Santa Clara County Community Service & Support Digest

The facts of climate change can lead to feelings of hopelessness and despair. Some California activists are creating communities for people to talk about those feelings.

The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors has given a $40,000 grant, funded by sales taxes, to the publisher of the Half Moon Bay Review and Pacifica Tribune.

The group has monthly “gayme” and movie nights at Avenidas, a local senior services nonprofit, as well as many excursions to museums or other activities. Lunch afterward to bond and get to know each other is always on the agenda.

The CPUC is considering a rule that would gut the payments that solar panels on apartment buildings receive, and many housing groups are blazing mad about it.

San Jose is launching language interpreter services at some public meetings after translation mishaps earlier this year.

Bike Palo Alto, a local bicycling event organized by volunteers, is back after a long pandemic hiatus. The two-hour fair will be held on Sunday, Oct. 1, from 1-3 p.m. at Fairmeadow Elementary School.

After a historic decline in community college enrollment during the pandemic, students are returning to school again, according to the state’s most recent data. But students between the ages of 20 and 30 are lagging behind.

Several anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers are advertising abortion pill reversal. California Attorney General Rob Bonta calls the claims false advertising that mislead vulnerable patients.

A last-minute legislative deal would raise pay for California health care workers while giving medical providers a guarantee that they won’t have to battle local measures on employee compensation.

At Sunnyvale Community Services’ day-long ‘Ready to Learn’ event, staffers at the nonprofit began giving away essential school supplies and gift cards to underserved students.

County officials are hoping to coordinate support for the Salvation Army’s expansion of Emmanuel House shelter at 359 N. Fourth St. from 70 beds to 112 during a 10-month renovation project.

The California Fire Foundation has set up a disaster relief fund to support the people and firefighters impacted by the recent firestorm in Maui.

A new law allows community colleges to offer bachelor’s degrees, an option for students unable to attend a four-year institution. But California State University officials are objecting to many of those proposed programs.

The Silicon Valley African American Cultural Center is slated to open its doors in 2027, with the help of $3 million in state funds.

Last year California began providing free school lunches to all TK-12 students, regardless of family income. Now, with an influx of state and federal money, school districts are revamping kitchens and training staff so they can provide freshly made, healthy meals.

Local nonprofit leaders are growing anxious as a national philanthropic organization that has given heavily in San Jose for nearly two decades has been without a program director in the city since September of 2022.

A new study suggests that relatively modest financial efforts to prevent homelessness have been remarkably successful. Vulnerable residents receiving emergency financial help were 81% less likely to become homeless within six months and 73% less likely within 12 months.

Frustration runs deep among medical cannabis patients and advocates who say the commercial market created by Proposition 64 in 2016 isn’t meeting their needs.

Community Health Awareness Council, which has offered low-cost therapy in Mountain View for 50 years, is closing its clinic because of financial struggles.

Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state will spend $4.5 million on free legal services for undocumented workers involved in state investigations of wage theft or other labor violations. The lawyers can help with their immigration cases.

Free food distribution is still essential for East San Jose residents, as evidenced by the line around the block of Mexican Heritage Plaza twice a month waiting for food donated by Second Harvest of Silicon Valley.

Campbell resident Anjani Nabar and San Jose resident Sameet Das, both students at Mitty High School in Willow Glen, founded the nonprofit Code Red to support people facing both period poverty and homelessness by providing them with hygiene kits.

In a ceremony outside the historic Roth Building, advocates of the Palo Alto Museum celebrated their future home’s restoration, set to begin in July, by posing for a photo holding symbolic scoops of soil with golden shovels.

Eva Kastan Grove, a local philanthropist who co-founded the Grove Foundation with her husband, former Intel CEO Andy Grove, passed away May 31 after a short but fierce illness.

California health officials say granting the licenses prevents the eviction of hundreds of residents from their homes and provides oversight provisions, including a two-year monitoring period.

The spending change would prioritize housing for homeless people, which children's mental health advocates fear will cut their funding.

Great need was faced down by great generosity at Bill Wilson Center’s 50th anniversary celebration at the Santa Clara Convention Center on May 19 and attended by more than 350 supporters. Adele and Carl Peterson set the pace with a $50,000 matching gift challenge that was quickly met.

Christmas in the Park could lose some of its magic this year due to unpermitted vendors crowding the streets and sidewalks—but the groups that host the downtown San Jose celebration aren’t ready to give up just yet.

More than 75 rainbow flags have been stolen as National Pride Month kicks off. It's become a reoccurring issue for real estate agent Holly Barr, who buys and places the flags on Willow Glen's main street, Lincoln Avenue.

A group of eight cyclists is pedaling toward Los Angeles to raise awareness of solar-powered bikes and sustainable transportation.

The Community Health Awareness Council, which is based in Mountain View, has been dealing with financial distress since COVID-19. It now might find relief in a partnership with the county.

Resident Bakary Diame comes to the Mountain View Senior Center almost every day to enjoy a meal and socialize with his friends, and he relies on a careful combination of biking and public transit to get there.