Pilgrim Park has a history of putting children first and has been serving the children of our community for over 40 years. We continue to provide innovative programs for our resident families and their children who often times have little or no resources. We provide a safe environment in our community center for over 45 children and young adults, which helps build on self-esteem, academic performance, good citizenship and a wide range of programmatic services such as:

• Tutoring
• Computer Center
• Holiday Events
• Field Trips
• Family referrals
• Summer Youth Program
• Community Picnics

Pilgrim Park provides enhanced on-site resident services such as computer classes that are customized to the needs of the residents via surveys, needs assessments, resident meetings and partnerships with local community based nonprofit organizations.

Our computer center provides a safe and welcoming place for the residents to access the internet, apply for services online and check email, find consumer health information, employment searches and resume building. They also access online coursework for college students and for personal and recreational use.

The John Starkweather Computer Learning Center was made possible, in part by a generous (anonymous) donation from a member of the First Congregational Church of San Rafael, grants from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the operational funding from Pilgrim Park Apartments, Inc.

The Pilgrim Park computer center was named after Dr. John Amsden Starkweather (August 30, 1925 – March 10, 2001) who was a Professor of Medical Psychology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Dr, Starkweather was a clinical psychologist and a valued teacher by generations of clinical psychology interns and graduate students at UCSF. He was a pioneer in taking a psychologist’s view of the emerging computer field and incorporating concepts as well as numbers to language processing.

Dr. Starkweather was also a civic leader in the Marin County community where he lived since 1956. He was the first president of the Board of Directors of Pilgrim Park Apartments; He also served 12 years on his local school board and 20 years on the city of San Rafael planning commission.

The John Starkweather Learning Center was named in his honor in and is located in the De Haan Community Center at Pilgrim Park Apartments in San Rafael to carry on his vision and commitment to education and children.

The people of Marin County face a multitude of hazards during a natural disaster such as an earthquake. Pilgrim Park is aware that in the event of a major disaster, we might need to rely on our own resources for a minimum of 5 to 7 days. No matter how well prepared we may be as individuals, we are aware that neighbors must depend on neighbors for mutual assistance and protection. Neighborhoods with programs such as our Neighborhood Watch Program will help in:

• Organizing Disaster response teams to help each other after a major disaster
• Identify neighbors that need assistance and or who are elderly or disabled
• Disseminating information on personal preparedness
• Having basic supplies to help sustain neighbors who do not have access to their housing
• Having a community meeting place
• Keeping a well stocked Emergency Pantry in our community will help ensure that we can independently sustain ourselves as a community for the minimum time required before emergency response services such as police, fire and ambulance are able to respond

Pilgrim Park has built an emergency pantry for our community and will need help in stocking our disaster supplies which will be in one place so that it is easily assessible. Our goal is to maintain at least five (5) days of food, water and supplies that will enable us to sustain our families and children and mitigate hazards for 61 families or approximately 130 people.
Donations and Supplies will go towards stocking the pantry with:

• First Aid Supplies
• Blankets
• Tents
• Batteries
• Dust Masks
• Sleeping Bags
• Camping equipment
• Soap and detergent
• Hygiene supplies
• Paper and plastics, manual can openers
• Bleach
• Pet food
• Portable toilets, paper , disinfectant , garbage bags, diapers, gloves
• Tools, brooms, portable radios, axes, wrenches, flashlights, fire extinguishers, rope, flares
• Canned Goods, Water, Dried fruits, baby food, matches
• Alternate cooking source and fuel
• Reading materials, games, whistles, coins for phone calls
• Weather resistant ponchos
• Miscellaneous items

• Farmers Market vouchers for senior citizens
• Food supplement program
• Health training and nutrition program given by student nurses from Dominican College (3 months during the year)
• Computer training classes with ESL
• Summer Youth Program (6-8 weeks)