As I finished serving the last bowl of soup at the National Guard temporary winter shelter last Monday night before it closed for the season, one homeless family in particular tugged on my heart strings. The family included a mom, dad and two twin girls young enough to still be in strollers. I couldn’t imagine being homeless at that age.
This winter, we served as many as 140 homeless men, women and children each night. And just because winter is over doesn’t mean the problem goes away. That’s why Mayor Don Gage’s plans for an Interfaith Task Force are so exciting to me.
On Monday, March 25, Gage held the first meeting of clergy and faith leaders at Gilroy’s Senior Center. The mayor’s vision brought together about 15 of Gilroy’s religious leaders to talk face to face about how to bring together our resources and focus them in such a way that we can maximize the good that can be done for the Gilroy community.
The first order of business is to understand what resources are available, so Mayor Gage asked all those present to go around and talk about what their churches are doing.
Since resources are distributed by population, much more of the funding available goes to San Jose and the northern part of our county.
“We’re on our own down here in South County,” the mayor said. “San Jose gets 70 percent of the funding in spite of the fact that per capita Gilroy has the highest homeless population in the county.”
The mayor said this is true for many resources when they are divvied out, so it is up to us to make the most of our resources.
“If we could pool our resources, it would stop double dipping and redundancy in our services,” the mayor pointed out. “We have the opportunity to address many of the problems of our community, from teen pregnancy, to drop-out rates, to homelessness, to how to make our neighborhoods safer to live in.”
Pastor Debbie Rivera who serves at the Gilroy Compassion Center, Jan Bernstein-Chargin, lay leader of the South Valley Unitarian Fellowship and chair of the Homeless Outreach Task Force, and Pastor Gerald Harris of Bethany Community Church embraced the mayor’s clarion call for ecumenical cooperation. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sent three representatives in support of the effort, including the local bishop, who brought humility and a great sense of humor to the proceedings.
“I care about helping those in need,” Gage said. “Not religious differences.”
“Fundamental differences are not an issue,” Pastor Harris echoed. “We understand compassion.”
Pastor Greg Quirk of South Valley Community Church talked about the challenges of being on the front lines for many of Gilroy’s problems.
“We are very strategic in stretching our resources. I know for myself, I am only as powerful as the resources in front of me,” he said. “Partnering not only enables us to do more but also creates an accountability process.”
Pastor Jeff Holmes talked about how active the Presbyterian youth groups are as volunteers in support of local efforts such as St. Joseph’s Family Center. The church is working on ways to welcome new families to the community and help those in crisis.
“We love to partner,” he said. “We will support whatever you want to do.”
Pastor Eric Cho of Gilroy United Methodist Church said that just seeing the faces from all the other churches in the same room together was really good. Pastor Malcolm MacPhail of New Hope Community Church said that the collaboration of resources alone is a worthwhile reason for the Interfaith Task Force to be formed.
“We have the opportunity to pool our resources together and maximize our volunteer efforts in a one-stop shopping effort to help those in need in our community,” Mayor Gage said. He has invited more than 20 churches to participate.
“We will have more churches represented here at the next meeting. We have great volunteer effort here. I’m sure they will come through because Gilroy is that kind of community,” said Gage. “I am envisioning that we can affect the lives of a whole lot of people. When people see change, they want to be part of the team. You are all compassionate people. There is nothing more rewarding than helping another human being be successful.”
Gage’s vision also reaches beyond Gilroy. “At some point in time,” he said, “we have to reach out to other communities. These issues are not solved by one community at a time. My vision is a vision of hope.”
