[00:00:01] Speaker A: The Michael Hatfield remax team presents real estate and more.
[00:00:06] Speaker B: Bay Area real estate is different than all of America. And why? What's up with buyers? What's on sellers'minds? How is the market and much, much more.
[00:00:17] Speaker A: Now here's your host, Michael Hatfield. Welcome to the Real Estate and more show, and thank you for listening. We have a very special person today to share with us her career in technology, which became refocused to a life of humanitarian efforts. She then lets us in on the wonderful organization Shepherd's Gate. Ms Carol Patterson guides this organization as chief executive officer and speaks candidly on how she has dedicated her life to helping others. Welcome to the show.
[00:00:51] Speaker C: Carol Patterson thank you so much for having me.
[00:00:55] Speaker A: It's so interesting. You know, you've spent more than 25 years working with nonprofit organizations, helping those who struggle with homelessness, addiction, domestic violence, mental health, child protective services and poverty as well in the Bay Area. What directed you into this lifelong know.
[00:01:18] Speaker C: God really is the one who pressed it upon my heart to care for others. And there's so many needs in the Bay Area.
And it was a little after school program in East Palo Alto that I was volunteering, helping kids do their math homework on Wednesdays. And I realized that at night when the kids would leave, they were going underneath the bridge on 101 on University Avenue. And I'm like, why are you going underneath the bridge? And they would say, well, my mom doesn't want us to come home.
She's got some people over and we're not allowed to come home at night. And then I started seeing kids asking for food at night and walking off in the distance. And I'm like, I just called my husband and I said, there's got to be more that we do for those that are struggling.
And so that's when I joined the organization city team and sat in on as vice president and started helping all of their ministries across the nation and internationally.
[00:02:30] Speaker A: City team is a lot larger than most people think they are.
[00:02:33] Speaker C: Absolutely.
[00:02:34] Speaker A: They talk only like they're only five know, San Jose, San Francisco, Oakland, Portland, as well as Chester, Pa. But they're all over. They're part of an organization that is global.
[00:02:50] Speaker C: They are. The international component has broken off into its own organization now. But when you meet people on the street here in the Bay Area, they think it's their city team in San Francisco or Oakland. They don't realize that there's more city teams across the.
It is.
There's quite a bit of history with the penile missions and how it all formulated many years ago, but it is growing today even more to help people with food insecurity and homelessness and addiction.
[00:03:29] Speaker A: It's a really worthy, worthy cause. We've had Angela Aguilar on the show before and she's an amazing lady. And, you know, tell me about city team ministries. And she says, well, their story is the same as my story. And so before we get off into too many directions, I'd like to know how a person that was so involved in technology and doing so well with that refocused, was it entirely by those times that you volunteered and found children that needed things and so forth?
[00:04:03] Speaker C: It was.
I had been in high tech from the early days of Symantech in Cupertino, and when it was 47 people, and I worked in the database industry most of my life and worked on selling a company off to Oracle and helped take two companies public on Wall street. So I felt like I had done everything I had ever dreamed of and traveled. And it really was my joy to volunteer, whether it be at city team in East Palo Alto or handing out food bags in San Jose.
So I can't really explain it well enough to share with you that it's what God pressed on my heart to care for the poor.
[00:05:00] Speaker A: So it was virtually a calling that you felt correct.
[00:05:05] Speaker C: And that is when I made that phone call to my husband and I said, could we take an 80% pay cut because he was in high tech too. And he's saying, no, a good christian man. And he's like, carol, I want to support you in this. And so I went off to city team and he had his own calling to go to seminary. And he is a reserved deputy sheriff and ministering to his fellow officer in the cart with him.
[00:05:40] Speaker A: Isn't that a lovely story?
[00:05:43] Speaker C: We don't have kids of our own, but God's put so many children in our lives to care for through the ministries that we've been a part of. But anybody can do this. Anybody can be a volunteer and see what God does with your life.
[00:06:02] Speaker A: People say, well, there's so much homeless, there's so many people in need. What can I do that would be worthwhile? It's more like putting a bucket of water in the ocean. And then I come back because what occurs to me is a thought is you can do what you can do, and your reward is by feeling that you've done something for a fellow man.
[00:06:26] Speaker C: Just walking past a homeless person on the streets and just smiling at them.
Maybe right then and there is not the moment you're going to do anything significant in their lives. But you can smile, say hi, make them feel human, because often they don't feel human. They feel shame and dirty, and they don't want to be homeless. But as you walk by, pray for them, lift them up to the Lord, that they would feel the hope that.
[00:07:01] Speaker A: God can change their good, very good suggestion there. When you first began work with city team, you observed a lot of faithful women serving God, men serving God, by serving the children each day. And I understand that's a really important part of what shepherds gate does. They take care of the children as well as the women that have come from terrible circumstances.
[00:07:32] Speaker C: When I joined Shepherd's gate, when God called me to that ministry seven years ago, often people will put Shepherd's gate in one single box. Domestic violence. We help domestic violence.
It's so much bigger than that. It's dealing with addiction, homelessness. When a child has lived in a car, they've suffered trauma. When a child has seen a parent, either a mother or father, overdose from fentanyl, they have been traumatized. And often they land in child protective services in those situations.
So it's really working in all those aspects to help women to have a full program that's free, because not a lot of programs like Shepherd's Gate are free for the woman. And so we're totally free. We're totally financially supported by individuals in this community.
We don't take government funding. And we can help in so many different ways, from helping women to overcome fentanyl and heroin addiction to alcoholism, to getting her children back. Last year, we brought back 26 children reunified with their moms.
Our staff is amazing in the sense that they have that same calling that I have on their lives. And they walk alongside these women and help them go to court, raise their head up, feel proud that they have overcome their addiction, so they can tell a judge that they are living a clean life and to get their kids back, that that's a priority in their lives.
So there's so many different aspects of it, and it's such a wonderful ministry. And we're celebrating our 40th anniversary this year from the day Alice Anne started it in 1984.
But over all those years, we've helped about 14,800 women and children.
[00:09:49] Speaker A: That's amazing. It's amazing. And it's so blessed for the people that have entered the program and have come out of the program. And I know with city team, the counselors, are graduates of the program. Is that somewhat the way it works at Shepherd's Gate?
[00:10:08] Speaker C: It's not all? No, there's some professionals that have social work degrees or therapy degrees.
So it's a good mixture between graduates and professionals with the proper education to be able to add quite a bit to the team in their knowledge that they've gained over the years.
[00:10:34] Speaker A: City team is an amazing, I would almost say an alter ego organization, maybe to Shepherd's Gate, meaning that you both endeavor in the same realm of helping people on a God based way. And that's what I mean by alter ego. I saw you once over there, but I mean both are involved and dedicated to.
[00:10:59] Speaker C: We're deep into it.
[00:11:00] Speaker A: Deep into it. Absolutely.
[00:11:01] Speaker C: You've got to realize that there are so many people struggling in all of these different things in our community, in the state of California to across the nation.
[00:11:14] Speaker A: We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back.
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[00:12:20] Speaker A: Now welcome back to our show.
[00:12:23] Speaker C: We need more city teams and shepherd's gates. There's not enough christian based programs to serve everyone.
And plus, both organizations are highly dedicated to the success of people finding long term solutions, not just quick fixes.
It's not just a meal and a cot for your shelter. They care about your soul, they care about you. Transforming your lives, caring about your walk with the Lord.
I would say 50% of the women that come to Shepherd's gate don't know their heavenly father. They have no religious upbringing from their families. So we're starting from ground zero, very similar to city team. But most of these people have tried every other way to overcome their struggle without God and it didn't work. Or it didn't work for very long. And they're willing to try a faith based program.
They're surrendering.
[00:13:40] Speaker A: Well, ladies and gentlemen, you're listening to our esteemed guest, miss Carol Patterson, CEO of Shepherd's gate on the real estate and more show. I'm your host, Michael Hatfield. Note that you can discover more information about Shepherd's gate as well as donate to this worthy cause by going to shepherdsgate.org. That's shepherdsgate.org. Carol. Please share with us that passion for bringing education and awareness in the Bay Area before people have to rely on your program. You've been involved proactively with getting out there, letting people know that, hey, drugs are a never ending road for you. And if you're involved with the Lord, then it's possible that you can divert around that bad road.
[00:14:36] Speaker C: Absolutely.
Sometimes when we're in our safe homes and we're away from the streets, we don't realize that here in the Bay Area, there is so much addiction going.
Know, it's not uncommon for our police officers to be facing drug trafficking through the state of California. Right here in Pleasanton, a highway patrol officer a year and a half ago pulled over a red Camry because they had had a warning that a red Camry was coming through our community with drugs.
He stopped that red Camry and he opened up that back trunk. There was 192,000 pills of fentanyl and heroin in that trunk. That means that that officer saved that many lives because it only takes one fentanyl pill to kill someone. Today, over 310 people will die in the United States today from a drug overdose, from an opiate, whether it be fentanyl, heroin.
This is the realism that's happening in the United States, that the drugs are coming into our community so rapidly.
And then I'm so passionate about helping people clean out your medicine cabinet. You don't know if your granddaughter's coming over today to visit. You don't know what hard day she's had. And she just might take one of your painkillers in that cabinet if you're not using them. If they're expired, you can take them to your local police office station or to Walgreens and discard them. Don't put the temptation in them so you don't know. This could happen to anyone. It could happen to your neighbor. It could happen to your coworker. It could happen to your niece. Sometimes when you say stay away from fentanyl, sometimes you don't even know that your pill has been tainted with fentanyl. It's been added because it's a cheaper synthetic drug to add to prescriptions so when people are purchasing normal prescriptions online, which is a very common thing today, don't be tantalized by the cheaper prices from out of the country. If it doesn't have an FDA symbol or Walgreens or Walmart purchasing drugs out of the country, it's cheaper looking, but has a very high risk of being tainted with other drugs.
[00:17:27] Speaker A: That is really good to know.
[00:17:28] Speaker C: So all the listeners, this is something that the FDA is trying to make an awareness program to help you understand what's being available online these days.
[00:17:43] Speaker A: Good to know. That's very good information. I never thought about it. I don't believe I've ever bought drugs online from out of the country.
[00:17:52] Speaker C: Sometimes you don't even know where they're coming from.
[00:17:56] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:17:57] Speaker C: You really have to do your research when you're purchasing online. And so many seniors are going out of the country for medical care because of the high prices here in the United States.
[00:18:09] Speaker A: Well, back to Shepherd's gate. What a wonderful, wonderful organization that you're operating there. And it's amazing to me that there's no government funding that you will accept. It comes from private donations. So go to shepherdsgate.org and donate and help out this organization that is so positive for so many people that are having difficulty and need the help of the man above, as well as people such as Shepherd's Gate and to get out of that quandary. So 85% of your donations must come from individuals in community in order to support it.
[00:18:49] Speaker C: Absolutely.
[00:18:50] Speaker A: And how many locations does the organization?
[00:18:52] Speaker C: We have two. We have one in Livermore for 70 women and children, and then one in Brentwood, which is for 18. And I'm expanding that to 33.
[00:19:04] Speaker A: I just got that approved in January.
[00:19:06] Speaker C: I think I did. It was two and a half years of working with the city of Brentwood to approve the building. The additional building, the home was. It's a very large home for 18, and it was given to us for free by signature homes who developed this subdivision.
But often people think that a shepherd's gate is going to bring drugs or bring homelessness into their community.
[00:19:34] Speaker A: It's not so.
[00:19:35] Speaker C: Not so at all. Our campuses are so beautiful.
Oftentimes you think of a shelter as you think of it as a rundown building, 100 years old, and shepherds Gate is not that way. It is a beautiful sanctuary.
Your listeners can go online and see our photos of our campus.
But that was the vision of Alice Ann. That was the vision of Steve McCree and Carla, the people that came before me that built such a beautiful campus.
I applaud them for making that a priority, because children and women, the first thing you're working on is helping them feel safe and being able to calm down in order to focus on what they need to work on.
[00:20:32] Speaker A: So the purpose is the purpose and not waylaid by something that is off the track, so to speak. It would seem like with all of this facility that you have, including your counselors and the people that actually help, it seem that the intake would be so much greater in demand than what you can actually serve.
Maybe speak a little to that, and then are there future plans for expansion that some of our wealthy people out there could help us with?
[00:21:02] Speaker C: So during the pandemic, we definitely had an increase in those needing our services. So what do I do when I've got 70 beds that are already full, and I've got over, just in this last year, July to December, 600 intake inquiries.
So God would give me the wisdom to start a new program called offsite case management. And so every woman, the day she calls or the day she fills out an application, we're on her case. What can we do while we're waiting for a bed?
Some women have housing, but they are struggling in addiction or a domestic violence situation. Let's give her the help that she needs today, the resources she needs today. Very good idea. So we have our third offsite case manager joining the team, and then we're training three volunteers to be that first line intake person. And sometimes these people are just there to pray with them that God's going to take care of them, and we're going to get them the help they need as possible.
Example of what it is, because it's a very complex situation. So here's a woman in San Francisco. She's received section eight housing in a protective way to escape domestic violence. She calls and says, my abuser now knows where I am, and he's coming to regularly visit me and beat me. I need to change my section eight housing, but I don't know how to do that. Our staff, our offsite case managers, filled out the paperwork with her, changed her section eight housing to be transferred out here to Alameda county, and she was able to, with the help of our staff, to find housing in Pleasanton, away from the abuser, in a secret way, in a protective way, safe. And her and her two children are okay now. And I'm so glad that I have an amazing staff that is willing to go above and beyond.
They're often at Cherry Hill, the detox center, bringing women out of the detox center and helping them overcome their addiction. They're going into the heart of Oakland or San Francisco, into the homeless encampments and rescuing women.
They're a brave team and I am so honored to lead them.
[00:23:46] Speaker A: Go to shepherdsgate.org and find that donate button to help them out. It's a very worthwhile organization. So, Carol, what are the prime takeaways that you would like the listening audience to know?
[00:24:00] Speaker C: Homelessness and addiction and domestic violence can happen to anyone.
Be ready to know that there is a shepherd's gate that you can give as a resource and just send them to our website or help them to give a call. It takes a lot of courage to make that first call, and so don't walk away from the problem. Face it, there is a place called Shepherd's Gate where women can heal and children can heal and find hope that there is a life for them in the future and that it's not over.
[00:24:38] Speaker A: Shepherd's gate helped over 14,800 women and children over the last 40 years. It has about an 84% success rate, and normal recovery programs have about a 35% success rate. And why does Shepherdgate have so much higher of a success rate than just other recovery programs?
[00:25:04] Speaker C: So again, it's not a 90 day fix for addiction or domestic violence or homelessness. This is a long term recovery program and it's faith based. And we're working with the whole woman and the whole child. It's not over the day they graduate and walk off campus. We have cottages that they stay in to practice life, and they meet for AA and alumni meetings on campus, and the children come back. So it's that long term support. But we base our success on four criteria. Are they clean and sober?
Do they have stable housing?
And are they going to college or have a job?
Because we have a great learning career center to help them with that. And we have donors that are willing to pay for college. And then the fourth one is, do they have a church, family?
[00:26:07] Speaker A: All very important.
Shepherd's Gate piercing the darkness this show has been riveting for me, Mrs. Patterson. Shepherd's Gate, a christian nonprofit organization, thrives in helping women who struggle with homelessness, addiction, domestic violence, mental health, child protective services, and poverty. Carol Patterson, CEO of Shepherd's Gate, has been informative, sharing information about helping others we may not have even considered. Thank you for being on the show today, Carol.
[00:26:41] Speaker C: I am grateful, Michael, and grateful to your listeners for even giving the show a chance and listening and grateful if you donate.
[00:26:51] Speaker A: I hope that our listeners will find shepherdsgate.org and press that donate button to help out a bit.
[00:26:59] Speaker C: Or if they want to come for a tour and see it live or come volunteer, email me
[email protected]. And I'd love to show it to you.
[00:27:11] Speaker A: There you go. Well, I hope you've enjoyed our show today and have taken away valuable and helpful information on help to help others in need. It's time for a short break. You've been listening to real estate and more interesting topics of the day regarding real estate as well as interesting people like Ms. Patterson. You can hear on demand, archived real estate and more
[email protected]. Slash radio and the real estate and more show is now podcast on demand, on Spotify, Amazon, Apple, iHeart, Pandora and most major podcast platforms as well. I'm your host, Michael Hatfield. We'll be right back with our next special guest. Stay tuned. It.
