For the first time ever, the Union Pacific Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Union Pacific Corporation and the Union Pacific Railroad, has awarded a grant to Lutheran Social Services of Northern California. The $5,000 grant will support LSS’ Project Hope in Stockton, a permanent supportive housing program for homeless and disabled youth.  Project Hope offers housing and guidance to emancipated minors who “aged out” of the foster care system at 18 but need help and training to succeed in the world and avoid incarceration and homelessness.

“Project Hope provides housing and a case worker on site who monitors these young people to navigate life’s ways,” explains LSS board member Allan Shaffer, who accepted the check in a ceremony May 21 at Union Pacific’s Western Region Headquarters in Roseville. “These are skill sets they don’t have. And many of these kids are wounded.”

The foundation passed out approximately 20 checks that day to various arts programs, libraries, environmental and social service agencies and one museum, all in Northern California or Northern Nevada.

LSS Deputy Director Sue Laliberte was on hand until she had to take off to attend the groundbreaking of the North Highland low-cost housing complex 15 miles away in Sacramento, and asked Shaffer to accept the check in her stead. Each recipient spoke for three or four minutes about their program and how the money would be used.

“In my remarks, I cited the statistic that over 50 percent of the kids who get out of foster care at age 18 are homeless or in jail within two years,” says Shaffer, who has been on the LSS board since 2003. “A lot of these kids have never been taught how to work, how to apply for a job, open up a checking account and fit in to society.

Shaffer says he was amazed at how many people in attendance knew of LSS and its work in the Sacramento area. After the ceremony he was swarmed by representatives of organizations that would like to work with LSS.  

“We are becoming more well known and more highly regarded,” he says. “Sue Laliberte has really grown the agency over the past seven years. We’re much more visible in the area. We’re becoming a household word.”