Advent Group Ministries
Our mission is to transform lives by bringing hope, healing and Christ's love to troubled, abused and addicted people through quality treatment.
Description:
Advent Group Ministries is a faith-based, non-profit, social service agency serving at-risk children and their families since 1986. Founded initially as a residential treatment program for adolescents, we have grown to include an outpatient recovery program, a comprehensive family counseling center and a foster care program for children of all ages.
Our recovery group homes provide residential treatment to addicted and emotionally distressed youth.
Our Step-Up! outpatient program offers teens struggling with substance abuse in-depth treatment while they remain in their homes.
Our foster homes provide loving and safe families for children who have been removed from their homes.
Our counseling center seeks to unify and strengthen troubled families and individuals by providing low-cost counseling services to the community.
History:
Advent's roots go back to the 1930's, during the Great Depression, when
Aunty May and Uncle Mack McLean decided to open a shelter for boys from broken and poverty-stricken homes. The couple ran the home much like a country orphanage, with the help of Ina Matheson, the wash lady. At that time, they were able to take up to 20 boys, ages 6-18. This was the original Summit Ranch, at the summit of the Santa Cruz Mountains.
In 1967, Summit Ranch was given to the San Jose Rescue Mission and renamed the Arbutus Youth Association. In the 1970's, the organization expanded to include a home on Hamilton Avenue in San Jose for adolescent boys ages 13-17, and a home for girls ages 13-18 on Third Street in San Jose.
In 1972, Mark Miller began his ministry as a boy's counselor at the Arbutus Home. In 1974, after serving as a resident counselor, senior counselor, and caseworker, he became the Program Director. In 1977, he became the Executive Director and he still holds that position to this day.
In the 1980's, San Jose Rescue Mission changed its name to CityTeam Ministries, and Arbutus Youth Association became a department of CityTeam. At that time, Arbutus had grown to include five homes for boys and girls who were wards of the court.
In 1980, foster families were first licensed through Arbutus. The program started out with only three families, with Aunty May receiving the first foster child from Santa Clara County. The first director of our Foster Families Program was Donelyn Miller (no relation to Mark Miller), who is currently a clinical supervisor at Advent. Donelyn stared working with the girls' group home in 1973 before assuming her position in the foster care department. Dale McGowan is the current Foster Families Director at Advent. He began his career as a resident counselor in 1973 at Arbutus.
In 1986, Arbutus separated from CityTeam Ministries and became Advent Group Ministries, an entirely separate non-profit agency. In 1990, Advent launched a major fundraising campaign, purchasing the five Arbutus homes from CityTeam.
In 1987, the Residential Recovery Program Director, Ann MacLaren, who began her career at Arbutus in 1977, began shifting Advent's focus to the exclusive treatment of drug and alcohol addicted youth. Ann is now Advent's current Director of Program Development. Stacy Hall is our current Residential Recovery Program Director.
In 1986, our Counseling Center was opened with the help of the Southern Baptist Association, who collaborated with Advent to provide administrative and financial support for the new program. At that time, our goal was to provide counseling for 25 clients. Today, our clinical staff sees 100-150 people per week, providing low-cost counseling services to our recovery program clients, foster families and other individuals and families in the community. Advent's Clinical Director, Karen Shomura, oversees both the Counseling Center and our Step Up! Outpatient Program. Karen started her career at Arbutus in 1976.
In 2006, the Counseling Center formally opened the Step Up! Outpatient Program, providing intensive outpatient drug and alcohol treatment for adolescents in our community. We currently operate two sites, one in San Jose, and one in Morgan Hill.
From the 1930's until today, we have seen God's hand guide this agency - growing us to the point where we currently provide a residential drug and alcohol program for adolescents, a community-based outpatient drug and alcohol program for adolescents, a foster home program for abused and neglected youth and children, and a low-cost counseling center.
Around 1987, Advent was able to purchase the last of our current six group recovery homes. Currently all six of our homes serve drug and alcohol-addicted teens from 12-18 years of age. These youth are referred to our program by Social Services and the Juvenile Courts.
Contact person: Stephanie Simunic, Volunteer Coordinator, (phone), (email)
Main office number:
(408) 281-0708Office fax number: (408) 281-2658
Address:
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90 Great Oaks Blvd.
Ste. 108San Jose, CA 95119(See a map) |
Web Site: http://www.adventgm.org
Directions:
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We are located in South San Jose, near Bernal Road and Great Oaks Blvd.
Nearest Bus Stop: Santa Teresa VTA, 10 minute walk |
| Last updated on July 30, 2009 |
