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The Board of Directors of St. Johns County Continuum of Care is committed to our mission of leading the effort to prevent and end homelessness, bringing together resources and partnerships to make homelessness rare, brief, and one-time. Meet Victoria Pepper, Civic Action Group Liaison, CARE. Although Vicki Pepper has been coming to St. Augustine since the 1980s—especially after her late parents moved here in 2001 after their retirement—she did not actively engage in the life of the community until shortly before moving to St. Augustine in 2018, after she retired from a career in public service as an attorney with various agencies of the United States Government. In her semi-retirement, Vicki has embarked on a “second career” as a part-time professor, teaching undergraduates for the Law Program at Flagler College and more recently as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Cornell Law School. Since moving to St. Augustine, Vicki has become increasingly involved in our local community. For example, she volunteers for the GTM Research Reserve (Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve) in Ponte Vedra. For about three and a half years, she has also participated in St. Augustine’s ongoing cross-cultural Community Conversation, led by her late father’s pastor at Grace United Methodist Church. Her involvement in the Community Conversation has led directly to her burgeoning “third career” as a volunteer community advocate because over two years ago, she became a founding member of the local informal, independent civic action group CARE (Community Advocates for Racial Equity) that grew out of Community Conversation. Later, in 2021, Vicki was asked to join and actively engage in the St. Johns Community Remembrance Project, the local partner of the National Community Remembrance Project of the Equal Justice Initiative. More recently, Vicki was elected to the Friends of Lincolnville Board of Directors, which operates the Lincolnville Museum and Cultural Center. Homelessness and affordable housing—which are interrelated—are top priority issues for CARE. As a result, Vicki attended the Continuum of Care (CoC) General Membership meetings on behalf of CARE for quite some time to further CARE’s knowledge of the issues and to identify opportunities for CARE advocacy to support the work of the Continuum and its constituent members. Vicki believes that advocacy can play a crucial role in changing policy. Most recently, she was nominated to join, and in April, she was elected to the Board of Directors of the SJC Continuum of Care (CoC). She has been pleased to contribute her perspective and community advocacy skills to the CoC Board's important work. Learn more about St. Johns County Continuum of Care at www.stjohnscountycoc.org .

The Board of Directors of St. Johns County Continuum of Care is committed to our mission of leading the effort to prevent and end homelessness, bringing together resources and partnerships to make homelessness rare, brief, and one-time. Meet our Board of Directors Chair Nancy Eisele, Housing System Coordinator, LSF Health Systems. Nancy has over thirty-five years of experience in homelessness services and has seen many changes to address the disparity in housing and in access to mental health and substance disorder services. "Homeless" is not a description of a person but a description of a person's circumstances. Nancy’s experience with seven Continuums of Care in the Northeast Florida area enables her to see the diversity in a community's response to their homeless crisis response plan. The need for emergency shelter, permanent supportive housing, and initiatives such as SOAR (SSI/SSDI Outreach, Access, and Recovery) and supported employment are all determined by assessing the community's needs and the capacity to prioritize these needs. Learn more about St. Johns County Continuum of Care at www.stjohnscountycoc.org .

The Board of Directors of St. Johns County Continuum of Care is committed to our mission of leading the effort to prevent and end homelessness, bringing together resources and partnerships to make homelessness rare, brief, and one-time. Meet Rev. Will Wold, Pastor of First United Methodist Church of St. Augustine. I graduated as an undergrad at Florida Southern College, majoring in Religion. I then received my master’s in Divinity at Duke Divinity School. From there, I served as a hospital chaplain at Duke University Hospital and Tampa General Hospital. In 2015, I was appointed Associate Pastor at Mandarin United Methodist Church and served there for seven years. In 2022, I was appointed Senior Pastor at First United Methodist Church in St. Augustine. As the Pastor at First United Methodist Church, I am proud to say we serve the unhoused Monday through Friday. We pass out sack lunches and provide clothing and toiletries to anyone in need. We also partner with Grace United Methodist Church to serve as a cold night shelter for those experiencing homelessness when the temperature is below 40 degrees. I believe that we, as faith communities in St. John’s County, have an active role in helping serve unhoused individuals. We are called to serve the community together and help everyone in our community know that they have dignity, worth, and value. I hope to break down the silos of faith communities and local organizations to serve the community more effectively. We are better when we work together as a county; when we do, we can truly help make homelessness rare, brief, and one-time. Learn more about St. Johns County Continuum of Care at www.stjohnscountycoc.org .