not sorry, reese's. >> host: hello and on behalf of the archdiocese of san francisco , welcome to mosiac. there are nearly 200 catholic diocese and archdiocese. there is a wonderful institution known at catholic charities. catholic charities has a long history and a great record of service. more than 100 years and with predecessor organizations, more than 150 years to answer the call of neighbors in need.

not only during disasters, but daily facing the chronic systemic difficulties which so many in our community with families and individuals alike can find themselves trapped. catholic charities of san francisco believes in strengthening families and helping the young develop in the old to age with dignity. welcoming refugees and immigrants in making this a better, safer, and stronger community. today we talk with the chief executive officer of catholic charities. we find out what are today's challenges and what can we do to be of service? to find out how we can help in the effort, please join us after this brief break to meet hilda from catholic charities.

>> host: hello. i want to introduce our guest today. she is jilma meneses, the chief executive officer of catholic charities of san francisco. do i have the name right? the catholic charities of san francisco? it covers san francisco, san

mateo and marin county. it's a big charitable organization and you are the fairly new ceo of this. why don't you tell us about your career and this job. >> thank you. it is a comprehensive agency for sure. i was raised in san francisco and i came to united states as a child, like many immigrants. i was raised here and went to school here and eventually went to the northwest do my law school degree in the portland area where i made a career in executive leadership and law. now, i am here. >> host: you work in higher education. did you teach as well? >> i did serve as the dean of the law school of concordia university and their law school is in ohio. >> host: and unt uc berkeley? >> yes i'm very much a local

and i have family in the bay area. >> host: you are the chief executive officer in san francisco. i looked at this copious website and you have five identified service areas. maybe you want to tell us about those. >> certainly. we serve the homeless in various ways and we serve aging and disabled adults. we serve refugee individuals as well as children. in the homelessness area, we serve an immense amount of beautiful, beautiful human beings who need shelter and who need love and need protection from what is happening on the streets. we have many homeless mothers and babies who are part of our community as well as other centers that we have. in our aging and support services, we

have older adults who come to our centers to be amongst friends and you feel nurtured and companionship. they are amazing, amazing people who just need to be with community and to be cared for instead of being at home lonely and without food or without safe surroundings. the children we serve through the various programs in the bay area, they are children who perhaps don't have the same opportunity as the more privileged in our society. they perhaps don't have a great education or an opportunity to access excellent education and they come to us for that. we provide academic nurturing as well as food and health security at the various sites that we have. of course we have residential programs.

>> host: is that housing for the homeless? >> the residential programs are specifically for children who have been traumatized in one way or the other. perhaps the court systems or various jurisdictions will place them at one of our sites. >> host: i see. >> yes. and as i mentioned, we have a large population of homelessness and homeless individuals that we serve. that is probably some of the largest of the programs. refugee services are in high demand right now. we serve over 4000 people in a given year. immigrants who are truly in need . whether they are docker recipients or folks who need legal services and other ways. particularly right now with the tremendous division, these

populations are in need of our support and our assistance. >> the most vulnerable populations seem to change after the influenza epidemic there were orphaned children. today there are large populations of homeless in the area. >> that's exactly right. what i say is we serve the whole stream of ages from 0 to 101. we have one aging adult who is literally 101 years old. she has been coming to our centers for nearly 20 years. we celebrate her life and we celebrate her with the contributions she makes to the elders in our community. she also gives the companionship that she so deserves. host mask to carry out these

complex tasks, you must have a cadre of paid employees but i also think you have a cohort of skilled professionals volunteers of various kinds and various professional occupations . >> absolutely, we have 4000 volunteers and close to 600 employees who i call angels, by the way, constant the. these people give so much of themselves on a daily basis. some have been working for us over 30 years and some less, of course. they give more than what a job description normally suggests. our volunteers are the same. they are true angels in our community and they value a sense of service to those around them. our neighbors and brothers and sisters. >> let me ask a quick question. maybe we will settle it in the next segment. how do people who

need catholic charities find catholic charities? we are available. is it marketing or public relations? >> it is all of that. plus voices and spreading the word. we have been here 110 years, but it is important that people know we are here. we serve catholics and non- catholics. >> your services are for catholics -- >> and non-catholics. we serve all faiths and some of our employees are not catholic. they are of all faiths. and different ethnic and racial identities as well as sexual orientation identities. >> host: that is good to know. we will take a brief break and we will come back and talk more with jilma meneses about catholic charities .

>> host: hello and welcome back . we are talking with jilma meneses, the chief executive officer of catholic charities with the archdiocese of san francisco. jilma , thank you for being here. with the recent floods down south and the fires in california , when you look to see where you can make a donation and where you can help, and so on, among the prime candidates is catholic charities in these areas. and, my impression of catholic charities in all areas of this country is they are sort of prime sterling veteran proven purveyors of charity and good works. is that correct? is that, how do i put it, good

standing in the philanthropic community? >> absolutely. in the human services community. we are accredited i just received expedited accreditation suggesting we are a national model for human services throughout our three counties, for sure. we have provided, as i have mentioned, lots of services for children and homeless and aging adults, et cetera. and, refugees. we also provide services to populations that you may not think are vulnerable, but are vulnerable. >> host: tell us about that. if you are a model for this kind of work, there would be innovation involved on your part, right? >> yes, exactly. the innovation comes with the empowerment of children and starts with the empowerment of children.

our cyo camp with children populates during the summer and during the school year. it welcomes children of all socioeconomic classes and communities throughout the bay area. providing them with enrichment programs and development programs at our camp . they come from catholic schools and public schools throughout the region. again, not just necessarily underserved populations, but also different socioeconomic classes. there children are vulnerable regardless of where they come from. it is for strength and empowerment as a child and as a human being. >> host: i have read statistics about the thousands of children that take part and how many thousands of hours they do with recreational activities and sports that liberties and different enrichment things. >> our cyo serves 13,000

children throughout the region and it is an example of that. >> host: and cyo stands for catholic youth organization. >> exactly. >> i grew up and was part of that organization. >> host: you have low overhead? >> very low overhead. we do receive some government contracts but those are not normally sufficient to cover expenses. absolutely. then we have private donations. what i am seeking, though, in the next five years, for sure and certainly in the long run is more partnerships from corporations and business. given the big divide between wealth and the poorct one might

other. we think we and that bu and corporations take some of that accountability. >> host: i want to hear more about your five year strategic plan in regard to that. >> we are currently reproducing our most current strategic plan , absolutely. that is a big part of it. the ability to partner with businesses and to help them become more accountable. >> host: i'm not an economist or sociologist and i have an appreciation appreciation of our condition. there seems to be an abundance of wealth and success in the bay area where the diocese is. lots of corporations and people are doing very well but many people are not doing well and is sending in a fragile position. that is my understanding of things. does that jibe with what

catholic charities sees? >> absolutely. the wealth, particularly from large business, is driving the middle class to the poor part of our spectrum. we . the poverty i am talking about is not just the homeless on the street. they are teachers and librarians and others who traditionally were middle-class and now are being driven lower. >> host: i see newspaper stories with the highest median home price in the country and the lowest population of minor children in san francisco. so, a strange situation. do you feel that catholic charities could appeal to the people who have the money and the people, how do i put it, who understand what an investment in the community might be and the return on

investment with strengthening the community? buy absolutely, just like a taxpayer pays taxes, i believe a voluntary corporate responsibility is essential. corporations can take part in this investment in our community . it does impact them and eventually it may impact their employees and families if the community is not thriving the way it should be because the poor are getting poorer. i believe that corporations can invest and take ownership of some of the programs. not just giving financially, but by perhaps investing in the structure, or the organizational structure of the human services programs. with their ideas and their own resources. whether it is marketing or volunteering. >> these companies that are great successes here are innovative and creative and

great marketers. i would listen to you if i owned one of the companies. we will take a brief break and talk more about catholic charities in the archdiocese.

>> host: welcome back to mosiac. we are talking with jilma meneses from catholic charities today . you talked about the bay area businesses and entrepreneurs and so on involved with catholic charities. be of help. i'm not a urethey c

businessman myself, but i went to your website where there massive amounts of good information on the return on investment with investment in the programs. it seems you have spent a good time and expertise assessing what works and figuring out what doesn't work. it is quite impressive these things that you do. >> thank you. we do have a tremendous return on those investments. i will give you an example. when a mother is homeless and comes to our shelter to deliver a baby, the last thing you want to do is put her back on the street with a baby. the return on the investment is that we empower that woman by providing her with the resources, perhaps, that the access to training and the workforce that she otherwise may not have. at the same time nurturing the child so that the child and baby has a good beginning.

if the family is taken care of and that way and dealing with health and food security and shelter and education. including workforce development , then that person can empower, again, herself, to be sustainable. that's an investment in our future and the future of the community. it's not just in that mother and her child. >> host: the typical attitude of a charitable minded person is that they will give a big donation and someone will take care of it. but understanding that i'm not in a vulnerable position that myself, thank goodness, but i'm in relationship with the people that are vulnerable. it is something i need to reconfigure in my mind. >> it is something we have to reconfigure. we can all be vulnerable at some point in our lives, no matter how rich or poor. there are people vulnerable today including the ceos of major corporations who

will someday age and be lonely. the more empathy they have today for those who are in need or who are calling out for their assistance, in some way, the better they will be as well in their future and the better their children will be. >> that makes a lot of sense. let me quote to you something i saw in a newspaper article. you said is the ceo of catholic charities you want to rebrand catholic charities and persuade people they are joining a cause. we have to demonstrate that an investment is not just for the poor or vulnerable person, but for themselves, their children and the community as well. that your statement. >> that's right and that is an example of what i would hope others would understand. it is a cause that we all must hold very tight and perform on. again, regardless of where we are in our personal and social

economic status or position in career, it is a cause for those to help. the divisions are political. i see it on the front page every day. >> perhaps some of the political divisions are causing the division on a daily basis for everyone. the division includes not wanting to help folks because of their color or because of where they were born or possibly because of where ou be uniting with those we individuals and having the empathy required of all of us as human beings to bring them

along with us. >> host: you are quoting jesus christ himself where he says to do this and this and this for the least of dofor me. >> that's right, if you didn't do it for them, you didn't do it for me. >> host: you want to persuade the broader community not just catholics and christians, but to take part in this effort. >> they do it for all. it will impact them personally when they do something right. and they have the economic stability when there are not as many vulnerable populations living on the street, for example.

>> it impacts business and a coffee shop if a homeless person is sleeping outside their door. >> the cure is not just a shift that somewhere else, but helps them do the best that he or she can. >> just like empowering the mother with the baby so she can work in the coffee shop instead of having to sleep outside. >> we see dramatic representations of ill health. >> let me ask you to give viewers some action items, what can they do. >> they can join our cause and reach out to us and find a way to partner with us to help and assist the communities that are vulnerable and some that are less vulnerable than others, yes. but all the communities we support. that is aged zero to over 100. someday it will impact them personally.

it is true that it is impacting them and they may not even realize how much. >> host: it has been very nice talking to you. thank you for wejilma ses to ank yo ve much for

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i'm proud to be a part of aag. i trust 'em. i think you can too. call now! live from the cbs bay studios, this is kpix5 news. in oakland educator is shut and killed in his own home. family and friends reflect on the legacy he leaves behind. >> we lost a leading light in the community. frustration intensifies in the south bay as police break up another sideshow. good morning, it is sunday, october 3rd. let's take it quick check of our weather. another warm day just like yesterday. we might be a little cooler bu