SLC Holiday Food Drive
Nov. 26th-Dec. 24th
The Giving Committee will sponsor the holiday food drive to benefit St. Mark's Methodist Church Food Closet. We will start collecting food on Sunday, Nov. 26 and we will go through Dec. 24. Donate to the food drive to support those in need.
Did You Miss a Past Community Giving Partner Acceptance Ceremony?
Watch One Now!
We Believe In Community Giving!
Spiritual Life Center's Community Giving Program Committee, (formerly known as the Tithing Committee), is an outreach program which selects twelve nonprofit Community Partners to give back to. Each month one organization is highlighted and given a financial contribution to further their nonprofit efforts.
Since its inception, Spiritual Life Center has given over $1.5 million to more than 330 organizations. Our Community Giving Program enables us to bless others through the work of God.
SLC's 2023 Community Partners
JANUARY
4Paws2Freedom
Mission:
Improve the lives of Veterans and First Responders with PTSD through the use of highly trained service dogs, while providing compassionate education to assist in their recovery. Veterans and First Responders with PTSD train their own service dog through the year-long training program.
Nominated by Pam Logan
AND
JANUARY
Lend a Heart Lend a Hand – Animal Assisted Therapy
Mission:
Provide animal-assisted teams in therapeutic settings in Sacramento and surrounding areas. Volunteers are dedicated to sharing hope and understanding through well-trained, certified pet/handler teams. Trained therapy animals provide comfort and affection to people in retirement homes, nursing homes, hospices, schools, hospitals, disaster areas, or other stressful environments.
Nominated by Ruth Rezos
FEBRUARY
Celebration Arts Sacramento's Premier Black Theater
Mission:
Provide performing arts training and opportunities to underserved communities, particularly African American residents in Sacramento. Provide drama, dance, and music productions and classes, allowing aspiring Black artists and communities to experience the performing arts where they are the central subjects. The training serves to develop critical thinking, comprehension, script and story analysis, character and movement studies, as well as presentations based on American history, ancestral heritage and contemporary times from Black perspectives.
Nominated by Carol Manson
MARCH
Friends of Sacramento Art
Mission:
Provide art education for every child in every school in the Sacramento County Public School system by developing strategic partnerships and by advocating for the arts. Friends of Sacramento Arts also provides for teacher training and art supplies. Art provides children a means of exploring and expressing their creative and mental health needs and enriches their lives. All kids deserve access to arts and music education.
Nominated by Denise Holmes
APRIL
The Grateful Garment Project
Mission:
Ensure that every victim of a sexual crime who is seen at a Sexual Assault Response Team facility or who seeks medical attention and/or law enforcement involvement is provided with new clothing, toiletries, snacks and other items they need. No victim of sexual violence should experience further suffering due to lack of clothing to wear home after receiving services from a Sexual Violence Service Provider.
Nominated by Ruth Rezos
MAY
Central Valley Holocaust Education Network
Mission:
Support teachers in effectively implementing a Holocaust curriculum that meets CA Social Studies and Language Arts standards which helps teachers to respond to a variety of challenges this complex curriculum presents. CVHEN focuses on classroom strategies, resources, and lessons that inspire young people to embrace civic responsibility, tolerance, and social action as way of fostering moral adulthood.
Nominated by Sally Scion
JUNE
Sacramento Gay Men’s Chorus
Mission:
Foster pride and enhance lives one song at a time. SGMC envisions a community that uplifts its most marginalized members, a community that celebrates its amazing diversity, and a community where no one will be afraid to sing their own song. Values include: diversity, support and connection to community, musical and artistic excellence, action for social justice and pride. SGMC provides for a safe nurturing family, personal growth and transformation.
Nominated by Pam Logan
JULY
Kelli’s Cookies
Mission:
Mentor, employ, and inspire foster and at-risk youth, ages 18-24, in the Placer and Sacramento regions empowering them to achieve independence as well as financial and social prosperity. Life enrichment classes offer career coaching, resume writing, budgeting, basic cooking and meal preparation. Through their baking program, youth learn food packaging, customer service, cash handling, shipping processes, sales and marketing.
Nominated by Sally Scion
AUGUST
Welcome Home Housing
Mission:
Provide affordable homes for adults with mental illness in an environment that fosters personal self-worth and individual development. This approach recognizes that it takes more than a physical dwelling. The client is supported and encouraged to develop and maintain life skills necessary for independent living. Eventually, the resident retains adequate independence and develops a support system within the community which contributes to their wellness. WHH’s goal is to provide permanent, not transitional, housing. While it is hoped that independent living is part of each resident’s goal, many find that communal living is a major part of their wellness.
Nominated by Denise Holmes
SEPTEMBER
Ar-Razzaq Food Bank
Mission:
Distribute food and clothing assistance to those who are impoverished, particularly to Muslims in greater Sacramento. Ar-Razzaq is an all-volunteer, community-based organization that provides assistance to the needy in such a way as to minimize hunger and promote self-reliance. Beneficiaries include the unhoused, the WIND Youth Center in Oak Park as well as the community at large if resources permit.
Nominated by Denise Holmes
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OCTOBER
Sacramento Fire Department Community Emergency Response Team (CERT)
Mission:
Provide the City of Sacramento and community with CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) disaster emergency preparedness training through their 100% volunteer led team. Under the sponsorship of the Sacramento Fire Department, CERT provides support to public safety and service personnel as an additional resource in emergency and non-emergency situations by working within the network of local and state ER Response Teams. The volunteers have helped with such local events as Farm to Fork, Junior Olympics, Fire Cadet Training, COVID testing and vaccines, missing children searches, and warming centers.
Nominated by Brittany Jorgenson
NOVEMBER
Three Sister’s Garden
Mission:
Provide youth and others in under-served communities to come together to grow food and improve their lives in West Sacramento. They inspire and empower youth through learning gardening skills, having social support and by re-directing members away from gang-like activities. Produce is then donated to individuals and non-profit food agencies. Three Sisters believes that our community can begin to heal and thrive when all components (youth, adults and elders) are working together as one. The organization is based on traditional Native American teachings of protecting Mother Earth and respecting all living things.
Nominated by Pam Logan
DECEMBER
Rebuilding Together Sacramento
Mission:
Repair homes, revitalize communities, and rebuild lives. The vision is a safe and healthy home for every person made by improving the living conditions of Sacramento area homeowners through home repairs performed by volunteers. In addition, the mission is to improve homeowner’s independence and prevent at home injuries through home safety evaluations and installations for the disabled and/or elderly populations.
Nominated by Pam Logan
Community Giving Partners from Past Years
Organization | Mission | Date | |
|---|---|---|---|
Alchemist Community Development Corporation | Enhance the quality of life in under-resourced communities by improving access to nutritious foods, implementing community-supported public green spaces, and fostering economic self-sufficiency through business entrepreneurship. Alchemist CDC is a mission-driven organization that connects Sacramento area communities to land, food, and opportunity toward a vision in which all neighborhoods are vibrant, equitable, healthy, and diverse. They offer Cal Fresh at Farmers’ Markets, an Alchemist kitchen for business training, and a shared-use commercial kitchen in North Sacramento and home gardening classes. | December 2022 | |
Capital Adoptive Families Alliance (CAFA) | Provide emotional support, respite care, advocacy and education to families of adopted children. Once a child is adopted, support from other agencies generally ceases. 99% of CAFA children come from the Foster Care system. Children that age out of foster care are at a greater risk of homelessness, spending time in prison, have medical and/or mental health issues and suffer from addiction. CAFA aims to reduce this by offering free support services, including retreats and camps for both parents and kids. They are also the only organization in Sacramento that offers respite care. | November 2022 | |
Sacramento Native American Health Center | Provide a safety net to people in Sacramento who have little access to health care. Services include adult medicine, pediatrics, mental health, dental care, diabetic and dental care. The health center is committed to enhancing quality of life by providing a culturally competent, holistic, and patient-centered continuum of care. There are no tribal or ethnic requirements to receive care here. | October 2022 | |
Iu Mien Community Service | Support and develop healthy Iu Mien families and communities through culturally responsive programs and services. For 21 years, this agency has focused on creating a healthy community, especially for young adults, teens and seniors. They provide youth groups, mental health groups and yoga and crafts for seniors and an annual student conference for 500-600 students.
| September 2022 | |
Sacramento Theatre Company/STC School of the Arts | Sacramento Theatre Company (STC) strives to be the leader in integrating professional theatre with theatre arts education. STC produces engaging professional theatre, provides exceptional theatre training, and uses theatre as a tool for educational engagement. STC understands that young people dream of careers in performing arts, but they need an outlet and proper training. STC meets those needs by offering K-12 students after school and weekend training programs through STC’s School of the Arts. SLC is specifically donating to this special program. | August 2022 | |
Haven for Birth/Haven a Refuge for Pregnancy | Support every birther and family, including BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, people of color) and white women in Sacramento in a way that is inclusive and equitable. In particular there is great disparity in maternal morbidity and mortality between BIPOC and white birthers in the United States and in the Sacramento community. The goal is to provide doula care and other much needed pregnancy support to reduce death and injury to birthers. | July 2022 | |
Tiny Pine Foundation | Build tiny homes for survivors who lost everything in the Paradise wildfires and now have grown to serving other wildfire locations. The Tiny Homes are 100% supported by volunteers and donations. They also partner with various service organizations to distribute hot meals, groceries, school supplies and other supplies to those in need. | June 2022 | |
NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) Sacramento | Advocate for access to mental health services, treatment and education programs for families and individuals living with mental health conditions. They are steadfast in their commitment to raising awareness for all those in mental health need by providing a community of support, education, resources and outreach activities to families, friends and persons with mental illness so as to improve their general welfare and to reduce the stigma of mental illness. | May 2022 | |
Fly Brave Foundation | Create an employment training program for adults with autism that have aged out of the school system, focusing on three building blocks: Hands on skills training within the community, social skills and healthy living. Educating the public about people on the spectrum is also a focus through their free public speaking and their Police/Autism Fitness program that facilitates Law Enforcement’s understanding of the special needs of people on the spectrum. | April 2022 | |
COUR Experience | Educate, inspire, and transform the lives of teens and young adults by providing basic scientific proven methods and tools to decrease stress, anxiety and to increase resiliency and overall well-being. Consulting with licensed social workers, school counselors, district superintendents, psychology professors, and medical doctors, they create a platform that can be used by youth, educators, and parents or guardians in campus wellness rooms, youth programs, or at home. COUR teaches how to use these non-clinical modalities to self-regulate that can be used anywhere, anytime, reduces stress, anxiety, depressive symptoms, and suicide ideation in youth. | March 2022 | |
North Highlands Christian Food Ministry | A faith-based, all volunteer ministry providing two emergency food programs to adults living in the Sacramento region. Populations served include families, the unsheltered, and low-income communities. They provide a three-day supply of emergency food for people and families with permanent residences, renewable every 30 days and a one-day supply for those who are unsheltered, renewable every two weeks. | February 2022 | |
Peacemaker's Love Foundation/Good Cause Sacramento | Provide transitional supportive sober living home for men and women by offering a “process” that requires active participation in classes on nutrition, job readiness, self-love and intentional living. They live by their mantra, “Get yourself right before you go out?” This prepares the residents for living successful lives after being in the program from 3 months to 2 years. SLC’s funding is being directed towards the women’s program. | January 2022 | |
First Step Communities | Emergency shelter and interim housing, case management for primary healthcare, legal services and housing counseling for homeless. | January 2021 | |
Elk Grove HART (Homeless Assistance Resources Team) | Service helping homeless individuals and families with food security, transitional housing and mentor programs. Currently packing and delivering food to 65 individuals. | February 2021 | |
Yolo Healthy Aging Alliance | Helps seniors enhance their well being through education, collaboration and advocacy by connecting seniors to services and resources throughout Yolo County. | March 2021 | |
Family Justice Center | Assists victims of domestic violence, sex trafficking, elder abuse, sexual assault and child abuse by obtaining restraining orders, safety plans, counseling and support services. Services are free of charge and confidential. | April 2021 | |
Del Oro Caregiver Resource Center | Services include improving well being of family caregivers at no cost with respite opportunities, legal and financial consultation, short term counseling and education/training for family caregivers with a loved one with chronic disease, dementia, Alzheimer or trauma brain injuries. | May 2021 | |
Gender Health Center | Programs assist LGBTQI individuals with a focus on transgender people of color clients who are navigating a biased societal and health system with counseling, respite, emergency assistance, healthcare services including hormone support, HIV/STD testing, syringe exchange. | June 2021 | |
Safe Black Space | New program for individuals of African ancestry created by a collective including local practitioners, community members, activists, faith leaders and educators also of African descent who provide a safe space and healing circles to share stories and feelings, as well as learn and practice self care and community care, identify local resources to fight oppression and systemic racism. | July 2021 | |
Wynspring Family Resource Center | Foster program that provides supervised visitation of the family member(s) with child/children. The program also provides family foster support, training, and in-home crisis intervention services. Foster visitation also is referred through CPS and Family Court. | August 2021 | |
916 INK | Provides workshops (after school programs) for youth grades 3-12 in creative writing curriculum. These workshops transform students (mostly Title 1) into confident writers and published authors, increases literacy skills, improves vocabulary, teaches empathy, positively impacts social and emotional learning and expands communication skills. | September 2021 | |
Yoga Seed Collective | Ten year program using mindfulness, trauma informed yoga to assist the unique needs of traumatized populations in Sacramento such as individuals in jail, psychiatric facilities, recovery homes and elementary schools. | October 2021 | |
We Are Your Support(W.A.Y.S) | A cancer support organization that helps with free services to patients and support systems with transportation to medical appointments, wellness training, yoga, counseling and dietary instruction. | November 2021 | |
South Sacramento Interfaith Partnership Food Closet | An emergency food pantry comprised of 12 interfaith congregations, Sac Food Bank and Family Services, local businesses and volunteers assisting individuals and families in South Sac suffering from food insecurity. | December 2021 |