St. Paul's earliest history has always placed it at the forefront of service to the community. Located at the southeast corner of San Jose State University, it is well situated to serve the spiritual needs and concerns of both student and faculty population. In keeping with this well established tradition of service and community involvement, following are some of our current areas of focus.

• Rocketship Education

• DCP
  
  Downtown College Prep (DCP) has moved. Continue to visit them at their website: info@downtowncollegeprep.org.

• St. Paul's Creative Arts Program for Youth
  
  The Creative Arts Program for Youth focuses on meeting the need for positive social activities for the young people in our downtown neighborhood. Involvement in creative outlets builds competency, self-esteem, and pro-social activities. For low-income families, creative arts programs are often not available in schools nor in the community. The current focus of our program is on the performing arts: music, dance and drama. The mission of our program is to strengthen our community by serving young people through creative arts. The goals of the program are to:
  
  1) Foster positive changes in attitude and behavior.
  
  2) Facilitate development of better interpersonal skills.
  
  3) Develop a sense of belonging, responsibility and community.
  
  4) Support growth of healthy problem-solving and learning strategies.
  
  5) Foster increased self-esteem, teamwork and life skills.
  
  The program is open to young people from 8-14 years of age regardless of racial, ethnic or cultural identity, or religious orientation. It is a community program sponsored and operated by St. Paul's UMC, and housed in our facility. Both our program participants and our congregation are multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-racial. We are proud of our diversity. Workshops occur as follows: Dance, Mondays, 5-7 PM; Music, Thursdays, 5-7 PM and Drama, Saturdays from 10 AM-12 PM. Drop by on any of the workshop days, or contact Program Director, Genevieve Ruiz at (408) 294-5446. The program is free.

• SMAV
  
  SAN JOSE Alternative to Violence
  --Men's Drop-in Group
  
  St. Paul's provides meeting space for a counseling group every Wednesday evening from 7:00 to 9:00 pm. It is a peer-counseling problem solving group unaffiliated with any organization or government agency and is aimed at helping individuals who are experiencing anger and stress-related problems in their home as well as in other areas of their lives. Group focus is directed at helping men learn to set non-violent limits when relating to other people in general and to their partners specifically. Attendees are reminded that "A Change is Possible But YOU have to choose It". If you or someone you know feel that such a group would be beneficial, contact Robert Landry, group facilitator, at (408) 994-2761 (pager) or call (408) 297-2464.