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Mission Statement: The mission of the Community Christian Service Agency, an ecumenical Christian agency, is to provide emergency services to individuals and families in need in San Diego County, including food, clothing, and referrals, and where practical, counseling to assist in their transition to self-reliance.

A BIG THANK YOU!

The CCSA 45th Anniversary celebration was held at St. Mark’s United Methodist Church on Sunday, June 24th, 2018. CCSA wishes to thank all who came to make this celebration so successful! A particular Thank You to St. Marks United Methodist Church for hosting this event. Kudos to Judy Edelblute and Roseann Myers for organizing all the details of the event. Nicely done!

Most of all thank you to our member church Ministers who participated in this service. Thank you Rev. Brian Daly from PB Christian Church, Rev. Craig Dorval from St. Mark’s United Methodist Church, Rev. Dave Nagler from Christ Lutheran Church in PB, Rev. Wayne Sanders, Interim Pastor at St. David’s Episcopal Church and Deacon Ralph Skiano from St. Mary Magdalene Church. And a warm heartfelt thanks to our CCSA President, Brad Cannon for your summary of where we have been, where we are and where we are going. All of you gifted us with history, prayer and renewed energy by your words!

This event was attended by over 120 friends of the agency. Volunteers (17) from Member churches sang in the choir during this service led by St. Mark’s Choir Director Frank Williams. Beautiful singing Frank! Thank you to the Organist Craig Mcllwain from St. Mark’s. A special thank you to the Harpist and Youth Speaker Heidi Fleischbein who inspired us with beautiful sound and meaningful sharings regarding her view of CCSA and its important ministry to those in need.

Lastly, thank you to Kelly Nicholl and Catherine White for all the website and social media publicity done for this event; you ladies rock! To the rest of the volunteers that handled each aspect of this event – many, many thanks. We are so deeply grateful for your participation!

WE TRULY CELEBRATED THIS ANNIVERSARY OF SERVICE TO OTHERS!

THANK YOU TO OUR VOLUNTEERS…

The Trace (Transitional Resources for Adult Community Education) is through the San Diego Unified School District.  They travel from Linda Vista by bus once a week to volunteer at our Clairemont center.  Participants prepare about 20 – 40 brown bags filled with food and ready for distribution.

Banyan Tree Foundation Academy is a school down the street from CCSA.  We have two different groups walking down to volunteer at CCSA two days a week. Participants help with packing commodity bags as well as brown bags to leave them ready for distribution.

We receive fresh fruit from the Senior Gleaners  of San Diego County once a week.  Volunteers go into donors’ backyards to pick up surplus fruit which is then delivered to CCSA.

CCSA OUTREACH TO THOSE IN NEED IN 2017

• The total number of individuals served in 2017 at CCSA (Rappahannock, Pacific Beach, Commodities, and offsite distribution) was 29,338.  (This was up from 26,000 in 2016.)
• Two hundred eighty-nine Christmas baskets were distributed to 213 low income families.  The estimated value of those baskets was $40,000.
• Pacific Beach distributed 132 Christmas bags, having an estimated value of $2,640.
• Groceries distributed, including 55 tons of fresh rescue produce, had a total estimated value of $1,234,288.50.
• We distributed 530 backpacks, having an estimated value of $26,500.
• We distributed almost 41,000 items of clothing in Clairemont, and over 10,000 items of clothing in Pacific Beach.  The estimated value of the clothing distributed was in excess of $201,000.
• A special thanks goes out to Sprouts and their locations in Clairemont, Genesee, and Point Loma, for almost 7,000 bags of groceries they provided to us in December, with a value in excess of $76,600.
• In 2017, we experienced over a 10% growth in the number of persons served over 2016, and we did so under budget, expending 20% less than we did in 2016.

In summary, CCSA distributed over $1,547,000 worth of goods in 2017.

Pacific Beach Street Guardians is trying something new in partnership with CCSA. On the second Friday of each month, Caryn Blanton, the founder and director, will be spending the afternoon in the PB location interviewing interested candidates for employment.

In the last 18 months, PBSG has grown from an organization that began with 2 people pushing carts around town sweeping and picking up litter 3 days a week at 3 hours per shift. Now there are 8 Team Members working 7 days a week for a total of between 70 – 75 hours per week! And the work keeps coming so PBSG continually needs to be adding people to the staff. The collaboration between CCSA and PBSG is a perfect match!

Those who come to CCSA looking for healthy food and clothing for the week are often asking what they can do to improve their situation and how they can get back to work. PBSG provides those temporary part-time jobs that help people re-enter the work force and access resources, life skills training and case management to move them toward self-sufficiency. We’re looking forward to reporting some success stories that emerge from this “Win-Win” partnership. Stay tuned!

Positive changes will continue to occur as we work together in our community with well thought out strategies and compassionate hearts. Click here to donate online:  http://www.pbstreetguardians.org/give.html  Or send check/money order to PBSG, 1158 Thomas Avenue, San Diego, CA 92109.

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