Basic Organization Information
St. Joseph Center
- Physical Address:
-
Venice, CA
90291
- EIN:
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95-3874381
- Web URL:
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www.stjosephctr.org
- NTEE Category:
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P Human Services
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P40 Family Services
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P Human Services
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P81 Senior Centers/Services
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P Human Services
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P85 Homeless Services/Centers
- Year Founded:
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1976
- Ruling Year:
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1987
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Mission Statement
St. Joseph Center's mission is to provide working poor families, as well as homeless men, women
and children of all ages, with the inner resources and tools to become
productive, stable and self-supporting members of the community. Our goals reflect that mission. Our
primary goal is to empower homeless and low-income individuals and families to establish physical, social, emotional and financial well-being to the best of their abilities. Our primary objectives are to help our clients to resolve immediate crises, including hunger; to establish and maintain stability; to identify personal barriers to well-being and to develop an action plan to overcome these barriers; to identify and utilize community resources to develop and sustain financial self-reliance.
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Impact Summary from the Nonprofit
<div>St. Joseph Center serves approximately 6,000 men, women, and children per year. SJC has continued to place a primary focus on addressing food insecurity, and offering case management and workshops aimed at providing clients with the tools necessary to establish self sufficiency and stability. As always, the Center continues to support homeless or individuals and families living in temporary housing access and maintain permanent supportive housing. Demand for our services remains persistent. In fiscal year 2011-12:</div><div>--Almost 900 working poor households accessed our Food Pantry; these households comprised 3,018 individuals, 1,003 of whom were children and youth under the age of 18. The Pantry distributed 19,942 bags of groceries, including 2,098 bags in March 2012 alone, an agency record for a single month.</div><div>--Bread and Roses Café served 27,266 hot, freshly prepared meals to 1,777 homeless people in an atmosphere that emphasizes dignity and respect for each individual.</div><div>--Our Culinary Training Program graduated 43 clients and placed 30 of them in food service industry jobs that pay more than minimum wage.</div><div>---Homeless Service Center: Served 2,187 individuals with 30,980 units of emergency and basic services.</div><div>--Family Center: Provide 318 families with ongoing case management services.</div><div> </div><div>A focus for St. Joseph Center in the coming years is on early childhood intervention, which aims to strengthen families and reduce childhood toxic stress, which can contribute to a lifetime of challenges. Agency-wide, the Early Years Initiative will focus on building protective factors to reduce risk and create optimal outcomes for children, youth and families. In 2012-13, we are deepening our work on behalf of these children by employing best practices for promoting parent-child cohesion using a holistic approach that considers the interrelated physical and mental health of family units.</div><div> </div><div>We have also been pioneers in Los Angeles in providing Housing First and Permanent Supportive Housing solutions for chronically homeless individuals. St. Joseph Center is on track to house at least 165 highly vulnerable chronically homeless individuals from the Venice community and a total of at least 60 from Santa Monica by 2015.</div>
Leadership
Ms. Va Lecia Adams, Ph.D.
Term:
Since
Mar
2008
Profile:
Executive Director Va Lecia Adams has extensive experience in counseling as well as non-profit program design and management. Before joining St. Joseph Center, Va Lecia spent six years as Director of Transitional Living for United Friends of the Children. While there she helped create and oversee Pathways, an 18-month transitional housing program that assists former foster youth with housing, college readiness, career development, financial assistance, mentoring, and individual counseling. While working on her Ph.D., Va Lecia served as Executive Director of The Stanford Medical Youth Science Program (SMYSP), housed in the Stanford University School of Medicine. SMYSP reaches out to low-income youth who are interested in becoming physicians. Va Lecia has also held the position of Vice President of Counseling Services for College Bound, a Cerritos-based non-profit organization that provides college counseling and guidance to minority youth.
Born and raised in Southern California, Va Lecia graduated with a B.A. from the University of Southern California and earned an M.A. from Ball State University before completing her Ph.D. at Stanford University. Throughout her doctoral program, she researched the factors that create stress (such as poverty, academic under-achievement, and family problems) in ethnic minority youth. This work resulted in a chapter (co-authored with Dr. Teresa LaFromboise) entitled, ?Relational Group Therapy with African American Female Adolescents and Their Mothers,? published in the book The Intersection of Race, Class, and Gender: Implications for Multicultural Counseling (D. Pope Davis & H. L. K. Coleman, Eds.).
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Program:
Family Center and Food Pantry
- Budget:
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$344,091
- Category:
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Human Services
- Population Served:
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Poor/Economically Disadvantaged, Indigent, General
Program Description:
The Family Center and Food Pantry meets its short-term goals of alleviating hunger and stabilizing families as well as its longer-term aims of offsetting poverty’s myriad ill-effects through a combination of ongoing case management and family-strengthening activities. SJC’s Food Pantry provides grocery bags filled with fruits, vegetables, grains, and proteins to low-income families and individuals who are suffering from food insecurity, including homebound seniors. The food pantry is the gateway to Family Center, which helps clients address and overcome the social, emotional, and economic challenges that underpin poverty and hunger.
Program Long-Term Success:
Served 797 families with supplemental groceries, referrals/advocacy, case management, parenting classes, a computer lab, after-school/summer children?s program and/or youth mentoring.
Program Short-Term Success:
Program Success Monitored by:
Program Success Examples:
Program:
Culinary Training Program
- Budget:
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$144,652
- Category:
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Employment
- Population Served:
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Poor/Economically Disadvantaged, Indigent, General
Program Description:
<h2>The goal of the Culinary Training Program is to break the cycle of poverty by giving individuals with barriers to employment the skills they need to succeed in the food service industry. CTP holds seven 10-week sessions each year. During the first six weeks of each session, students complete 104 hours of coursework in three modules: Culinary Theory, Measurements and Sanitation; Life Skills; and Job Search Strategies. Students receive a training manual, uniform (close-toed shoes, pants and black shirt) and use of a culinary tool kit. Following this six-week classroom training, students complete a four-week, 80-hour externship. Externships are completed at a variety of locations, from the kitchens of Project Angel Food to privately owned restaurants ranging from Giggles and Hugs family eatery to fine dining establishments such as Spago and The Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills. Upon completion of the 10-week session, students attend an informal graduation. Graduates receive a new chef coat to ensure that they have the proper attire for their new jobs. They are assisted with job placement by the Program Manager and have access to St. Joseph Center computers and printers for résumé preparation and, if they lack a permanent residence, can receive phone calls at the CTP office.</h2>
Program Long-Term Success:
Over more than a decade, 70% of graduates have been placed in employment within 90 days of completing the program.
Program Short-Term Success:
Program Success Monitored by:
Program Success Examples:
Evidence of Impact
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Organizational Strengths
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Areas for Improvement
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