Abundant Grace Coastside Worker

This is going to be our best year EVER! Your donations will be doubled up to $60,000 thanks to a matching grant!!!

For a person experiencing homelessness, participating in Abundant Grace's programs provides an opportunity to make steps toward reintegrating into the community, securing housing, finding employment, accessing case worker services, addressing health issues, starting recovery work, reconnecting with family, and ultimately improving his or her own life. For a low-income family, attending our free produce distributions provides organic produce, a vital part of feeling nourished and healthy each week.

Abundant Grace transforms lives through our job-readiness programming: taking people experiencing homelessness to grow and harvest about 20,000 pounds of fresh, organic produce for free distribution to low-income families at our Full Circle Food Justice Program; and to clean up the environment on the beaches and trails of Half Moon Bay on the Coastside Clean Team.  We are doing good, meaningful work together, making a difference in our community, and transforming our lives.

Programs 

Full Circle Food Justice Abundant Grace works in partnership with Potrero Nuevo Farm (PNF) and San Mateo County to employ very low-income and homeless residents to plant and harvest about 20,000 pounds of fresh, organic produce annually. ALL produce is distributed for free to our most vulnerable Coastside residents at five sites.

Coastside Clean Team This team provides employment opportunities for homeless and extremely low-income individuals in our community to collect litter from local beaches, the Coastal Trail, and from various neighborhoods in Half Moon Bay. Last year, our crews removed over 150,000 pounds of garbage from our coastal environment!

Workforce Development Center Services provided at the Center include showers, laundry, food distribution, clothing room, bike repair, mail, laptops, and access to our partner organizations. Additional services include monthly community building events, assistance with housing and job applications, kitchen access and a safe space to spend time during the day. 

Farm Apprenticeships We offer 5 apprenticeship rounds throughout the year, in partnership with PNF. This intensive 6-week program includes a formal individual project, expert guest lecturers speaking on mindfulness, accountability, personal empowerment, responsibility and nutrition, as well as "future authoring" sessions where participants create a vision for their lives that includes the pillars of housing, employment, community, health and sobriety.

Conservation Crew Participants can practice successful project management and completion as a part of a team. Similar to the Apprenticeship, participants are part of a small group over the course of a 6-week session. Groups tackle team projects at PNF including habitat restoration, trail building and removing invasive species. Expert guest speakers provide training and education on topics like native and invasive species, water, animal habitats and conservation.

Values and Guiding Philosophy

Meaningful Work

We believe that the experience of responsibility, teamwork, the self-awareness of being a valuable part of a larger community, and the pride that comes from work with dignity are key steps toward making better decisions toward self-care and life transformation.  We believe the work provided at Abundant Grace helps to re-weave the web of community ties that many homeless individuals have lost or severed through their experience of homelessness.

Accompaniment

Abundant Grace’s primary guiding philosophy is to practice accompaniment; of walking alongside someone, working “shoulder to shoulder” together, and listening to them articulate their situation, needs and hopes.  To accompany each participant wherever they are in their life’s journey, we evaluate each person based on five outcome goals:  housing, employment, health and wellness, food security and sobriety.  We accompany each individual as they make strides toward achieving each of these five outcome goals instead of dictating a set course of action that each person must follow.

Testimonials

"This program has reignited a sense of purpose that I lost somewhere along the way in my struggle for survival. " - Rich B.,  veteran, had been living in his jeep behind a local restaurant but has now secured a veteran's housing voucher. 

"We all need hope. Hope is what keeps us moving forward. Abundant Grace provides hope for people. " - Leslie R., a senior citizen diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, regularly takes the public bus from a homeless shelter over the hill to work on our farm.

"There is more to living than just finding a tree to sleep under." - Phil C., a bipolar recovering alcoholic with a strong background in mechanics, worked with Abundant Grace for several months and then successfully became fully employed as a truck driver in Utah.