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."