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June 25, 2019 | The Valley Catholic
COMMUNITY
Increasing the Impact of Parish Outreach
By Marie Galetto-Dugoni
Marketing & Grants Program Manager
Catholic Community Foundation of Santa
Clara County
Last year, the Catholic Community Foundation
made our first-ever Two-Year Grant to Our Lady of
La Vang Parish. The program, titled “One Bread, One
Body Ministry,” includes many activities that support
people in need both in and outside their parish com-
munity. It was a brand-new program, and the Founda-
tion felt that by offering two years of financial support
we could help them think about the long-term goals
of the program and increase their impact.
This ministry creates a feeling of community and
shared mission for Our Lady of La Vang’s parishio-
ners – an important goal for a parish that celebrates
19 Masses at seven different locations every weekend.
The program aims to help people live out the faith
by evangelizing through corporal works of mercy –
specifically by reaching out to the less fortunate, the
elderly, immigrants, and the homeless community.
Read on for a description of the specific activities of
this ministry. I’m sure you will be as impressed with
their goals and achievements as I am!
Activity #1: Home Visit Team and Home Repair
Crew
The parish welcomes many low income and immi-
grant families. These individuals do not always know
how to get assistance from social services, register
their children in local schools, or have the means to
repair minor things that break in their homes. The
program spent the past year recruiting and training
volunteers, and they helped six elderly individuals
with minor repairs. With the second year of fund-
ing, they plan to continue training volunteers and
anticipate more request for outdoor repair projects
in the summer months.
Activity #2: Transportation to Daily Mass for
the Elderly
Our Lady of La Vang has many elderly parishio-
ners who live on their own without a way to get to
daily mass. Money from the grant helps pay for the
gas to drive parishioners to and from mass. Volun-
teers drive the van every day, and so far, they provide
transportation to 8 to 10 elderly parishioners daily.
Activity #3: Bilingual Citizenship Class
The goal of this program is to provide language
and citizenship knowledge classes. Ten volunteers
were recruited and trained to assist with the class.
Thirty students are enrolled, and classes started in
November. Since there are so many volunteers, they
split the class into three levels based on English profi-
ciency. There was a recognition event for all students
and volunteers in June.
Activity #4: Meals for the Homeless & Christmas
Toy Program
The volunteers for the homeless outreach come
from the youth and young adult groups of the parish.
This is one way for them to practice their faith which
they learn about through catechism. In December, the
youth distributed 120 Christmas gifts for children in
need. During the school year, the youth partner with
City Team Ministries to serve hot meals to the home-
less once a month.
The grant applicant, Hang Pham, noted that the
back-to-back years of funding helped them plan
for future improvements to the program with the
knowledge that there would not be interruptions in
the services between years. “We are able to reassure
our clients and volunteers that the services will con-
tinue,” said Hang. “Hopefully, after the second year
of funding we will have a lot of support and be able to
fundraise and become as self-sustainable as possible.”
If you would like to help the Foundation support
more programs like this one, please donate to match
the grants in our Spring Grant Cycle or contribute
directly to one of our Field of Interest Endowments
by calling (408) 995-5219 or visiting cfoscc.org.
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