Santa Clara County Community Service & Support Digest

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.

Since 1987, the San Jose Conservation Corps has enlisted thousands of young adults in job training programs, but nothing prepared them for what they uncovered while cleaning up parks and trails. A recent city audit found that some of young adults weren't trained to handle used needles, broken glass and other dangerous materials.

When Palo Alto rolled out in 2020 a new program that allowed local congregations to host vehicle dwellers on their lots, the Highway Community Bible Church was the first to step up to the plate. Now, it's the first to seek renewal.

Los Altos Community Services Agency, which has expanded several times over the past few decades, has retained its same space. Now, after making a deal with the school district, the agency will get a bigger, better building to continue providing essential services to the city.

Members of various nature groups, including Grassroots Ecology, the Santa Clara Valley Water District and the city of Los Altos, worked together to restore Manresa Trail at Redwood Grove Nature Preserve in Los Altos.

A Lifestyles Home Tour in Willow Glen will once again be offered, this time on May 6-7. All proceeds will benefit the San Jose Day Nursery. This is the 39th year of the tour, with five grand homes on display.

Vietnamese leaders are calling for equitable funding across community-based organizations in an effort to ensure residents aren't left behind. Vietnamese nonprofits have faced a gap in resources, despite the population’s significant presence in the region.

Assemblymember Evan Low recognized Anne Kepner, who serves on the West Valley Mission Community College District Board of Trustees, at a March 17 luncheon he hosted at Maggiano’s Little Italy in Santana Row.

The abrupt closure of Silicon Valley Bank has hit dozens of local nonprofits, raising concerns about making payroll and being able to provide direct services for the disenfranchised residents who rely on them.

Josh Selo—who last month took the reins at the Bill Wilson Center, which helps homeless teens—faced bullying and intimidation as a gay youth.

Scout Blood is an organization devoted to saving lives through blood donations in developing countries, created by San Jose-based 11th-grader Annmaria.

Mark Ashford has been in and out of the criminal justice system for 26 years, never staying out for more than five months at a time. A few years ago, everything changed with the help of a support program.

Local activist and community leader Bea Robinson Mendez, 88, died from pneumonia on Jan. 13, but her legacy lives on.  She founded Next Door Solutions to Domestic Violence, the first bilingual shelter in the country and second domestic violence agency in the state.

Signs of segregation may not be as brazen as the days of Martin Luther King Jr., but Black leaders in San Jose say racism still rears its head and is why the Black community keeps shrinking.

Christian D. Malesic, the president/CEO of the Silicon Valley Central Chamber, has accepted a new position in Texas with greater responsibility and reach.

The foundation will work not only in its core counties of Santa Clara and San Mateo, but also with the other Bay Area counties and Santa Cruz to address the devastation left by recent storms.

Girl Scouts of Northern California received its largest donation to date from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott for $4.9 million. The record-setting donation was part of a larger gift of $84.5 million to Girl Scouts of the USA and to 29 Girl Scout councils.

Now in its 30th year, the Palo Alto Weekly Holiday Fund is looking to raise $600,000 to support local nonprofits that serve children, families and individuals.

At the start of the COVID pandemic in 2020, Sunnyvale Community Services was faced with a dilemma. The need had skyrocketed during COVID, but no one was sure how to manage and limit the face-to-face interactions with customers.