|
| |
|
 Guadalupe Community Center has partnered with The Character Connection (TCC) to offer character education classes to youth ages five to 17 who express a desire to learn how to develop a positive moral character and avoid future gang involvement, illegal drug use, teen pregnancy and prison. These classes are voluntary and are provided at no charge.
TCC provides quality character
education programs designed to prevent/reduce juvenile crime, drug abuse, domestic violence and organized gang activities. The curriculum used is the Peaceful Solution
Character Education Program, which is a classroom-ready curriculum developed for children in grades kinder through high school that enables the instructor to incite in its participants a heightened sense of consideration, care and respect for their own wellbeing and that of their family, friends and society.
Read More... |
| |
|
Catholic Charities Crisis Intervention Program offers assistance to those in need in several ways. In addition to emergency financial assistance for utilities and rent, we offer clothing and food assistance. Clients may visit our West Salinas location to pick up clothing items for the members of their households.
Depending on how many individuals they
have in their households, clients may take one, two or three bags of groceries. Clients are able to receive clothing and food assistance once every three months. We also offer smaller bags of food to homeless individuals, who may receive up to one bag per week. As the holiday season approaches, our food pantry will need a more abundant supply of food items on hand to help needy individuals and families. Our food pantry items include canned corn or green beans, pinto beans, spaghetti, spaghetti sauce, vermicelli, rice, macaroni and cheese, peanut butter, jelly, tomato sauce, tuna, cereal, ground turkey, bread, potted meat, Vienna sausages, boxed mashed potatoes, crackers and bottled water. Read More ... |
|
| |
|
 A common misconception is that all human trafficking victims are foreign nationals. Although there
is data from the U.S. State Department showing that between 14,500 and 17,500 victims are trafficked into the U.S. from Asia, Central and South America and Eastern Europe, a Congressional report found that 100,000 to 300,000 children in the United States are at risk for commercial
sexual exploitation at any time.
Despite the legal innovations of the Trafficking Victim’s Protection Act, very little is known about the
gravity of this atrocious crime and its consequences. What has been discovered since the enactment
of federal legislation over the lasteight years is that victimization and sexual exploitation of U.S. children and at-risk youth comprise all the elements of human trafficking.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) estimates that one in five girls and
one in 10 boys are sexually abused or assaulted before they reach adulthood. The cycle of exploitation may begin when a family member or friend abuses a child in their
custody or care, only to escalate to a systematic and continuum of abuse and commercial exploitation. Read More ... |
|
| |
|
 The stories that ring throughout the office of Catholic Charities Refugee Services have the tone of the miraculous: A blind man from a far away land has been enabled to work. A severely deformed individual has found healing through doctors who donated their time and services. This same man, upon healing, asserted his need for employment and subsequently was placed at a local factory where he is able to
get his first paycheck that did not come from Catholic Charities.
There are reports of the men and women who have always been denied the basic right to work because they resided in refugee camps
practicing their English for their first interviews for their first jobs.
At the core of Catholic Charities Refugee Services — its backbone — is the Refugee Employment Program. Last year, Refugee Services accepted 415 resettlement cases, bringing a total 1,009 refugees to San Antonio.
Funded through various
government grants and private donations, these families receive approximately three to six months of assistance with their rent and utilities. The mandate from the government, however, is that these families pursue economic self-sufficiency through employment.
Refugees, who come from countries such as Bhutan, Burma, Burundi, Cuba, Iran and Iraq, come to the United States with permission to work. These refugees are persons who have been persecuted or have a well-founded fear of being persecuted based on their religion, race, nationality or membership in a particular social or political group. Because of this persecution, they are forced to leave their country.
Read More ... |
| |
| |
|
|
