Reprinted from The Spirit of Oakland, published by Heritage Media Corporation.
St. Mary's Church, Oakland's oldest Roman Catholic parish, and St. Mary's School, staffed by Sisters of the Holy Names, had served the needs of local families for more than 100 years. After the school closed in 1973 due to financial difficulties, people living in the downtown West Oakland area were surveyed about their needs, and the church's staff members decided to dedicate themselves, the parish and school resources to meeting the needs of this low-income community.
Even while the school existed,the vibrant summer youth program had attracted many Latino and African-American youths. In 1973 this was expanded to a full-year program. At the same time, the staff went door to door surveying those who lived in the surrounding neighborhoods, downtown apartments and SRO hotels to better understand their needs, dreams and hopes. It was thus that St. Mary's Center came into existence, involving people of all ages, cultures and backgrounds. It truly became a community center that embraced all and fostered leadership, resiliency, education and fun.
Soon a Parent/Infant Education Program began, which later became the current Preschool. In 1974 older adults began Senior Companion Program and outreach to those living in SRO hotels. Senior dinner programs that brought people together around food and companionship also began.
In the mid-1970s, St. Mary's Parish sponsored St. Mary's Gardens, 100 units of low-income senior housing to replace housing demolished by the construction of Interstate 980. St. Mary's Center helped with the development of programs in St. Mary's Gardens and provided transportation for its residents to its center and community events.
New programs appeared in the 1980s to meet growing needs. The Food for All Ages program started by providing a bag lunch for people on the streets. Staff members prepare lunches for the preschool children, a weekly supplements grocery bag to 40 families and 70 seniors, and more than 350 Christmas dinners donated by local churches. It also provides daily coffee and pastries for homeless seniors, and six senior dinners each week. For many, St. Mary's Center provides their only hot meal for the day and their only chance to socialize.
The center also began responding to a disturbing trend: seniors showing up on the streets, homeless because of the closing of low-cost residential hotels; a trend that increased greatly after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. St Mary's staff found housing for many of these seniors.
In 1992 St. Mary's Center incorporated as a separate nonprofit public benefit organization, and two years later, moved to its present site at 22nd Street and San Pablo.
St. Mary's Center Preschool is now a five-day-a-week educational enrichment program for 30 poverty level children ages 3 to 5 years. The primary goal is to prepare children for success in elementary school and beyond.
Each school day provides an exciting literature-based curriculum with a balance of academic and development activities: physical activities to develop large and small motor skills; and art period; time for hands-on mathematics; computer time on donated computers; science explorations; music time; creative free play and language development.
At the preschool, children are either African-American or Asian-American, mostly Chinese, Vietnam and Filipino. Many come unable to speak or understand English and needing translation and special language help. All are from families whose income is below the poverty line, including families with two working parents. Some live in a nearby housing project where drug dealing and gunshots are commonplace. Violence touches their lives deeply, and often, St. Mary's Center is their only experience of a safe place.
Sunday dinners are prepared and served by a different organization each week, including local and suburban churches, corporations and civic groups. This program enriches the giver as well as the receiver. Volunteers have an opportunity to interact with people very different from themselves from themselves and learn about some of the causes and effects of poverty.
More than 750 seniors are served annually by St. Mary's Outreach and Advocacy Program, which helps the frail elderly live as independently as possible. The staff coordinates care with medical professionals, gives referral to resources, provides telephone reassurance, home visits and emotional support, assistance with filling out form shopping escorts and other services. The goal is to render basic services to help seniors "age in place," comforted by familiar surroundings.
St. Mary's Center is the only agency in Oakland with programs exclusively designed for homeless seniors. 
Many have lost trust in everyone, and it often takes an outreach worker months of frequent contact on the streets before a homeless person is willing to come to the center. Once a homeless senior has enough trust to come to St. Mary's Center, a case manager in the Senior Homeless Program locates temporary housing and then begins the careful, slow process of working with the senior to find permanent housing and the most appropriate plan of action to address medical, financial, social and psychological needs.
Homelessness is a severe health hazard for anyone, but especially so for elderly persons. St. Mary's Community Nursing Program helps respond to their particular needs. St. Mary's is an approved clinical site for San Francisco State University and California State University, Hayward. Several faculty and student nurses from each campus come one to three days a week to provide health assessments. They also monitor medication, change dressings, accompany seniors to clinics and provide health education.
If seniors are addicted to alcohol or drugs, St. Mary's finds them temporary housing and requires that they complete a Recovery 55 program before being placed in permanent housing. This is a daily, eight-week outpatient alcohol and drug abuse recovery program to assist seniors to stop or lessen their dependence on alcohol and/or drugs. Daily group meetings focus on dealing with emotional issues such as anger and stress, grief over the many losses in an older person's life. The meetings also focus on the effects of alcohol and drug abuse.
From December 1998 to April 1999, St. Mary's opened its first winter shelter for homeless seniors. The shelter provided a safe place to sleep out of the cold and rain for 20 seniors each night, while also serving them a hot dinner and breakfast. In addition, many of the seniors who used the shelter were helped to find permanent housing and mental health counseling.
For nearly 30 years, St. Mary's Center has responded to the dire needs of the community members who were faced with the loss of their homes, the hardships of poverty and the need for early childhood education. In a cityscape that can often seem harsh and unfriendly thousands of people have come to know St. Mary's Center as a community of loving concern.