Grace South Bay partners with the community to offer opportunities to love our neighbors. Below are 10 ways you can join us in our compassion ministry:
1.
Volunteer to tutor kids and teens: Come tutor with us on Saturdays Sept-May from 10am-12pm in the Crossroads Bible Church building! Email
corina.chen@mac.com to get started. Teach Me is a program started by a coalition of 3 San Jose churches, whose mission is to empower underserved K-12th Grade students near the Rose Glen neighborhood through personalized tutoring and education.
2.
Help the homeless and recently housed families in San Jose:
PATH‘s Evans Lane (a supportive tiny home community for recently homeless families with children) is looking for volunteers to host activities (art, sports, tutoring, etc). Volunteers are also needed to lead field trips to family friendly locations in San Jose to build life skills. Grace SB also hosts a Pre-Thanksgiving Dinner at Evans Lane every November. Year round, we collect full-size household items for PATH’s Villas on the Park site, as well as travel-sized toiletries and individually wrapped snacks for Hygiene and Snack Kits for PATH’s street outreach team.
4.
Become involved in foster care: Grace SB is an official partner church for Foster the City and encourages attendance at an
FTC Interest Meeting for anyone who wants to learn more about becoming a resource parent or support friend.
Foster the City is a coalition of churches that equips foster parents and support friends with the tools they need to care for at-risk children.
5.
Give Christmas gifts to foster children: This Nov-Dec, join our Help One Child Giving Tree and pick out a wishlist to provide an at-risk child or youth with a Christmas gift of their choice.
Help One Child’s mission is to recruit, train and support those willing to provide a home or volunteer services to at-risk children, including those in the foster care system.
6.
Provide home repair for low-income neighbors: This April on our annual Spring Rebuilding Day, come with Grace SB to help paint a home for a local low-income resident. We partner with
Rebuilding Together Silicon Valley, which provides renovation and repair services for the nation’s most vulnerable homeowners.
7.
Support Afghan refugee families in the Bay Area: We partner with the
International Refugee Committee in San Jose to donate items for refugee families new to the San Jose and Fremont areas. Furniture is in high demand, as well as volunteers with large vans or trucks that can coordinate and deliver donated furniture.
9.
Donate kids items to at-risk children: Join us for a Kids Resource Drive this summer benefiting KAFPA (Kinship Adoptive Foster Parent Association). You can also donate kids items any time of the year by dropping off donations directly to their office.
KAFPA serves over 500 families and 1600 of Santa Clara county’s most vulnerable children.
10.
Volunteer at summer camp for families living with disabilities: Members of our congregation have volunteered at Joni and Friends’ Family Retreat in the Santa Cruz hills each summer as short term missionaries.
Joni and Friends provides outreach to families impacted by disability.