Bill Wilson Center

Bill Wilson Center is committed to working with the community to ensure that every youth has access to the range of services needed to grow to be healthy and self-sufficient adults. Bill Wilson Center has been providing services to runaway and homeless youth since 1973.

There are eight guiding principles that drive Bill Wilson Center in developing and implementing programs and services:

No Fail
Everyone can be successful. We keep trying.

Least Restrictive Environment
We help people solve problems at the family and the community level; public institutions are the last resort.

Diversity
We provide services that meet the cultural and linguistic needs of our whole community. We value our unique ethnic diversity as well as the LGBTQ community and non-able body community. Our clients, staff, and volunteers reflect our community.

Strength-Based
We look for the positive in each person and build on those assets.

Youth Development and Leadership
We support youth. We help build leadership skills by involving youth in programs and planning for their future, many services are youth-led.

Advocacy & Social Justice
We expand equity and justice for youth and families while eliminating systematic bias, bigotry and racism.

Collaboration
We work with others to provide a continuum of services; we focus on all the needs of the individual, including health, housing and well-being.

Families Matter
We help keep families together and build reconnections to families. We recognize that “families" come in all shapes and sizes.

Centre for Living with Dying (CLW) – Provide counseling, therapy, crisis intervention and education to children, adolescents and adults dealing with grief and loss.
Outpatient – Provide family and individual counseling on topics of family conflict, substance abuse, depression, anxiety, stress, out-of-control behavior and school-related issues.
School Outreach – Provide middle and high school youth in Santa Clara County Unified School District with counseling on school performance, family conflict, drug prevention, gang involvement, truancy, etc.
Family Advocacy Services – Provide homeless prevention and school based family advocacy service to youth, family and school staff at Lincoln High School and Mt. Pleasant High School.
Foster Family Agency (FFA) (ages 0 to 18) – Provide stable, caring, temporary homes for children who have been removed from their families. Foster homes are intended to provide short or long term care while the child prepares for permanency, whether returning to birth family members or adoption by the foster family.
Transitional Housing Placement Program (THPP) (ages 16 to 18) – Provide housing and life skills training to foster care youth. The goal is to help youth find and maintain permanent housing and to live independently with confidence.
Transitional Housing Program Plus Foster Care (THP+FC) (ages 18 to 21) – Provide support services to non-minor dependent single and parenting foster care youth to prepare them to live independently.
Peacock Commons – Provide supportive housing program consisting of 28 unit and six live-in mentors providing services to including case management, employment counseling, etc., to chronically or at-risk of homeless young adult.
TAY – Provide a 90 day temporary housing program and Peer Partners provide supportive services including linkage to community resource, mental health services, substance abuse treatment, transitional planning, etc.
Transitional Housing Program (THP) – Provide a 24 month program and staff provides comprehensive services to single and parenting young adults. Young adults live in shared and minimally supervised houses.
Transitional Housing Program Plus (THP+) – Provide a 24 month program in which young adults participate in one of three model including scattered sites (own apartments, shared housing, etc.), host homes (reside with their former foster family or other life-long connection) or residence halls at San Jose State University. Supportive services include goal setting, counseling and life skill training.
Peacock Commons – Provide supportive housing program consisting of 28 unit and six live-in mentors providing services to including case management, employment counseling, etc., to chronically or at-risk of homeless young adult.
LGBTQ+ Connections - The BWC Connections Drop-In Center is a safe and supportive environment for LGBTQ+ youth and allies to form peer groups and share experiences.

In Fiscal Year 2022, staff across the agency provided services to more than 5,000 individuals participating in counseling, education, foster care, housing, mental health, basic needs, probation and shelter programs, and reached more than 30,000 individuals through BWC's outreach programs and crisis hotlines.

Largest group of individuals served were 12-25 years of age.

Female individuals were more likely to access counseling, housing, and mental health services (Centre for Living with Dying; Outpatient; School Outreach; Transitional Housing; Transitional Housing Plus Foster Care, etc.).

Male individuals were more likely to access short-term services, shelter, and probation services (Respite; Drop-In Center; TAY INN; Status Offender Services, Support Enhancement Services, Competency Development Services, etc.).

Mental Health – 722 youth and young adults received mental health received services.

Family Advocacy Services – 100% of the students, whose families were helped, were able to stay in school.

Transitional Housing – Successfully discharged 83% young adults to safe and stable housing.

Safety Net Shelter – 86% success rate of reuniting youth their parents, kin or other stable placement.

This past year Santa Clara County awarded Bill Wilson Center a grant to take over operation of the homeless shelter call center that began as a response to Covid. We expanded the call center services to include case management and financial support to prevent homelessness. Now called Here4You, we answer an average of 300-plus calls each day trying to match people with available beds in our community.

We also teamed up with the City of San Jose, the County’s Housing Authority, and Jamboree Housing Corporation to develop a Homekey project, the Pavilion Inn, to serve unhoused young adults and young-parent families. The project will provide 18 units of housing for youth aging out of foster care, 21 units for homeless youth and young parent families, and three mentor units.

Spearheading a community wide collaborative effort to develop the Trusted Response Urgent Support Team (TRUST) was a win for our County. TRUST is a team of behavioral health staff and community members who respond to situations and assist people struggling with behavioral health challenges. A TRUST incident treats every situation on a case-by-case basis, providing responsive care and only involving law enforcement when needed.