Within the limits of their Parish of Saint Pius X , the Augustinian Recollects administer the Saint Jude Thaddæus Shrine and a community center of the same name. In the community center they offer social services which continue to expand as necessities increase, attempting to reach out to the most disadvantaged people of the area.
Located in the Polvorín section of Caracas, the center is popularly known as “La Escuelita” (The Little School), because of the scholastic help that children have been receiving there since its foundation in 2006. New rooms are being added and accommodated for the expansion of activities for both children and adults.
The Center offers solutions for improving the living situation of the people, providing them with an alternative space for their Christian human developent. Children and teenagers of the Polvorín region can participate here in devolpmental activities of education, recreation, art, and formation of values. They are offered an integrated personal development program.
The Center also provides a space for teaching parents and other adults of the region and training them in various skills.
At present the Saint Jude Thaddæus Comunity Center is teaching 30 children between the ages of 4 and 12. They attend the center Monday through Friday to attend classes in School Help, Psychopedagogical Attention, Education in Values, and Music Workshops. To adults the center is offereing workshops in baking bread and pastries.
Once the construction of the second floor of the Saint Jude Thaddæus Community Center is completed, courses will be added for training young women of the area in the practical and artistic uses of styrofoam, in hairstyling, and in nails treatment. Very soon the outdoor area of the center will be used for a basketball school for children of ages 6 to 12.
Soup Kitchen and Dispensary
Monday through Friday, some thirty people, mostly men, come to the soup kitchen located in the outdoor area of the center, where a group of ten volunteer women, assigned by turns throughout the week, serve them breakfast.
Those who come to eat breakfast are also evangelized by the ladies with a reading of the Gospel of the day, praying the rosary, and singing of religious hymns.
One of the positive results of this is that sometimes those who come to be offered breakfast volunteer to help in leading the prayer.
On the third Friday of every month, five volunteers who belong to various parish groups take charge of distributing food to the homes of the poor.
Food for the kitchen is donated by individuals and is served to about a hundred people, including those who help to serve it.
For the past fourteen years Señora Adela has been in charge of the clothing distribution center and at present is alone there, distribuiting clothing twice a month. The clothing obtained there makes its own symbolic contribution, as it helps to maintain Breakfast for the Poor and other programs of assistance to the needy.
Located under the residence of the Augustinian Recollect community is the Medical-Dental Consultory, where specialists attend to the people in the fields of Pediatrics, Dermatology, Dentistry, General Medicine, Gynecology, and Laboratory Testing.