Current News & Events
PV Shelter generally publishes a newsletter three times a year (Spring, Summer, and Fall). It is one of our communication tools to inform the community about the activities of our agency.
To view the Spring 2013 Newsletter click on the "Download" link to the right.
Past Newsletters
Fall '12
Summer '12
Spring Fall '11 '12
Summer '11
Spring '11
Fall '10
Summer '10
Spring '10
Fall '09
Summer '09
Spring '09
Spring / 2013
Mother's Day Run More Fun and $54,000!
What a fabulous and fun Mother's Day Run this year! The weather was perfect, for the 640 runners and walkers in the 29th Annual Mother's Day Run for Shelter. Mav'Riks, the mascot for the Santa Cruz Warriors, came and entertained young and old with his fun and likeable self while Rich Hansen and Friends Band kept the beat going. Carlos Ponce treated everyone by singing a few traditional Mexican Mother's Day Songs. There were T-shirts, roses for the moms, healthy snacks, goody bags and medals galore handed out. ..no one went away empty-handed.
The Mother's Day Run for Shelter is the single most important fundraising event for Pajaro Valley Shelter Services, raising 10% of the annual budget to help homeless families in the community break the cycle of homelessness and find stability and self-sufficiency, now and for future generations.
Many, many thanks go out to our sponsors, participants, the City of Watsonville Parks & Recreation and Public Works staff, Mark McConnel (racetimer), the Santa Cruz Track Club, volunteers from St. Francis High School, Watsonville Interact Club, Watsonville Police and Fire Cadets, and staff and residents of PV Shelter Services. It takes a community to make this fun 10K, 5K, 1K event happen! Thank you to all!
Watch Mav'Riks ham it up. Watch Carlos Ponce sing a Las Mananitas song. View results here.IF YOU PLACED IN YOUR AGE GROUP AND HAVEN'T PICKED UP YOUR MEDAL YET, PLEASE CALL PVSS at 831-728-5649.
Spring 2013
SPA DAY A SPECIAL OCCASION AT THE SHELTER!
Spa Day is an annual day of service provided by the Soroptimists of Watsonville. Every year, Soroptimist members come and provide hair cuts, facials, massage, make-up, nails and lunch for residents in the Shelter. This is such a special day for residents who feel nurtured and extra special, when their lives are normally stressful and uncertain.
Spring 2013
Thank You to Many for a Beautiful Easter Celebration
There were many folks 'behind the scenes' helping families in both the Shelter and Transitional Housing Program feel joy this Easter! It started with gifts of school supplies, games and cupcakes brought on Saturday by Shoreline Community Church of Monterey, to celebrate past birthdays of Shelter residenrs. Then Sunday was a full on Easter celebration with thanks going out to Sherri Glaum of Glaum Eggs for donating eggs, to the Soroptimists of Watsonville to help make Easter baskets and work with residents to color eggs, to Troop Leader Rachel Mason and local Girl Scout Troop #10424 who helped decorate eggs and make baskets, and to Notre Dame Elementary for also making baskets for residents. What an incredible outpouring of love and caring!
Thank you all for your giving spirit and generosity to others less fortunate in our community!
Spring 2013
Cara y Corazón - Living with Faith and Heart
A very big part of what happens at Pajaro Valley Shelter Services to help homeless families become stable again is the case management services. Families are not only linked up to many community resources, but required to participate in workshops, classes and programs that begin the hard work of changing behaviors that have been barriers to stability. Mandatory participation in courses offered by Cara y Corazón is one of these.
The Watsonville Cara y Corazón affiliate regularly offers an 8-12 week support program which the Shelter's resident families are required to participate in. It is based on the work of Jerry Tello, an internationally recognized authority in family strengthening, therapeutic healing, cross cultural issues and motivational speaking.
The philosophy of Cara y Corazón is a culturally-based family strengthening approach that assists parents and other members of the extended family to raise and educate their children from a positive bicultural base. Many bicultural families in our community face the challenges of bridging the two cultures when parents have grown up in an Hispanic culture and the children are growing up in an American culture.
Cara y Corazón offers a course in Spanish and one in English. In their sessions, participants speak about their upbringing, the hard parts and the good parts. They re-engage with the good things that happened in their lives, their values, family traditions and holiday rituals that were important. Many of the PVSS residents have reported that this has been a great experience, being able to talk about things they never could before. They find new ways to develop quality time with their children and find forgiveness for times in their lives which were hurtful. After taking this course many PVSS residents, both men and women, have commented about being able to better discuss their emotions, to talk about deep woundings in their lives and about beginning the healing process. They have expressed the ability to feel the warmth of family where they couldn't before. All these steps are part of the path to personal and family stability for residents in the Pajao Valley Shelter Services programs.
2011-2012
A Second Emergency Shelter Serves More Families
For nearly thirty years Pajaro Valley Shelter Services has operated an Emergency Shelter on Brennan Street for women and children, serving over a hundred people every year. The Brennan Street shelter has been limited to women with no male children over 12 years old. Although the Tranistional Housing Program accepts families there have still been families with males over the age of 12 needing emergency sheltering. In response to this need, Pajaro Valley Shelter Services staff developed a program to help by opening space in the housing unit at Beach street as an Emergency Shelter Annex. The Annex provides the short term interim safe space for families with males over 12 to begin to get back on their feet. The same program rules that have helped so many families, saving money and participating in case management services, apply.
Spring/Summer 2012
Residents Eat Up Nutrition Workshops!
Pajaro Valley Shelter services does way more than just provide sheltering for its resident families. And the Case Management program of PVSS goes way beyond making sure residents receive counseling, or job skills to get them back on their feet! The approach to helping families become self-sufficent again is much more holistic: the WHOLE person is helped! Whole person in this sense includes everything from emotional well-being to physical well-being. These efforts by PVSS are, in part, an effort to address the rise in obesity and diabetes, particularly in children.
Thanks to grants from the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur Mother St. Joseph Fund, and Second Harvest Food Bank, PVSS residents are learning new healthy skills and these skills are paying off! Residents are not only receiving nutritious foods, but are taking workshops on how to read labels and purchase healthy foods, and on how to cook healthy in their dietary and ethnic choices.
Residents have really taken to this program, no doubt already feeling the differences in their well-being. And they are even making recommendations to staff about what foods to buy for the Shelter!
Copyright (C) 2013 Pajaro Valley Shelter Services