same work that he does in the pantry. Although Adam's position at Sacred Heart ends on September 30, he has discovered that he enjoys working for a non-profit so much that he plans to look for another non-profit job.

"I chose Sacred Heart because I liked that I would be working directly with the people that need help," said Adam. "It's cool because most of the people are really grateful for what they receive here."

Although Adam only has a few college credits right now, his dream is to go back to school and enter the field of law where he can use his compassion to reach out to help the disenfranchised.

"My calling will [be achieved] when I get to that point," said Adam.

Adam keeps his head high and his spirits higher, as he works to further his life goals through the help of Sacred Heart and ARRA funding.

The Stimulus at Work: Extending our reach with ARRA funding

It's easy to find funds from last year's stimulus package at work at The Heart. It's providing boxes of food to hungry families, empowering employees to become co-owners in their own businesses, supporting the fight to end poverty in our community and expanding programs agency-wide.

A little more than a year ago, Congress enacted the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 – usually it's abbreviated ARRA or more commonly just called "the stimulus package." The law provided $787 billion for tax benefits, contracts, loans, grants and entitlements.

Like many other organizations, The Heart received a number of grants through the stimulus package. Below is a list highlighting just a few of the things we're accomplishing using ARRA funds:

• Feeding the Hungry. Thousands of working families rely on Sacred Heart to help put food on the table, and stimulus funding is supporting that effort. Twice a month, families can pick up a large "stimulus box" of food containing milk, eggs, 10 pounds of produce and various kinds of pasta, rice, beans as well as other non-perishable items. With these boxes, Sacred Heart can feed more people than ever before.
• Employee-Owned Co-ops. While The Heart is best known for providing essential services like the food pantry and clothing closet, it's also recently become an incubator for the expansion of Teamworks, a network of cooperatives owned by its workforce. Using stimulus dollars and support from The Heart, Teamworks is transforming low-wage service jobs like house cleaning into powerful social and economic development opportunities.
• Changing our Community. Sacred Heart has been combating the effects of poverty for more than 40 years. Now, with the help of stimulus funding, we're working to eliminate the causes of poverty. The Heart's Policy and Organizing team is expanding to help make sure marginalized communities have their voices heard, and our Community Involvement team is more focused than ever on educating the public using innovative programs like poverty simulations.

These are just a few of the things happening at Sacred Heart thanks in part to stimulus funding. We still need your help though; the stimulus package and its funds are set to begin expiring later this year. Only with your donations can we continue these projects and many others.

ARRA Helps a Family Find a Home and Helps a Mother Find a Job

When she first moved to Silicon Valley, Brenda’s big family was living in a hotel on the verge of homelessness while Brenda struggled to straighten out her Section 8. Only two short years earlier, Brenda had been a certified nursing assistant living in Washington and earning enough money to pay her bills and care for her kids.

Then things began to go wrong. The geriatrics homecare business she worked for took a downturn, and Brenda found herself caring for her mother-in-law. Eventually, her certified nursing assistant license lapsed.

Like so many other people during the current recession, Brenda fell behind on her bills and into Silicon Valley’s safety net of non-profits and government agencies. She received food and clothing assistance from Sacred Heart and – thanks to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 – Brenda’s family got help through the Salvation Army with the deposit and first month’s rent on an apartment narrowly avoiding homelessness.

It’s still a struggle, but Brenda is getting by and working thanks in part to the ARRA-funded Santa Clara County Works program. She works 20 hours a week for Sacred Heart signing in people who come to The Heart’s food pantry. It’s a job that puts her in contact with the myriad people who turn to Sacred Heart for food assistance every month. In April alone, the Sacred Heart Pantry helped more than 20,400 people -- a staggering number that represents only a fraction of the need in Silicon Valley.

Despite the tough economic situation in California and across the entire United States, Brenda is hopeful for her future while acknowledging that she has a long road ahead of her.

"I've learned to be patient and to take one thing at a time," Brenda said. "I'm still looking for other work, but for now this is keeping me on my feet."

Stimulus Funds Help Single Mom Get Back On Her Feet

The day she and her boyfriend split up, Angel was handed the massive task of building a new life from scratch for herself and her two small children. For years, her boyfriend had paid the family’s bills and attended school while Angel was a stay-at-home mom to her now 8-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter. As a result, the young mother had little work experience and even less formal education in one of the worst job markets to hit the U.S. since the Great Depression.

That day marked the beginning of an uphill struggle for Angel – one that’s faced by many people just like her across California where the March unemployment rate stood at 12.3 percent. But while it continues to be difficult, life is looking better for Angel since she qualified for the stimulus-funded Santa Clara County Works program. Through SCC Works and other CalWorks benefits, Angel now has a part-time job, an apartment in Santa Clara and is back in school.

SCC Works was created last August through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009's Emergency Contingency Fund (ARRA/ECF). The program is available to 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations and public agencies providing a community service within Santa Clara County.

The subsidized employment program is administered through the county and pays 100 percent of employee wages for up to 20 hours per week at area non-profits. There is also an option in which an employee can work 40 hours a week at a for-profit business and have 80 percent of their wages subsidized.

Beyond infusing consumer spending into the South Bay economy, SCC Works gives program participants the opportunity to work and gain valuable job experience while serving as a free staffing resource to participating worksite employers. More than 1,100 people including Angel have been put back to work in subsidized employment positions through the program.

Angel works as a back-shop assistant for the non-profit Career Closet. The organization, located in San Jose, provides business attire free of charge to individuals who want to re-enter the workforce prepared to make a great first impression and land the job they want. Angel isn’t the only person benefitting from the program either. Heather Rodriguez, a manager at Career Closet, said that Angel has made a real contribution to the work being done at the organization.

"She has really taken charge of our back shop," Heather said. "She really makes sure that what we have on our floor for our clients is appropriate for work. And, her confidence has grown as she’s seen what a difference she makes here."

Like other programs funded by the 2009 economic stimulus package, SCC Works could end as soon as September 30, 2010. You can watch a Sacred Heart produced video featuring Angel and other people like her here or click here for more information about SCC Work.