Volunteers of America provides homeless single adults and parents an opportunity to build new personal and professional lives at Mather Community Campus, a collaboration with Sacramento Area Emergency Housing Center and Crossroads Diversified Services. Mather Community Campus is dedicated to providing the best possible services and a supportive environment to learn new skills and build a healthy lifestyle.

Housing
Residents of MCC, whom we refer to as "students," enjoy a safe and secure environment where staff members are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Private air-conditioned apartments of varying sizes are available to meet the needs of individuals and families. Rooms are fully furnished, and include telephone connections.
 
Three meals a day are served in the relaxing community dining hall. Family units have kitchens for flexible independent meal preparation.

Services
A case manager and an employment services worker work in partnership with students to secure steady jobs, build a stable lifestyle and obtain permanent housing. Students' interests, abilities and career/life goals will be assessed. They learn job search skills, how to keep a job and given tools to advance their chosen career paths. Job-training opportunities are available on campus, as well as throughout the community. The Sacramento Works One-Stop Career Center is located on-campus. Students also attend a variety of daily group sessions focusing on substance-abuse recovery, parenting skills and budgeting.

For those preparing to move to permanent-housing situations, Mather Community Campus' housing specialist assists in locating a new home.

Recreation
A wide variety of recreation activities for students include sports, music, art, gardening and monthly theme events.

Community spirit
Mather Community Campus is dedicated to enriching the lives of its students. The Residents’ Council, Leadership Team and Community Advisory Committee ensure the quality of our services.

All members of our campus are involved in maintaining a clean and sober community. Activities that support students in recovery include alcohol and  drug education workshops, transportation to nearby 12-step groups, and clean and sober recreation activities. All residents are drug tested.

Transportation
To meet the transportation needs of our students, our campus van includes stops at Light Rail and selected job, recovery, childcare and shopping locations. Additionally, Regional Transit Route 75 provides regular bus service to the campus, including evenings and weekends.

Costs
Students pay affordable rent and program fees for their housing, utilities and numerous services. Students on the singles site also pay food fees.

Fifty-one formerly homeless men, women celebrate graduation

Graduation speakers Riley Mitchell
(above, with daughter Allison) and
Matt Klanjac were among the 51
Mather Community Campus students
who graduated in 2010. Click here
to see more event photos.

Fifty-one formerly homeless men and women are heading to new jobs, safe homes and the loving embraces of friends and family as graduates of Mather Community Campus.

Dressed in their blue ceremonial robes for the June 23 event, it’s hard to imagine where these men and women were just a few years ago. Riley Mitchell, an All-American high school tennis player, had good grades, a supportive and loving family and what seemed to be a limitless future. But the freedom that college held came too fast for Mitchell, whose weekend partying soon became a long, uncontrolled spiral into addiction and – eventually – homelessness.

Matt Klanjac, grew up in an Air Force family that settled in Sacramento in the mid-‘70s. Klanjac started drinking as a high-school freshman and graduated to harder drugs by the time he graduated. Constantly moving, he attended six colleges and universities before abandoning the dream of a degree in favor of more drugs that led to multiple arrests, and – like Mitchell – homelessness.

Klanjac and Mitchell have more than a history of addiction in common, both found Volunteers of America and a series of treatment and recovery programs that culminated in their successful enrollment in Mather Community Campus’ nationally recognized transitional housing and job-training program.

At Mather Community Campus, a collaborative effort by Volunteers of America, Sacramento Area Emergency Housing Center and Crossroads Diversified Services, as many as 35 families and 200 single men and women who were once homeless are given the hand up to retake their place in mainstream society. To date, more than 2,000 adults and children have been served since MCC opened in 1995.

Among the dignitaries addressing the graduates and their guests at the June 23, 2010, ceremony were Don Nottoli, County Supervisor Fifth District; Leo McFarland, president and CEO of Volunteers of America Greater Sacramento & Northern Nevada; and Rancho Cordova Mayor Ken Cooley. Mitchell and Klanjac also spoke to the assembly. Special music was provided by the Sacramento Philharmonic Brass Quintet under the direction of Julian Dixon.

To see photos from the 2010 event, click here.

Fifty-one formerly homeless men, women celebrate graduation

Graduation speakers Riley Mitchell
(above, with daughter Allison) and
Matt Klanjac were among the 51
Mather Community Campus students
who graduated in 2010. Click here
to see more event photos.

Fifty-one formerly homeless men and women are heading to new jobs, safe homes and the loving embraces of friends and family as graduates of Mather Community Campus.

Dressed in their blue ceremonial robes for the June 23 event, it’s hard to imagine where these men and women were just a few years ago. Riley Mitchell, an All-American high school tennis player, had good grades, a supportive and loving family and what seemed to be a limitless future. But the freedom that college held came too fast for Mitchell, whose weekend partying soon became a long, uncontrolled spiral into addiction and – eventually – homelessness.

Matt Klanjac, grew up in an Air Force family that settled in Sacramento in the mid-‘70s. Klanjac started drinking as a high-school freshman and graduated to harder drugs by the time he graduated. Constantly moving, he attended six colleges and universities before abandoning the dream of a degree in favor of more drugs that led to multiple arrests, and – like Mitchell – homelessness.

Klanjac and Mitchell have more than a history of addiction in common, both found Volunteers of America and a series of treatment and recovery programs that culminated in their successful enrollment in Mather Community Campus’ nationally recognized transitional housing and job-training program.

At Mather Community Campus, a collaborative effort by Volunteers of America, Sacramento Area Emergency Housing Center and Crossroads Diversified Services, as many as 35 families and 200 single men and women who were once homeless are given the hand up to retake their place in mainstream society. To date, more than 2,000 adults and children have been served since MCC opened in 1995.

Among the dignitaries addressing the graduates and their guests at the June 23, 2010, ceremony were Don Nottoli, County Supervisor Fifth District; Leo McFarland, president and CEO of Volunteers of America Greater Sacramento & Northern Nevada; and Rancho Cordova Mayor Ken Cooley. Mitchell and Klanjac also spoke to the assembly. Special music was provided by the Sacramento Philharmonic Brass Quintet under the direction of Julian Dixon.

To see photos from the 2010 event, click here.

'Good Day Sacramento' staged a unique Thanksgiving
feast at Mather Community Campus this year with the
generous support of nine area restaurants/caterers
and service organizations. To watch video clips, click here. To see additional photos, click here.

Buffalo meat loaf, fried rice, Portuguese beans, scalloped corn, barbecued ribs ... it wasn't your traditional Thanksgiving feast – it was better!

Nine Greater Sacramento-area restaurants/caterers and service organizations – all part of "Good Day Sacramento's" ongoing "Brown Bag" cooking competition – came together this Thanksgiving to host a one-of-a-kind meal for more than 100 students at Mather Community Campus.

Hosted by reporter Tina Macuha and producer Jason "Toots" Maloney, the event was showcased several times during the show's 7 to 10 a.m. holiday broadcast, and featured interviews with Volunteers of America Program Director Ellen O'Neil, as well as with diners and contributing chefs.

TLC Catering, Ludy's Main St. BBQ & Catering, Elkhorn Station, Vince's Ristorante, Crisp Catering, Market Club, Johnny Garlics and the Vizcaya Inn were the restaurants and catering companies that supplied the food and served the meals to an excited and appreciative group of singles and families at the transtional housing and job-training facility's dining room.

"I am amazed – this is a feast for the gods," said O'Neil. "It's great, we really appreciate it."

To watch video segments from the "Good Day Sacramento" Brown Bag Thanksgiving, click here.

To see additional photos, please click here.

'Good Day Sacramento' staged a unique Thanksgiving
feast at Mather Community Campus this year with the
generous support of nine area restaurants/caterers
and service organizations. To watch video clips, click here. To see additional photos, click here.

Buffalo meat loaf, fried rice, Portuguese beans, scalloped corn, barbecued ribs ... it wasn't your traditional Thanksgiving feast – it was better!

Nine Greater Sacramento-area restaurants/caterers and service organizations – all part of "Good Day Sacramento's" ongoing "Brown Bag" cooking competition – came together this Thanksgiving to host a one-of-a-kind meal for more than 100 students at Mather Community Campus.

Hosted by reporter Tina Macuha and producer Jason "Toots" Maloney, the event was showcased several times during the show's 7 to 10 a.m. holiday broadcast, and featured interviews with Volunteers of America Program Director Ellen O'Neil, as well as with diners and contributing chefs.

TLC Catering, Ludy's Main St. BBQ & Catering, Elkhorn Station, Vince's Ristorante, Crisp Catering, Market Club, Johnny Garlics and the Vizcaya Inn were the restaurants and catering companies that supplied the food and served the meals to an excited and appreciative group of singles and families at the transtional housing and job-training facility's dining room.

"I am amazed – this is a feast for the gods," said O'Neil. "It's great, we really appreciate it."

To watch video segments from the "Good Day Sacramento" Brown Bag Thanksgiving, click here.

To see additional photos, please click here.