Community Corner

San Mateo County Charities Hit $2.8M Jackpot

Nearly $3 million dollars is going to local good causes thanks to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation

Earlier this month, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation announced that it was giving $2.8 million in grants to charities in San Mateo County.

“Silicon Valley Community Foundation is committed to improving the quality of life in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, and the grants we’re announcing will help us do that in diverse ways — from ensuring that immigrants seeking the American Dream can get affordable legal help to providing shelter and food to those who need a helping hand,” said Erica Wood, SVCF’s vice president of community leadership.

Search through the complete list of San Mateo County charities below to see if your favorite made the cut:

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$10,000 Caminar: Support to expand the Open Pantry program, which provides essential food items to low-income individuals with serious mental illness in San Mateo County.

$80,000 City of Redwood City/Fair Oaks Community Center: Support for the provision of food, shelter and homelessness prevention services to low-, very low-, and extremely low-income households seeking services at the Fair Oaks Community Center.

$80,000 Coastside Hope: Support for a safety net program including one caseworker and one food worker position needed to help clients with complex needs including food, housing, clothing, referrals and other needs.

$15,000 Ecumenical Hunger Program: Support for all current safety net programs providing services to over 17,000 individuals annually, including food, nutrition education, high-risk family case management and supplemental programs. 

$65,000 El Concilio of San Mateo County: Support to protect affordable housing by preserving rent-controlled tenancies with rental assistance and legal advocacy.

$10,000 HandsOn Bay Area: Support for the Safety-Net Action Program to recruit and manage volunteers drawn from the community, including local corporations, to deliver more than 2,250 hours of direct service in support of food, housing access and health services.

$50,000 HIP Housing (Human Investment Project): Support for the Home Sharing Program, which helps some of the most vulnerable residents of San Mateo County find decent, stable and affordable homes and remain independent in their homes, protected from foreclosure.

$125,000 InnVision Shelter Network: Support for safety net services in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties, including emergency shelter, transitional housing and comprehensive support services for homeless individuals and families.

$20,000 Mateo Lodge, Inc.: Support to provide emergency housing to mentally ill adults and their families in San Mateo County in the form of SRO's (motels/hotels) when no shelter beds are available and all other resources have been exhausted.

$20,000 Mental Health Association of San Mateo County: Support for a staff position to provide intensive housing case management services for residents at Spring Street Shelter.

$40,000 North Peninsula Neighborhood Services Center, Inc.: Support to develop and expand the volunteer workforce with recruitment, training and recognition in order to improve the delivery of food, homeless prevention and shelter services.

$65,000 Pacifica Resource Center: Support for the Safety Net Program to continue to provide food support, housing assistance and other services to low-income families through case management.

$25,000 Peninsula Volunteers, Inc. (Meals on Wheels): Support for Meals on Wheels to provide hot, nutritious home- delivered meals to qualified homebound seniors and to adults less than 60 years old with disabilities, residing in south San Mateo County.

$75,000 Puente de la Costa Sur (Puente): Support for the Rural Coordinated Case Management and Advocacy Program to offer safety net services to South Coast residents as a pathway to self-sufficiency.

$140,000 Samaritan House: Support to provide food, shelter and housing stabilization services for families and individuals in greatest need in San Mateo County.

$200,000 Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo County: Support for food assistance programs and services to the community, which ensure that those in need have access to healthy, nutritious food.

$15,000 Senior Coastsiders: Support to provide vital nourishment to over 450 seniors and adults with disabilities who live on the San Mateo County Coastside.

$25,000 Service League of San Mateo County: Support to meet the needs of re-entry clientele at the Hope House for Women, and for fresh foods for nutritionally balanced meals and snacks, as well as for case management.

$25,000 Society of St. Vincent de Paul of San Mateo County: Support for the Family Resource Center homelessness prevention program to provide rental assistance; support for Catherine's Center, a home for women leaving incarceration.

$25,000 St. Anthony of Padua Dining Room: Support to provide financial help to feed the needy in the southern portion of San Mateo County.

$25,000 Able Works: Support for the LiveAble program, serving South San Mateo County residents with foreclosure intervention, credit counseling and first-time homebuyer education.

$40,000 Asian Inc.: Support for Foreclosure Prevention/Intervention Program that helps distressed homeowners to avoid foreclosure or, when that is not feasible, to mitigate foreclosure consequences.

$40,000 Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto: Support for continuing Foreclosure Prevention Legal Services program, which provides comprehensive legal assistance to homeowners and tenants facing foreclosure, and takes measures to prevent and mitigate deceptive lending practices in low-income communities.

$40,000 Housing and Economic Rights Advocates (HERA): Support for HERA’s Foreclosure Prevention and Economic Security Project - San Mateo County to help increase the financial stability of San Mateo County homeowners and allow former homeowners to stay in their homes.

$40,000 Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County: Support for Post-Foreclosure Eviction Defense project of the HomeSavers program, which aims to enforce the legal rights of tenants in post-foreclosure properties in order to prevent homelessness.

$40,000 Project Sentinel: Provide foreclosure prevention counseling to low- and moderate-income households living in cities in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties.

$130,000 Center for Responsible Lending: Continued funding to expand CRL-California's statewide anti-payday lending coalition and help enact state policy reforms that will reduce the harmful impacts of payday lending on Californians.

$50,000 Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto: Continued funding to implement a new endorsement-centered strategy in the effort to pass anti-payday-lending legislation in Redwood City, to shepherd the progress of a permanent ban in Menlo Park and to continue its vigorous grassroots anti-payday-lending education effort.

$26,000 Insight Center for Community Economic Development: Continued funding to spur passage of policies that limit payday lending establishments in the northern San Mateo municipalities of Pacifica and Daly City and to conduct research and prepare educational materials for influencing development of credit unions' small-dollar loan products.

$125,000 Youth Leadership Institute: Funding for YLI and its partner organization, Mission SF, to support youth-led advocacy efforts against payday lenders in Daly City and to train new youth leaders in La Honda/Pescadero and South San Francisco that will form part of a statewide anti-payday-lending coalition.

$40,000 Aspire Public Schools / East Palo Alto Phoenix Academy: Third-year support for a mathematics coach to ensure mathematics teachers' capacity to transition to the common core standards in mathematics, improve student math performance and foster a practitioner-led effort to catalyze change in schools and systems.

$53,490 Brisbane Elementary School District and Bayshore Elementary School District: Fifth-year support to provide professional development for mathematics teachers through coaching; develop a cohesive three-to-five-year plan for common core standards in mathematics implementation; transform teacher practice via classroom video and professional learning communities; and continue collaboration with high school feeder districts.

$75,000 Jefferson Elementary School District and U.C. Berkeley: Fourth-year support to implement a comprehensive program of professional development for mathematics teachers with a specific focus on language development for English Language Learners and instruction under the common core standards.

$60,000 Krause Center for Innovation, Foothill College: Fourth-year support to provide professional development program to middle school mathematics teachers during the summer and follow-up learning sessions during the year. Programs will focus on content knowledge, pedagogical practices, productive persistancy skills and the use of technology to achieve student academic goals. 

$75,000 Partners in School Innovation: Support to create year-long professional development program for mathematics teachers that will build middle grade professional learning communities; provide on-site coaching; support school alignment; and develop an effective plan for transitioning Franklin McKinley School District to the common core state standards.

$30,000 RAFT, Resource Area For Teaching: Second-year support to provide mathematics teachers with professional development focused on hands-on learning, in order to improve their subject matter knowledge and their comfort working with inquiry-based teaching processes.

$98,723 San Mateo County Office of Education: Support to facilitate collaborative professional development efforts in three unified school districts in San Mateo County -- South San Francisco Unified, Cabrillo and La Honda-Pescadero -- designed to expand the teaching expertise of middle and high school mathematics teachers by participating in the Silicon Valley Math Initiative.

$99,791 Silicon Valley Mathematics Initiative (housed at San Jose State University): Fifth-year support to provide a comprehensive program of professional development for middle school math teachers and their coaches. The goal of this effort is to increase the number of teachers whose understanding of mathematics enables them to provide the highest quality mathematics instruction, particularly in algebra and the functions strand.

$50,000 WestEd STEM Program: Third-year support to provide tailored professional development and tools to develop a continuous learning environment for middle school mathematics teachers, focused on common core standards.

$20,000 Midpeninsula Community Media Center: Support for the Made Into America multi-media web site featuring stories of Silicon Valley residents and their ancestors who immigrated to the U.S., along with a series of initiatives facilitate ongoing interaction among site participants.

$50,000 Nuestra Casa: Support for Chronicles of Hope, which educates stakeholders -- including parents, school personnel and board members -- in the receiving communities of the Sequoia Union High School District about the multiple issues encountered by local students. Expands the Multicultural Parent Advocacy Team.

$60,000 Peninsula Conflict Resolution Center: Support for Immigrant Engagement Program, which uses facilitated dialogue, leadership development, community-led action and policy change to build positive relationships between communities.

$30,000 Peninsula Interfaith Action: Support for the “Safe Corridor” campaign from San Jose to San Francisco for immigrants and their families, to build cohesive communities that value families and offer opportunity for all.

$30,000 Redwood City 2020: Support for Redwood City Together, which promotes a welcoming, inclusive climate for all who live or work in Redwood City.

$50,000 San Mateo County Sheriff's Office: Support for the C.A.R.O.N. program,which builds trust and cooperation between the community and the Sheriff’s Office through dialogues, educational workshops and community academies.

$300,000 Immigrant Legal Resource Center: Support for Collaborative Resources for Immigration Services on the Peninsula (CRISP) to increase its capacity to handle complex immigration cases, increase collaboration with Santa Clara county-based immigration service providers, as well as test and expand the use of technology in policy and advocacy work and community outreach efforts.

$50,000 International Institute of the Bay Area: Support to expand the use of innovative technologies, train new staff and deepen current collaborative partnerships in preparation for the passage of comprehensive immigration reform.

$50,000 Mission Asset Fund: Support to expand Lending Circles for Citizenship and Lending Circles for Dreamers, two social lending programs that foster citizenship and immigrant integration in the South Bay region.


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