Please go to: https://vimeo.com/364443388  to view the club meeting.  If you wish to get meeting make-up credit, after viewing the meeting, please send an email to Neisha Hernandez - neisha@neishas.com noting that you viewed the meeting (date of the meeting) on line and credit will be recorded.

Please go to: https://vimeo.com/365922550 to view the club meeting.  If you wish to get meeting make-up credit, after viewing the meeting, please send an email to Neisha Hernandez - neisha@neishas.com noting that you viewed the meeting (date of the meeting) on line and credit will be recorded

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This is a second "trial" of the Social Hour that the Fellowship Committee is holding.

Thomas Clavell, Director

South Bay Pioneers

 ABOUT: 

Tom Clavell is the Director at South Bay Pioneers and has been employed  with the organization since 2006 and has been associated with the organization since 1999.

Tom is a Chula Vista resident and is active in the community.  A founding member of the Chula Vista Charitable Foundation, Tom also served on the Board of Directors of the Foundation for several years.

The South Bay Pioneer’s, a social model recovery home, is dedicated to providing a safe, structured residential environment in which all residents are afforded the opportunity to effect positive change in their life and learn how to live life on life’s terms as sober, responsible citizens. Residents may reside at the Facility for up to two years building a solid foundation in recovery and the ability to mainstream into a normalized lifestyle. The “program” format for men is a two stage process where the men reside in the main residence (community living) for up to a year and progress to the individual accommodations (apartments) that are part of our facility for another year. Women participating in our program are offered the opportunity to utilize the apartments as a sober living environment upon completion of their participation in long term (six months or more) programs at other facilities. We continually provide space for 24 men in our main residence, 11 men and 7 women reside in the apartments. We are at 100 percent occupancy approximately 95 percent of the year. Although our primary focus is recovery we also offer other social services such  as assisting with employment opportunities, attending to medical and dental needs, financial education/credit repair, ongoing education and GED assistance, and legal concerns just to name a few. We are willing to share our experience not only with our residents but with the sober community at large. 

 The facility is unique to the City of Chula Vista and to the County of San Diego in many respects. One being that the Pioneers not only allow our residents to be employed we actually require it, though employment is not required to be accepted to our program.  In addition, while there is a nominal fee for our service, residents are not required to have any money to be accepted to our program and are afforded ample opportunity to procure employment and pay their  fees gradually until they are in a financial position to do otherwise. We estimate that ninety percent of our population enters our program in this situation. Also, we are not funded by the State or Federal Government. We are a true grass roots organization. Though we are not affiliated in any way with the organization of Alcoholics Anonymous, we are guided by the fundamentals and principles of the twelve step program and serve the “members” of AA in addition to the men and women in our program. There 17 AA meetings per week at our facility attended by hundreds of members of the sober community or persons seeking sobriety, on an weekly basis. 

Tommy Sablan has dedicated his life to giving. As a Chula Vista native, he is not only proud of his San Diego roots but also heavily involved in communities and organizations across the county. While his philanthropic lifestyle is rooted in his desire to help others, he has had several experiences that have shaped his path. Mr. Sablan’s journey, as many of our own, can be traced back to his childhood. He is able to look back fondly on the efforts his single mother made into showing her children love and ensuring that they always had what they needed, even with the financial struggles they faced. However, there were other complex relationships throughout his childhood and into adulthood that have inspired him to help others through his work with San Diego juvenile halls and schools. Both of his older brothers became heroin addicts at a young age and combatted the issue for the majority of their lives. While much of their relationship was strained due to anger and other issues, he has since been able to forgive them and that has allowed the experience to teach him valuable lessons that he can share.

Who We Are

SD Urban Timber is San Diego’s original local wood resource, breathing new life into fallen trees and other materials which would otherwise be discarded. Our business is driven through healthy collaborations between our material, our clients, and our vision. In our process we strive to steward our wood to elicit the most out of each piece, and transform it into utilitarian artwork fulfilling the collaborative visions we create with our customer. Our services include custom furniture for residential and commercial space, a full service woodshop, and reclaimed local-exotic wood slabs from the heart of San Diego.

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Jose L. Cruz

CEO, San Diego Council on Literacy

Jose Cruz is the chief executive officer for the San Diego Council on Literacy, a model urban literacy coalition.  He has 34 years of experience in the literacy field and is in his 13^th year as his organization’s CEO. He is the recipient of the 2003 Union-Tribune, “Educator of the Year” award, past-president of the National Alliance of Urban Literacy Coalitions, and past-president of the San Diego Branch of the Orton Dyslexia Society. In 2014, he was recognized by The Union-Tribune as the Latino Civic Leader of the Year. He currently serves as a board officer for ProLiteracy, the largest literacy organization in the world, and is the host of wsRadio’s “Literacy For All Radio Show”, which is broadcast live from San Diego to support literacy efforts across the nation.

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