Thank You for Joining Us!
At Pajaro Valley Shelter Services, we partner with YOU to empower families with children to move beyond homelessness and into permanent housing and self-sufficiency.
October 31st, 2018, marks the 35th anniversary of PVSS! Hand in hand with our clients and larger community, PVSS has changed the lives of more than 7,500 people: from shelter to home, from despair to security, from isolation to community, from separated to united, from financial instability to savings and consciousness, from “I can’t” to “I can!”
“Having a home is having a united family, to coexist and to share.” ~ Crispina
More than shelter, each one of our 22 properties becomes home for our client families. This year on November 15th, we celebrated this transition from shelter to home at our 2nd annual Shelter to Home Dinner & Silent Auction. The event was held in the Civic Plaza Community Room on the 4th floor of the Civic Plaza in the presence of a full house. Because of you, we raised $39,959 in support of our empowerment programs for families affected by homelessness.
SEE PHOTOS FROM THE EVENT!
Thank you, Nick Traulsen, for capturing the event!
Keynote Speaker: Patricia Hidalgo
When I was invited to speak to you all about the ‘exponential impact’ that PVSS makes, I couldn’t help but make a connection to a teaching strategy that is used in classrooms daily. It is a strategy called ‘scaffolding’. This is a process in which a teacher or a more competent peer supports and enables a learner to solve a task or achieve a goal that would be beyond her unassisted efforts. This specific and well-timed support moves students toward mastery and then independent application of a skill.
At the shelter, the amazing staff supports families when they can no longer go about certain aspects of life ‘unassisted’. They are given specific support to reach critical short-term goals and once those short-term goals are met, then different tools and strategies are offered so families can move closer to full independence. Eventually, just as it is in education, support is tapered-off as it becomes unnecessary, much as a scaffold is removed from a building during construction.
Children from families that are served by the “scaffolding” PVSS offers get to witness and be active participants in it’s outcomes. They see what it looks like to accept support in a time of dire need and move carefully toward stability. And because we know that parents are a child’s first and most important teachers, children learn how to be resilient and seek help through the process just like their parents did. Once again, profound and powerful modeling that is good for families and our entire community. Everybody wins.
Thank You, Sponsors!



Cory Ray & Craig Rowell
Michelle Gomez
Lin Colavin
Thank You, Wine Sponsors!


Thank You, Silent Auction Donors!









Celia Organista




Primo Gonzalez



Judy Sambrailo







