Highlight of some of the top religious and secular stories of the previous year. I did that last year with two of my colleagues and friends. And i am sighting them back this time i welcome again reverend Dale Witherspoon of easter hill United Methodist church. Happy new year. Good morning. And reverend jim hopkins. Good to be here. Some people know your churches and know where you are. But what i discovered i did not ever ask you, your family background and some of your family. I know you have spouses and you have children. So, tell us begin with you, dale,. I am married to reverend deb by weatherspoon a unitedmethodist pastor work on her doctorate of ministry. I think in the area of engaging faith in the public square. And have two sons teenagers, wesley who is a senior and graduatesoon year at el cerrito he and younger brotherjustice. And i have a brother and sifter that live in the sacramento area and a cousin that lives here in oakland. I am a native san franciscoan. Great to have
Of some of the top lid secular stories of the previous reyears. I dioud that last year with two of my colleagues and friends and im inviting them again. Reverend Dale Witherspoon. Go morning. Happy new year. Great to have you and reverend jim hopkins on the good to be here. Some people know your churches and know where you are but i did not ever ask you your family background and some of your family, i know you have spouses and you have children so tell us, beginning with you dale. Im married to reverend debby witherspoon, also a United Methodist pastor and she is working on her doctorates of ministry. I have two sons, teenagers, wesley, a senior and graduating at the high school. A younger brother justice, who is a freshman at el cerrito. I have a brother and sister in the sacramento area. Im a native San Francisco sis can. Wesley is in the audience. Great to have you. And jim. Karen and i, my i married nd years. We have three adult kids erin, a physical fair piz, kristen who is a reg
And its a rivetting story of her life and so shes my guest and im glad to have her. Welcome donna. Good to be here ron. Great. Great. Before we get into the book tell us about your background and your experiences. Well, im from california born and raised. Active in the United Methodist church and ended up going to seem reasm becoming a pastor marrying my husband and having two little girls. Just loving every single minute of life and then one day we went to a fancy meal at a restaurant in lake tahoe and a 200pound glass partition fell onto my head and in that moment i sustained a disabling head and neck injury. And so have not worked since and for 17 years i relied on a cane, opioids and a wheel chair to get around. But you have work now. Its taken my eight years to write this book and i do a little preaching. With some of the head injury stuff you have to rest in order to let the brain come online so to speak. So i do a little bit at a time and the spirit and spiritualty has really he
Ministries, correctional institutions chaplaincy is a nonprofit formed in the epi60s and incorporated in the 70s as a joint effort with the evangelical association and the council of churches. At that point, we were one of the few remaining love childs of that movement. So, were here with a specific purpose of serving all of the men, women and youth incarcerated in santa clara count. Were nonprofit. Part of our budget comes from the county. Okay. Part of the budget comes from local churches, faith communities and individuals who are supporting of this ministry. So, tell us a bit about the Santa Clara County system and who is there, how many prisons there are. What kind of population is there . Yes. The population there is down to 3500 people now. Over the last few wores, the population is reduced. There is a womens jail, there is the mens facility in elmwood in milpitas, the main jail complex at the downtown san jose near the county, and then were also active in the juvenile probation
Recently moved into our new neighborhood welcomed wonderfully. Ware sharing with Saint Marks Lutheran Church and all trying to support people in need. That is right. Project homeless connect has been around for awhile. 15 years. Which one of you could tell us some of the history. Yes. We began in 2004 and we started really with a Community Wide effort led by then mayor gavin knew some and fellow Community Members to bring together a number of services and one day people experiencing homelessness could Access Services more easily. We started out with that big event and since then expands ha but you have thousands of volunteers. Yes. So what does your staff do and what do your volunteers do . We are a small mighty team of about 12 people and our wo main programs are hosting large scale expose Style Service days. We call them community taser vis events. The mod el was created because someone at risk for homelessness or experiencing homelessness was spending hours everyday just trying to a