Sacred Heart Community Service''
SHCS
was founded in 1964 by Louise Benson, who provided food and clothing out of her home in response to the urgent needs of her

low-income Poverty is the state of having few material possessions or little

neighbors. It has grown to become one of the leading providers of services to the

working poor The working poor are working people whose incomes fall below a given poverty line due to low-income jobs and low familial household income. These are people who spend at least 27 weeks in a year working or looking for employment, but remain und ...

Santa Clara County Santa Clara County, officially the County of Santa Clara, is the sixth-most populous county in the U.S. state of California, with a population of 1,936,259, as of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Santa Clara County and neighboring Sa ...

, serving more than 50,000 unduplicated children and adults in 2009 alone. The agency's strategy combines outreach and essential services (food, clothing, housing, and utility assistance) with programs that foster self-sufficiency (employment, family mentoring, citizenship, and youth and adult education). The agency is located in

San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...

, south of downtown at the intersection of South First and Alma streets, in the Goodyear-Mastic neighborhood, which is part of the larger Washington Area Coalition. Sacred Heart Community Service Logo

History

SHCS was founded in 1964, by Louise Benson, who at age 61 years old began distributing baskets of food from her Willow Glen home. The agency was incorporated as a

501(c)(3) A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of the 29 types of 50 ...

charitable organization in 1972. In 2008, the agency became the Community Action Agency for Santa Clara County, a responsibility that requires The Heart to constantly assess the state of poverty in

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo County ...

and find innovative solutions to the obstacles and problems that block the achievement of self-sufficiency.

Poverty in Santa Clara County

In early 2010, the unemployment rate in the county hovered about 12 percent on the average, and the

under-employment Underemployment is the underuse of a worker because a employment, job does not use the worker's skills, is part-time, or leaves the worker idle. Examples include holding a part-time job despite desiring full-time work, and overqualification, in ...

rate was about 20 percent. Out of a population of just less than 1.9 million in Santa Clara County, more than 440,000 people live in households that do not earn enough to cover the basic needs of life in Silicon Valley, defined by food, shelter, clothing, transportation, utilities and healthcare.

References

{{Reflist Organizations based in San Jose, California