Community Events & Non-Profit Spotlight

Community EventsSouth BayNorth BayEast BayS.F. & Peninsula

North Hills Christian School Fundraiser

North Hills Christian School in Vallejo is having a Chevy’s Night Fund Raiser for their 8th Grade Washington DC/East Coast trip at the Chevy’s Restaurant in Vallejo. It will be from 4:00PM to 9:00PM on Tuesday, February 23, 2010 at the Chevy’s Fresh-Mex Restaurant, 157 Plaza Drive in Vallejo (across from Costco).

Teen Violence Prevention Month

February is Teen Violence Prevention Month A Safe Place, in collaboration with the City of Oakland has produced a DVD titled: "Real Talk" - Teen Dating Violence Prevention. The screening will take place Thursday, Feburary 11 from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the Elihu M. Harris State Building Auditorium - 1515 Clay Street in Oakland, CA.

The Woman in Black

San Jose's Northside Theatre Company proudly presents the horror story, The Woman in Black, by Steven Mallatratt and based on the book by Susan Hill. February 11-March 7, 2010

American Cancer Society Relay for Life

American Cancer Society Relay for Life organizers encourage you to gather colleagues, friends, and family to make a team of up to 15 for this year's Relay for Life of Willow Glen which will be held May 15th and 16th at Willow Glen High School in San Jose.

South Bay Non Profits
East Palo Alto Community Alliance & Neighborhood Development Organization EPA CAN DO was founded in 1989. Its mission is to support affordable housing for East Palo Alto and San Mateo County residents by building affordable housing units and providing homeownership counseling and education. EPA CAN DO has built over 300 affordable housing units and has 40 additional units in development. Their home loan / homeownership workshops average 125 participants per session. In addition, the organization is focused on mobilizing against the current foreclosure crisis and the neighborhood blight that accompanies it. East Palo Alto has one of the highest rates of foreclosure per capita in the Bay Area, but EPA CAN DO has many success stories of helping people avoid foreclosure and get into refinance opportunities. The internal challenge for EPA CAN DO is maintaining appropriate resources to keep up with the demands of the foreclosure crisis and assuring sufficient capital to fund new building projects. Developing a successful fundraising campaign is a key priority. Individual donations appreciated.	Emma Prusch Farm Park Emma Prusch Farm Park calls itself “the agricultural heart of Silicon Valley.” A 47 acre agricultural park located within San Jose near Highways 280 and 101, the Farm includes heritage, high density and rare fruit orchards, a Plant Science Center, 2 community gardens, pollinator and butterfly gardens, Friendship Forest featuring trees from around the world, historical structures and a brand-new windmill. The Farm offers the community various educational and environmental programs and sponsors annual events including the Harvest Festival in October and a 4H Animal Field Day each spring. The Park Foundation provides youth scholarships for summer camps and offers outreach to the needy of San Jose through programs such as the Veggielution sustainable garden or the annual Breakfast with Santa which donates presents and food baskets for low income families. Prusch Farm Park receives no subsidies or grants and is run on a strictly volunteer basis. Donations and volunteers needed and appreciated.
Sunnyvale Community Services Sunnyvale Community Services (SCS) is an emergency assistance agency focusing on the needs of low-income families and seniors in Sunnyvale, one of the Bay Area’s fastest growing poverty zones. SCS helps those in need retain housing through assistance with rent and deposits, avoid utility disconnections, secure treatment for medical conditions, maintain transportation through auto repair, and alleviate hunger and malnutrition through regular and emergency food programs. In addition, SCS sponsors its annual Community Christmas Center for 11 days every December, a chance for low-income residents to “shop” for holiday gifts and food for their families. SCS believes keeping people in their homes with food on the table and access to medical care is more cost-effective than allowing them to fall into larger problems with more expensive solutions. Sunnyvale Community Services accepts financial and in-kind donations and always welcomes new volunteers.	Indian Health Center of Santa Clara Valley Indian Health Center of Santa Clara Valley is a vital member of a group of community clinics that make up the health care safety net in Santa ClaraCounty. The Center offers a full range of primary care and illness prevention services, with an emphasis on holistic services, health education, and American Indian values. IHC was created in 1977 to address the health disparities of American Indians in the Santa ClaraValley area. In the early 1990s, the clinic expanded to serve anyone in need regardless of race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation. Services provided to the community include: general medical care, general dentistry, prenatal care, chronic disease care, geriatrics, immunizations, health education and prevention programs, mental health counseling, outpatient abuse treatment, podiatry, acupuncture, health screenings, home visits and much more. In addition, IHC supports ethnic traditions by offering sweat lodges and other traditional healing techniques. IHC services are not free, but no one is turned away. Discounts and a sliding scale are available for low-income clients. IHC is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and is not funded or supported by money from the region’s Indian casinos. The Center has applied for help from federal stimulus money. Volunteers and donations welcome.
Ronald McDonald House at Stanford Ronald McDonald House at Stanford is a 47-room facility providing a home-away-from-home and supportive community for families of children with life-threatening illnesses receiving specialized treatment at local hospitals. Families are asked to pay $10 per night; but no one is turned away due to inability to pay. In 2000 the average stay was 6 days. With increasingly sophisticated treatments and the rapid growth in the number of transplant procedures, the average stay is now 24 days. The longest stay at the facility was 2 years. Ronald McDonald House currently turns away 10-12 families daily due to capacity issues and demand will certainly increase as Stanford Hospital expands. The affiliation with McDonald’s creates the impression that the facility does not require monetary assistance. However, McDonald’s provides only 7% of the annual budget. Community support, financial as well as volunteer, is vital.	The Built to Last Collaborative The Built to Last Collaborative was founded to improve education opportunities for East Palo Alto and Belle Haven youth. BLTC offers community members from all walks of life the opportunity to serve as AmeriCorps members by acting as academic coaches to students moving from the Ravenswood City Elementary School District into the Sequoia Union High School District. The program, currently serving 232 students, seeks to improve academic achievement, increase family stability and encourage community growth. Coaches work with teachers and administrators inside the district high schools and also provide after school homework support at the Onetta Harris Community Center in Menlo Park. The Built to Last Collaborative needs people and organizations willing to share time, talent and resources to help area high school students achieve scholastically and improve high school graduation rates.
Vista Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired For the past 75 years, Vista Center has been a leading resource for individuals with vision loss in San Mateo, Santa Clara, San Benito and Santa Cruz counties. Seeking to promote increased independence and improved quality of life, the Center provides low vision evaluations, social services and counseling, support groups, orientation, mobility training, living skills instruction and computer training. Vista Center currently serves over 2500 clients and families each year, but it is estimated that 100,000 individuals in the area could benefit by the Center’s services. However, fully 80% of those who seek help at Vista Center fall below economic self-sufficiency thresholds and cannot afford to pay for their services. Contributions from the community, including support for the Center’s 3 annual fundraiser events, are crucial to help Vista Center keep up with demand for its services. The Center also has an active volunteer program.	Rock-It Science Rock-It Science provides science enrichment classes to underserved and at-risk youth and seeks to spark, nurture and develop young people’s enthusiasm for science and ensure their ability to learn science successfully. Using a unique teaching methodology that combines storytelling with hands-on science experiments, the goals is to stimulate creative imagination, brainstorming and problem-solving skills. Through hands-on, trial-and-error learning experiences, each child gets to manipulate materials, observe results and share discoveries. The program is designed to allow children to have fun while they learn science. Monetary support from the community helps provide scholarships for individual students, hire additional staff to take the program into Bay Area schools, and expand facilities for providing science enrichment outside of the schools. Rock-It Science is also looking for additional board members to help further its mission to open the doors of science to even more children.
African-American Community Services Agency The mission of the African-American Community Service Agency is to preserve the dignity and culture of a diverse African American community and to provide services that promote full participation of African Americans of Santa Clara County in the general society. The Agency sponsors the annual Juneteenth Festival in San Jose, Santa Clara County’s largest annual event for the African American community. The festival is a major fundraiser supporting programs provided by the Agency’s African American Center, including Beyond School Hours, a food bank program, and a homeless breakfast program.	--

East Bay Non Profits

Habitat for Humanity East Bay

Habitat for Humanity East Bay was founded in 1988 as an independent affiliate of Habitat for Humanity International. Their mission is to build sustainable housing in order to create homeownership opportunities for families with limited incomes and revitalize entire neighborhoods. The largest Habitat affiliate in the Bay Area, they built their 200th home last year and began an ambitious new campaign to build their next 200 homes in just 5 years. A leader in affordable green building in the US, Habitat East Bay went green in 2000 and has built more than 60 green, solar homes. They recently earned certification from the national Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program.

Each April, Habitat East Bay sponsors its annual Earth Day Build-A-Thon, the biggest building and fundraising event of their year. In 2009, the event framed 20 houses in 4 days.

Habitat for Humanity East Bay also operates ReStore, a construction materials reuse facility which diverts construction waste from landfill. Profits from this store help support the organization’s building programs. ReStore is located at 9235 San Leandro Street in Oakland.

Habitat for Humanity East Bay serves Alameda and Contra Costa counties and has developments in Livermore, Antioch, Oakland, Richmond, Alameda, Bay Point, Pittsburg, Concord, Brentwood and other East Bay locations. They are currently completing a 54-home development at Edes Avenue in East Oakland, transforming the blight of a former auto salvage yard into a thriving community.