Left: Site Director Gage and Food Service Coordinator Stephen volunteer with one of our partners in San Diego at last month’s site visit. Middle: SSP’s summer 2025 theme is Building Bridges! Right: Site Director Alex and Spiritual Life Coordinator SaraJane visit Crescent City UMC, our host facility, at last month’s site visit to Del Norte County.

Building Bridges This Summer

We have had a busy spring season leading up to the SSP summer program, including site visits to both partner communities! Here are the updates from each site:

🌲 Del Norte County: We're excited about these project updates from our site visit: 

• Thanks to recent grant awards from Klamath Promise Neighborhood and Pacific Power Foundation, high-impact home repair projects will be a central part of each week.
• Work teams will also support projects with community partners, including:
• Redwood Parks Conservancy
• Del Norte County Fairgrounds
• Gardens at schools, community centers, and tribal lands
• All volunteers will spend Wednesday removing invasive European beach grass with our long-time partners, the Tolowa Dunes Stewards. One team will also remove English ivy with them on Tuesdays.

🌊 San Diego: Our program and projects will address community needs with local partner organizations. In addition to a team working at our host facility, National City First United Methodist Church, volunteers will focus on:

• Food Justice
• Porchlight Community Services: 15 volunteers every day helping with community market setup and hosting, and other needs.
• Various food distribution networks including San Diego Food Bank, Father Joe’s Villages (weeks 5 & 6), and Feeding San Diego (week 1).
• Community Gardens
• Friends of Friendship Park: 20 volunteers every day to help establish their satellite binational garden at the Tijuana River Valley Regional Park Community Garden.
• Flood Recovery
• Hope Crisis Response Network is transitioning from flood recovery in San Diego to fire recovery in LA. SSP teams of volunteers 16 and older will help pack up their operations for their next disaster response.
• Environmental Restoration (removing invasive species)
• Silver Strand State Beach: 35 volunteers on Tuesday mornings
• Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve: 20 volunteers on Tuesday or Friday mornings
• San Diego Canyonlands: 45 volunteers on Friday mornings will create a healthy habitat for wildlife (weeks 2 & 3)

SSP summer 2025 is right around the corner! With the approach of our longest-running volunteer program comes many exciting opportunities to be involved:

Volunteer Weeks

With 594 volunteers signed up to serve this summer from 66 groups, we are thrilled to host youth and intergenerational groups alike for weeks of hands-on service in community. If you’re interested to join in, we still have space available most weeks between late June and early August!

Our summer 2025 program theme is Building Bridges. Join us in exploring what it means to bravely take the first step to forge connections with our neighbors and within ourselves. As Bill Staines says in his song Bridges, one of our newer SSP songtime favorites:

“They are love and understanding;

And they're better than a wall.” 

Build love and understanding with us this summer:

Staff-in-Training

Anyone with an interest in the experience of serving on SSP staff is invited to apply for a Staff-in-Training week this summer! This opportunity is especially great for youth recently graduating from high school who might want to apply for staff in the future. All SITs must be 18 or older by their Staff-in-Training week. Applications are now open!

Support at Staff Training

We are seeking volunteers to support summer launch activities in Sacramento while we host staff training, June 11-21. Here are a few ways you can be involved:

• Meal preparation
• T-shirt sorting
• Loading cargo vans and trucks

Contact us to get scheduled for volunteering during staff training in June:

Reflect on SSP's Mission on June 2 & 5

We want to hear your SSP stories and vision for the future! RSVP to join us for a Mission Evaluation session on Zoom.

If you’ve been wanting to participate in SSP’s mission evaluation process, RSVP for one of our two Zoom gatherings in early June! 

• Monday, June 2: 6-8 pm Pacific
• Thursday, June 5: 6-8 pm Pacific 

These discussions have been hopeful and purpose-filled. Join us in reflecting on your SSP experiences and imagining the future early next month via Zoom!

Thank You for an Amazing 2025 Big Day of Giving!

SSP’s Big DOG mascot Scooter was chasing a big $50,000 goal, and you helped him catch it. Thank you!

We’re overflowing with gratitude for our amazing SSP supporters, who donated $54,367 to make our Big Day of Giving (Big DOG) a huge success! SSP’s Board of Directors recorded a special message for everyone who helped SSP surpass our Big DOG goal.

Thank you to the 17 dogs who were nominated for SSP’s Big DOG mascot. We loved seeing everyone’s furry friends and their passion for service!

April Project Recaps

In North Sacramento, SSP hosted the Sacramento Youth Center for our fourth annual Alternative Spring Break with 40 local youth and adults at the International Garden of Many Colors. 

They built picnic tables and benches, repaired fences, mulched and planted spring starts, and weeded the fire lane and community paths for safety and beautification. Check out the photos!

In Rancho Cordova, SSP hosted five individual local youth for an Alternative Spring Break. They built a set of stairs for a resident. Most youth started volunteering with SSP in summer 2023 and haven’t stopped! 

In April, we installed our second wheelchair lift and are currently replacing a set of stairs with our new Lutheran Social Services Work Experience fellows!

Quick Links

Announcing New Sac Sustainability Academy (SSA) Cohorts: We are thrilled to share we have received funding from California Volunteers’ Youth Service Corps through the City of Sacramento to offer two additional SSA cohorts! Late summer and fall cohorts will focus on: Home Repair & Energy Efficiency, Urban Agriculture & Food Sovereignty, and Manufacturing & Entrepreneurship. We’ll be hiring Program Managers, Program Supervisors, and Program Fellows for each cohort. Applications are open.

California Climate Action Corps Fellows: Are you interested in climate change, volunteer engagement, and community resilience? SSP is now hiring four full-time Community Sustainability Fellows, part of the California Climate Action Corps (CCAC). Fellows will serve 1700+ hours from September 2025 to August 2026. Fellows must be 18 or older, have a high school diploma or equivalent, and be a US Citizen, US National, or lawful US resident to participate. CCAC provides meaningful opportunities for everyone to take climate action. Register for an info session and apply by July 31.

50th Celebration Weekend: October 24-26, 2025: Mark your calendars; you’re invited to celebrate SSP’s 50th anniversary in Sacramento during a weekend full of fellowship, fun, and reunions. Activities include an office/warehouse tour, a service project, gatherings by SSP decade, the 50th Celebration at The Garden at the Line, and attending an SSP church service. Lodging is available at the Sacramento Hostel on a first-come, first-served basis and at an SSP-reserved hotel room block for Friday and Saturday nights (paid by guests). RSVP to help SSP plan.