The Valley Catholic June 24, 2014 | Page 19

The Valley Catholic community Catholic Charities promotes wellness for seniors By Adelene Gallego Ramos Establishing a positive health routine is important for seniors and helps to minimize chronic pain, improve sleep, retain strong memory skills, and achieve greater mobility. Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County’s John XXIII Multiservice Center in downtown San Jose promotes senior wellness with programs that encourage exercise, healthy eating, and social involvement. Seniors have access to wellness services three days a week, with no appointment necessary. As part of the wellness program, San Jose State University and University of San Francisco nursing faculty and students provide health education and identification of possible health concerns in a community setting. All nursing student interactions with the seniors are supervised by University faculty as a part of the nursing coursework. Inspired by the positive experiences working with the seniors, many nursing students return to the center as volunteers in a variety of roles after they have completed their studies. The center also provides seniors with social services and education classes and workshops. “For many seniors the center plays an important role, from providing healthy lunches on weekdays, to holding Tai Chi ses- Nursing students and faculty provide seniors with basic health care screenings at Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County’s John XXIII Multiservice Center. sions and therapeutic exercise classes,” said Marion Johnson, Program Manager, Senior Community Services. John XXIII is the oldest senior center in Santa Clara County. Located in a building that was built in 1925 as a Catholic Women’s Center, Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County has been providing services there since 1964. The center’s bilingual staff speaks Spanish, Vietnamese, Cantonese, Mandarin and English. For more information about how to access the array of services that John XXIII Multiservice Center offers, contact Marion Johnson at (408) 282-8601, [email protected], The center is located at 195 East San Fernando Street, San Jose, CA 95112; open Monday-Friday, 9 am - 2 pm. June 24, 2014 19 Sacred heart Community Service provides low-income kids’ summer lunches During the school year, many children receive free and reducedprice breakfast and lunch through the School Breakfast and National School Lunch Programs. When school is out, Sacred Heart Community Service is filling the gap by providing free lunches. The Summer Food Service Program is designed to fill the nutrition gap, June 30 to July 31; breakfast 10 to 10:30 am; lunch 11:45 am to 1 pm, Monday through Thursday, at Academic Summer Academy Sacred Heart Community Service, 1381 South First Street, San Jose, CA 95110. DeADline For the August 19th edition of The Valley Catholic is Friday, August 1 st [email protected] *The Valley Catholic is not published in July. www.dsj.org