Our Initiatives
What would it look like if residents could shape their neighborhood and build their own solutions?
Community Development
Current Assets
Amigos operates Safe Parking, a motel program and a tiny home community.
GFS operates two state funded preschools and supports a network of licensed child care providers.
Mexican Heritage Plaza is a legacy cultural institution with a Pavilion, theater, classrooms, and reception area.
SOMOS operates 3 Family Resource Centers and organizes 600+ residents across our local schools, neighborhood, and city.
Veggielution is a 6-acre farm with open green spaces, Pavilion area, kitchen, and farmstand.
Projects in the Pipeline
A museum & community organizing hub at the recently purchased Cesar Chavez historical home.
Expanded space for childcare providers to serve families.
A cultural district that brings more businesses, arts, housing, and vibrancy to the Alum Rock Corridor.
Developing a housing co-op and bringing homes into community control
A commercial kitchen to support local food entrepreneurs and their small businesses.
Jobs to Grow
An Initiative Led by Grail Family Services and Veggielution
As one of our most exciting initiatives, Jobs to Grow advances economic mobility in East San Jose by training and supporting residents interested in starting their own business. We currently offer two tracks of participation: childcare provision and food entrepreneurship.
Participants receive 80+ hours of training on industry-specific knowledge and how to run a business. Veggielution and Grail Family Services serve as project leads, providing trainings ranging from first aid & CPR classes, to tax preparation workshops, to individual support navigating local license requirements. Participants involved in the program participate in year-long cohorts, where they also receive one-on-one mentorship, case management and referral services. In 2023, our 2nd cohort graduated through this program. Jobs to Grow alumni have gone on to start small local businesses and co-ops across San Jose! Learn how to join this program.
You can learn more about the full impact of our Jobs to Grow
program in our Year 2 Evaluation Report.
%
attendance rate of participants IN business workshops
%
of Participants had an increase sense of community-belonging
%
of Participants had an increase in business knowledge
Silicon Valley Guaranteed Income Project
An Initiative Led by Amigos de Guadalupe
The ¡Sí Se Puede! Collective is proudly working with a coalition of partners on the Silicon Valley Guaranteed Income Project. This is a 2-year project designed to help participants achieve housing stability as well as greater independence over their lives, finances, and future. 150 Santa Clara County families who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness will receive $1,000/month in no-strings-attached income for 24 months.
This unconditional income is meant to give families the flexibility to decide how best to meet their needs – and participants will have complete freedom to use these payments however they choose.
COVID-19 Response
When the pandemic reached San Jose, the SSPC jumped in ready to support. This public health crisis catalyzed our ability to respond immediately and synchronously, while impacting the City’s hardest-hit and hardest-to-reach families.
While our organizations responded individually and collectively to provide basic needs, our core strategy was to launch our team of Guerreras, a group of residents trained by the Santa Clara County Public Health Department who served on the frontlines by going through neighborhoods door-to-door to share resources, information, COVID tests, and reassurance to families who were looking for answers.
