Our work is guided by a vision to end the generational cycle of trauma and homelessness. For 30 years, we have provided nearly 30,000 homeless women and children with the essential tools to rise above the devastating, negative elements of poverty and achieve improved health, job-readiness and self-sustainability. Founded in 1985 on the steps of the St. John's Lutheran Church in Sacramento, we have expanded from an emergency shelter that provided a roof and a meal to 20 women and children into an immersive 18-month residential, continuum of care program supporting up 200 women and children every day. Saint John’s operates the largest residential employment training program in the Sacramento region, and the only one focused on serving homeless women and children. Our program's comprehensive array of 'dependence to independence' services for homeless families, all under one programmatic roof, is unparalleled in the region, as well as the State, based on research completed by Sacramento's Center for Strategic Economic Research. Dedicated to the eradication of homelessness, a deep commitment is required of each woman entering Saint John’s. While sobriety is strictly mandated, this 18-month comprehensive program includes mental health therapy, alcohol and drug counseling, parenting education, budgeting classes, healthy relationship training, and in a landmark approach to helping these individuals re-enter the mainstream, each woman must participate in Saint John’s Employment Training Program at one of our three social enterprises, Plates Cafe and Catering, Plates MidTown and First Steps, where the women build work ethic and on-the-job training skills in the restaurant and daycare industries. We accommodate up to 550 women and children each year with 675 hours of comprehensive services each month. 96% of Saint John’s job training graduates secure unsubsidized employment, a crucial step in their journey to self-sustainability. As Saint John’s focuses on the root causes rather than the symptoms of homelessness, clients are able to break the cycle, learn how to become independent and make a life-long positive change.
