Responding to the Rising Needs in Our Community

Share Our Selves, founded in 1970 by a group of concerned individuals, primarily members of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Costa Mesa, Share Our Selves (SOS) has grown to become a model nonprofit organization providing the highest quality comprehensive safety net services to the homeless and low-income populations in Orange County.

Share Our Selves was established to provide for the most serious concerns of the poor residing in Orange County – food, clothing and emergency financial aid for housing, transportation, prescriptions and children’s needs. In 1984, the mission of SOS expanded to include free medical care and 1987 expanded further to include free dental care. The Comprehensive CARE Center opened in 2005 to provide mental health and counseling services. In September of 2010, SOS partnered with El Sol Academy, a charter school in Santa Ana, to open the SOS-El Sol Wellness Center. The Wellness Center is a school-based clinic that provides social services, screening and urgent care to the students and their families.

•200 Social Services volunteers
•200 Medical/Dental volunteers
•Approximately 40 employees
•The largest emergency relief agency giving out direct aid in Orange County
•The only free comprehensive chronic care program in Orange County
•The only free comprehensive adult dental clinic in Orange County
 

We Serve:

•All of Orange County.
•Those living at or near the poverty level.
•The uninsured.
•The working poor.
•Families.
•The homeless.

SHARE OUR SELVES is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation.

Executive Director: Karen McGlinn
Chief Medical Officer: Dr. Margarita Pereyda
Medical Director: Dr. Patrick Chen
Dental Director: Dr. Jila Nikkhah
Annual Budget: Cash and in-kind donations allow SOS to manage a $10 million dollar budget
Federal Tax I.D. #: 95-3222316

Our community needs us now more than ever. As the economy continues to remain in flux and unemployment rates remain high, the demand for the most basic of needs – food, shelter, medical and dental care – are at an all time high. As mentioned in a September 14, 2011 article on the front page of the Los Angeles Times Business Section, nearly 1 in 5 California residents lack health insurance and roughly
"6 million Californians live below the federal poverty line of $22,113 for a family of four in 2010." As one of the largest providers of safety net services in Orange County, Share Our Selves aims to meet the challenge of providing assistance to the most vulnerable populations living in our community.

When demands increase, our staff, volunteers and donors respond with action. In the most recent year the SOS family came together to provide:

•  2,513 backpacks filled with school supplies for students from low income families
•  56,957 bags of food to clients in need of food assistance
•  1,545 families with 5,260 children with gifts and food for the holidays
•  14,065 Financial Aid Visits – to keep families in their homes & utilities turned on
•  10,961 patient visits in the SOS Medical Clinic
•  6,768 patient visits in the SOS Dental Clinic