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Interfaith Understanding Flourishes on Local Campuses
Vesper Society, rooted in the Lutheran tradition, understands and respects that everyone has their own faith and spiritual traditions that call them to serve. Every day, we link arms with leaders of all faiths and in all communities to create a better future. In the 21st century, we need to add another layer–that of interfaith understanding and interfaith literacy. To serve well in a global and local context, we must understand the traditions and values of others. For the past four years, Vesper Society has supported Interfaith Allies at California Lutheran University (CLU). Vesper Society extended its interfaith support to Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary (PLTS) in Berkeley when it merged with CLU two years ago. Last August, representatives of CLU Interfaith Allies had the opportunity to attend the Interfaith Leadership Institute taught at the Interfaith Youth Core conference in Chicago. The three-day event was an opportunity for CLU students to learn from other institutions across the country about their interfaith programs. The activities provided the participants with many examples of how to create a safe space where people from different religious backgrounds can work together for a common cause. While attending the conference, CLU students joined others to participate in the 50th Anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr’s march to Marquette Park. This celebration sought to show that Rev. King’s fight for equality continues today. Strengthened by an interfaith perspective, this effort is expressed in cross-religious peace efforts. One student shared that, for her, the most memorable aspect of the walk was a reciting of the Quran. In the current atmosphere of Islamophobia, the ability for the Quran to be recited shows the progressive nature of the Interfaith movement. This growing movement is making a change in today’s world. Through Vesper Society’s support at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, the... Read More
Increased Access to Healthcare in Remote Humboldt County
Vesper Society believes that a just society begins when everyone is well and that rural areas need more attention. So we support organizations like Open Door Community Health Centers to provide services to those who would otherwise have no access to healthcare. Open Door Community Health Centers has been making a difference in Humboldt County for over 45 years. Humboldt County, tucked between the redwood-covered mountains of the Coastal Range and Trinity Alps to the south and east and the Pacific Ocean to the west, is two hundred miles north of the Bay Area and home to 130,000 people. Being roughly the size of Connecticut, incredibly remote, and with challenging roads, access to quality healthcare has become an increasing concern as the population ages—both the patients and the doctors who settled in the area in the early 1970s and 1980s. Relocation and retirement have taken their toll, and recruitment of new providers is difficult. The healthcare practitioners who remain are stretched to capacity. Travel to the metropolitan areas of San Francisco and Sacramento is challenging, costly, and time-consuming. No one wants to take a six-hour drive to see the doctor if they don’t have to, even if it is for specialty medical care. Starting as a single clinic open to those who could not access the private sector, Open Door Community Health Centers has expanded and evolved into a comprehensive system of 12 clinics, and is now the largest provider of primary healthcare on the coast. In 2014, in response to the closure of two rural health centers in the agricultural heart of the County known as the Eel River Valley, Open Door stepped up where access to care was being hit the hardest. Open Door is building a new state-of-the-art health center in Fortuna set to open in... Read More
La Clínica’s behavioral health services having an impact
At Vesper Society, we believe that a healthy community is vital for a just society. For 45 years, La Clínica de La Raza (La Clínica) has been on the forefront of developing and delivering linguistically and culturally responsive health services to underserved communities in California’s Alameda, Contra Costa, and Solano Counties. In 2012, a survey showed that 67% of all clients at La Clínica, a non-profit Federally Qualified Health Center, are at risk of or show symptoms of depression, anxiety, sleep difficulties, domestic violence, substance abuse, and pain. Further, in East Contra Costa County, La Clínica Oakley’s clients are predominantly Latino and either uninsured or insured by Medi-Cal, leaving them without access to services they need to treat these common ailments and issues. With funding and support from Vesper Society, La Clínica Oakley is addressing these challenges by integrating behavioral health into primary care. One behavioral health provider explains why this work is so important. “Helping my clients make seemingly simple calls is such a huge burden lifted off their shoulders, linking them to appropriate resources, processing traumatic events like witnessing a family member being killed, helping people resolve marital discord, building someone’s self-esteem, helping them overcome fears. It’s so rewarding!” As of September 2016, the behavioral health program has logged over 1,100 appointments with La Clínica clients. In another part of Northern California, La Clínica is improving the health and lives of students at East Oakland’s school-based Havenscourt Health Center. In addition to the unique challenges that surface during adolescence, students here frequently experience stressors such as intergenerational poverty, neighborhood violence, and/or food insecurity. Each of these can have lasting and wide-ranging impacts on overall health and contribute to high rates of trauma, grief, stress, and anxiety. As La Clínica’s Havenscourt Health Center leads the way towards a... Read More
Strengthening Youth Voices in the Imperial Valley
Vesper Society is dedicated to long-term solutions that help communities help themselves. In the Imperial Valley, Vesper Society partners with Renaissance Journalism to empower youth to tell their own stories, in their own voices, as a way to visualize a better future and promote positive social change. (At Left: Adalberto Lopez, Brawley Union High School, sets up video camera.) At its first Youth Voices Digital Institute this June, 10 high school students traveled 600 miles north to take part in a week-long crash course in multi-media journalism at San Francisco State University. Most of the students are of Latino heritage, so the program is designed to help them recognize the value of their cultural backgrounds and to utilize the bilingual reality that exists in the Imperial Valley. The students were sent out on assignments, such as interviewing San Francisco Supervisor David Campos, covering an Oakland A’s baseball game and meeting with the staff of El Tecolote, a bilingual newspaper serving the Mission District. Their 12-hour days were jam-packed with video lessons, interviews with community leaders, daily deadlines and countless hours of computer work to produce stories about their experiences. By the end of the week, each of the students produced a video story about their experiences. The stories were screened during an emotional graduation ceremony that was broadcast over the Internet so that their families and friends could watch from their homes in Imperial County. With this intensive experience under their belts, the students can return to their respective schools and help teach other students the power of storytelling. Local journalists will continue to work with the students. As the program progresses during the regular school term, you can expect more students to start posting their stories. Young people will actively engage their community with new communications tools that can... Read More
Interfaith Education for the 21st Century
Rooted in the Lutheran tradition, Vesper Society understands we have our own faith and spiritual traditions that call us to serve. In the 21st century we need to add another layer – that of interfaith understanding and interfaith literacy – for in order to serve well in a global and local context, we must understand the traditions and values of others. The Theological Education for Emerging Ministries (TEEM) at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary (PLTS) prepares women and men for ordained ministry in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Episcopal Church. Vesper Society support enabled Dr. Rose Aslan from California Lutheran University to teach Major World Religions with Dr. Moses Penumaka, Director, TEEM. Dr. Penumaka states that theological education equips us to analyze our cultural context critically and enables us to seek understanding and relevance of faith so we can participate creatively in our pilgrimage of life in supporting, sustaining and preserving God’s whole creation. For the past four years Vesper Society has supported Interfaith Allies at the California Lutheran University (CLU) and with CLU’s merger two years ago with PLTS in Berkeley, Vesper Society extended its interfaith support to PLTS. Vesper Society believes in a simple idea: a just society begins when everyone is well and respected as a human being. By being in service to others, our work facilitates change and uplifts people, organizations, and... Read More