Casa San José

When a family member is detained, the crisis is immediate and it is two-fold. First: the urgent, practical need to secure their release; bond payments and legal costs that most families cannot absorb on short notice. Second: the trauma that follows a family through that detention, and often long after it; fear, grief, disrupted routines, children separated from parents. One does not wait for the other to resolve. Families need both addressed at once.

That's why this Critical Needs Day, we're raising $50,000 for one connected response: helping families navigate detention through El Fondo Solidario, (Bond Fund), and helping them heal from it through our Mental Health Services.

Our El Fondo Solidario helps detainees pay for bond and related legal costs. This is the difference between a parent coming home to their family or remaining in detention while their case moves forward. For many families, this fund is the only path back to being whole again.

Our Mental Health Services department is our bilingual, culturally-responsive care team, providing a space many of our families are grateful to have access to. Since 2024, our mental health team has provided sessions to 525 individuals, but demand has grown 105% between 2024 and 2025, much of it tied directly to the trauma and/or fear of detention and family separation. For many of our clients, this team is not just a resource, it's the only place where they can speak in their own language, be understood in their own cultural context, and be met without judgment.

You can't fully address one without the other. A family whose loved one comes home still needs support processing what they went through. A family in therapy still needs their loved one back. Your gift today supports both sides of the same crisis, because that's how families actually experience it, not as separate needs, but as one ordeal.

Your gift today has immediate impact:

• Provides bilingual mental health intake screening
• Covers individual counseling sessions
• Contributes toward a bond payment to help bring a detained loved one home
• Funds a family support session or group therapy 
• Sponsors care for a client navigating trauma or crisis

Today only: This is our one opportunity this year to fully fund both sides of this response. Together.

Why Casa San José:
Currently, we serve over 400 individuals per month, with large portion of these clients seeking assistance after heads of households were detained since the beginning of the new administration. We support an average of 18 mental health cases per month with nearly 90% of them navigating the emotional toll of todays immigration enforcement climate. Families are under immense stress; parents afraid to leave their homes, household roles shifted overnight, and teens suddenly carrying adult responsibilities. The strain shows up in painful ways; increased domestic violence, children experiencing depression and anxiety, and youth acting out in school as they try to cope. Your support helps us provide a safe space, counseling, and stability for familes who are doing their best under extraordinary pressure.

For over a decade, Casa San José has been the trusted bridge between the Latino community and the Pittsburgh region, connecting families to legal support, education, health care, emergency assistance, and dedicated mental health services designed specifically for our community. We don't just translate services that exist elsewhere; we build care that reflects the language, culture, and lived experience of the people we serve. Casa San José was founded in 2013 as a community resource center dedicated to serving the growing Latino population in Allegheny county and surrounding areas. 

Our Mission
Casa San José connects, supports, and advocates with and for the Latino community. Our mission is to create a welcoming environment for Latinos by providing essential services, advocating for immigrant rights, and fostering community empowerment. Over the years, Casa San José has become a trusted pillar of support, offering services tailored to the specific challenges faced by our community.

Our Vision
We envision a Pittsburgh region that celebrates culture, welcomes immigrants, and embraces inclusion, dignity, and respect.

Bringing a family member home and helping a family heal are not separate from that vision, they're foundational to it. You cannot build a community of dignity and belonging while families are separated by detention or carrying trauma alone. Supporting this goal is supporting the whole mission, the legal fight and the emotional one, together.

Today, your gift means a family doesn't have to face detention alone without the means to bring their loved one home, or without anyone who understands what they've been through, in their own language.

Give today. Give what you can. Every dollar stays local, stays direct, and goes to work immediately for families right here in SW Pennsylvania.

Donate Now