One of my current grant writing clients is the Saint Francis Center of Redwood City. They provide food and clothing to over 500 families each month, run a small school that educates a cohort of 12 children, along with ESL, literacy, and adult education classes for their mothers, offer shower and laundry facilities, a toy give-away program, a community garden project, and emergency vouchers for housing, medicine, and gasoline. They also manage and operate a 24-unit apartment building at below-market rents.
That's a lot of programming to be accomplished by only two full-time staff - both of whom are Dominican Sisters - and a small army of nearly 90 volunteers. Currently, the space that they operate out of is a small house and adjacent double-wide trailer. This has earned them the affectionate nickname La Casita in the neighborhood, but has kept them from adding more programs and additional staff.
Last year St. Francis Center was able to purchase the parcel next door to their current home and began planning to build a new, larger home in order to meet the demands of the community for additional services. It is that capital project that I am assisting in with funder research and grant writing.
The new building will fit in well with the neighborhood and allow for the expansion of their existing programs, as well as adding in new health and immigration services. Another aspect of the project that excites me is that this will be a "Green" building project designed with the health and sustainability of the entire community in mind.
At this point, we are a little over half-way to our $4 million goal. All donations, of course, are quite welcome and tax deductible.
Tags: nonprofit, St. Francis Center, Redwood City, social services, charity, Bay Area
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