Steve Doyle’s Blog

Here we are in mid-December, the heart of the Holiday Season. No matter which path you choose to follow through the Holidays, the spirit and light all focus back on a couple of consistent goals. It is time to give thanks. It is time to rejoice. It is time to share, to love, to embrace, to give and to forgive. It is time to put the hardships of last year behind us and to look to the light and hope of the New Year. The Holiday Season provides time for respite and re-charge.

Each of us has our own family and cultural traditions for the Holidays. We have special events that occur over this six week period that we cherish and await with anticipation. We wear special clothes, eat special meals and decorate our homes with special memories. We remember Seasons past. We celebrate with family and friends.

Many of us will share and comfort the less fortunate of our communities. Some of this sharing will be direct, by visiting with those who are shut in, providing meals and gifts. Some of the sharing will be indirect, by dropping some change in the kettle, making donations of toys and food or sending gift packages to service men and women overseas. However you share and comfort others is important and even more so during the Holidays.

There is a special group of people in San Diego that share their time and treasure with a new group of young people everyday. Just in Time for Foster Youth helps emancipated (just turned 18 and released from County jurisdiction) foster youth make the transition from juvenile to adult. Think back when you were 18. Now imagine you had no family or support network to help you with the transition to adulthood. How would you have felt? Just in Time (JIT) helps these young adults by providing goods and services to ease that transition.

One of the many programs offered by JIT is “Home for the Holidays”. Imagine … you are on your own. You are 18. You have found an apartment you can afford. You have nothing to move into the apartment but your clothes! “Home for the Holidays” helps you with the essentials. JIT provides you with the basics of living on your own, so you can go to school, go to work and focus on living and growing.

If you are looking for someone to reach out to, someone to help during these Holidays. Think about Just in Time. Think about helping to make someone’s first Holiday Season on their own, one they will always remember warmly. Because, ‘Tis the Season’!