Supporting People at their most vulnerable.

Have you felt drawn to spiritual care in community contexts? Are you interested in working with people of many different spiritual beliefs and traditions? Is Chaplaincy a path you are interested in exploring? Join us for a semester long deep dive into the art of Spiritual Care at SF’s only public hospital and Trauma Center

Our Spring 2020 Chaplain Training program will run from Saturday February 8th to Friday May 15th.  Applications for the spring session are due Monday December 16th.  We will meet for a weekend intensive on February 8th from 10am-4pm and February 9th from 12pm-4pm.  Class will be held from 5-8pm on Tuesday nights.  Cost of the program is $600 with scholarships available based on financial need. If interested, please complete the application process and once accepted, then ask about a scholarship.   Many of our students receive scholarships.

You can download our application below.  Please submit completed applications to David Stickley at david.stickley@sfdph.org

In September of 2019, Sojourn is offering an advanced Chaplaincy intensive. This training is designed for people with previous chaplaincy experience who are interested in service with Sojourn at the General.  This is a wonderful opportunity for chaplains who have recently graduated a CPE residency and are looking for clinical experience in a fast paced trauma hospital and service with some of the most marginalized members of San Francisco. Clinical hours in this program qualify for requirements for board certification.

This program begins with a weekend intensive on September 28th from 10am-4pm and September 29th from 12pm-4pm and then will meet 5-8pm on Wednesday evenings in October.  The fee for this program is $400.  A minimum of 2 units of CPE and/or significant chaplaincy experience is required for application. Scholarships are available for those with financial need. Click on the link at the bottom of the linked page to complete the application for the program. Application deadline is August 27th.

Since 1982 Sojourn has practiced the mission described in its name: “to stay with for a time.” We offer compassion and understanding to patients and their loved ones as well as to the staff at SFGH. Our vision: Comprehensive spiritual and emotional support for everyone who needs it.

Sojourn Chaplains offer support through a skilled response to suffering. Chaplains work alongside patients, families and staff to support them in reconnecting with their inner resources that will carrying them through the challenges they face.

Sojourn provides a critical element of San Francisco General Hospital’s holistic care. SFGH staff members are skilled in providing resources for physical, mental and emotional health. Sojourn completes the circle, by attending to the spiritual needs of patients, families and staff.

Dr. Jeanne St. Pierre, former Unit Chief of the LGBT Psychiatric Unit at SFGH writes: “Often in a day I realize the inadequacies of modern medical treatments for trauma, schizophrenia, substance dependence, and other causes of emotional suffering. At those times I am particularly grateful for the Services of Sojourn chaplains. Chaplains offer kindness and understanding to those who will likely never be cured, yet do not need to be alone with their pain.”

 

 

 

 

We are so grateful for all our supporters and partners who helped to make this Valentine’s Day, “Love Sojourn Day”.  By 3pm, we had exceed our goal of $500 and our generous donor decided to increase their match!  In total, we raised $803 and so with the matching gift Sojourn received $2,409!!

We bow our heads in gratitude to each of you for your support and your love.

We hope you will celebrate with us this Thursday February 21st for an Evensong at Grace Cathedral at 5:15pm.  Refreshments will be served and chaplains will be honored afterwards in the
Wilsey Room just below the Cathedral.

All are welcome–please bring family and friends!
We hope you can join us.

With Love,

Rev. Claire Bohman
Sojourn Director

Happy Valentine’s Day! As we celebrate this day with all the chocolate, flowers and balloons, we want to send a giant Valentine to all our extended family. We are so grateful for your support, in all the ways you give it: the volunteer hours, the donations, the encouragement.

Today we are asking that you help us make this Valentine’s Day into Love Sojourn Day. Love the reading glasses we bring patients so that they can relax with scripture or a novel, love the prayers we pray with people worried about their diagnoses, love the daily meditations in the prayer and meditation room, love the heart we offer staff members who need a little support. Sojourn does so much at the General, for the people in our city who need it the most. Help us continue to wrap this hospital up in love.

Join ZSFG and Sojourn Chaplaincy in Celebrating Spiritual Care Week this October 21-27.  The theme this year for National Spiritual Care week is “hospitality”.  Radical hospitality is foundational to the services that we offer here at the General.  As a safety net hospital, ZSFG serves some of the most marginalized people in the healthcare system.  At Sojourn we are committed to providing hospitality and compassionate care to all patients here at ZSFG.

Here at the hospital, we will be celebrating Spiritual Care week by offering resources for staff at the bridge between buildings 5 and 25 at lunch from the 22st-26th. Please stop by our resource table, learn more about Spiritual Care and help us in celebrating Spiritual Care Week 2018!

Do you love the Chaplains?  Please consider a donation to support our work.  This year Sojourn is a part of the city wide combined charities campaign.  Click here to donate to Sojourn through the Combined Charities campaign if you are a SF City Employee or you can donate here today!

We are excited to announce that Father Francis Htun has been assigned by the SF Archdiocese to work at the General full time!  Fr Francis, an ordained Roman Catholic Priest, comes to us after a year long CPE residency at UCSF and pastoral care experience in his home country of Myanmar.  We are honored to have Francis joining the Sojourn Team full time!

On #givingtuesday your gift will be doubled.

For 35 years, Sojourn Chaplaincy has been providing multi-faith spiritual and emotional support to the most marginalized at San Francisco’s only safety net hospital and level 1 trauma center.  This year the Zuckerberg Hospital and Trauma Center has offered us a challenge grant of $10,000 for our fall fundraising efforts.  Can you help us meet this goal? Join in the generosity of a global giving movement on #givingtuesday through your gift to Sojourn today! Every dollar you give to Sojourn Chaplaincy will be doubled.

In 2013, California led the nation in banning Transgender exclusion in health care plans. This made it illegal for Health Insurance Companies to deny transgender people access to lifesaving healthcare. After years of organizing and struggle for access to healthcare, California insurance companies can no longer discriminate against trans people. This has opened the doors to access to health care that many Transgender Californians have never had before.

The Trans Spiritual Care Initiative was born when Sojourn Chaplains were approached by Trans members of their spiritual communities about challenging experiences with Chaplains. These experiences ranged from problematic at best to disturbing.  Sojourn Chaplaincy’s chaplain training program was born during the epidemic as a ministry for people dying from AIDS.  During these painful times, we learned how important justice rooted training is for Chaplains and Spiritual Care providers.

Here at Sojourn at the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, we serve many trans and gender variant patients–some of whom are the most marginalized in the trans community. Training around gender diversity has become an important part of our Chaplain training.  We are developing this curriculum to improve our care for trans and gender variant patients at ZSFG.  We are also developing this training with the hope that it become a resource for Chaplains, Spiritual Care Departments, clergy and healthcare providers across the country  who would like to improve their services and provide more culturally appropriate care for gender variant patients.

In a time when the trans community is facing so many challenges and an increasingly hostile political climate, we believe it is critical for the faith community to stand up and take leadership to support LGBT rights.  We are hopeful that the Trans Spiritual Care Initiative will create critical new resources to help Chaplains and other spiritual care practitioners provide better care and develop deeper relationships with the trans community.  As spiritual people, we know that relationships are powerful.  As Chaplains, we know that bearing witness to the suffering of others can create openings for solidarity rooted in personal connection.  We launch this initiative with a prayer for healing and justice for the trans community.  May we be open to the divine gifts that are possible when we open to witnessing the pain and struggle of all members of our human family and work toward a more just world.

 

Join ZSFG and Sojourn Chaplaincy for our next Grand Rounds on Challenging Islamaphobia.  Come hear about how Islamaphobia is affecting our community and what you can do to take action and make a difference.  We will be joined by esteemed panelists,

• Suzanne Barakat MD. Resident, Family and Community Medicine SFGH/UCSF
• Ameena Jandali, Founding Member, Islamic Network Group
• Hatem Bazian, Senior Lecturer of Near Eastern and Ethnic Studies, UC Berkeley
• Zahra Billoo, Council on American Islamic Relations

In Carr Auditorium on the SFGH Campus on Tuesday February 28th from 12-1pm.