Cathedral grad hopes to help the homeless in his hometown

With his new nonprofit, Cathedral Catholic High School alumni Jaxon Jabara is hoping to help make a difference in the lives of the some 5,000 people who are homeless in the city of San Diego. Called Project Downtown San Diego, he is raising money by selling custom-made t-shirts and collecting donations to create care packs of essential items for homeless individuals.

Jabara, a member of the class of 2018 at Cathedral Catholic, is currently a junior at Arizona State University studying organizational leadership and business. When he committed to attend Cathedral Catholic he traveled to Carmel Valley from his home downtown, where he saw the impact of homelessness on the city nearly ever day. He credits his time and teachers at Cathedral for giving him the drive he has now to give back.

“When I got to Cathedral Catholic I really found myself in faith,” Jabara said. “Community service opened up my eyes to what it’s like to help.”

Through community service trips to Father Joe’s Villages, he was able to talk to people who were homeless. It struck a chord realizing they were people just like him who had found themselves in a tough spot in their lives.

“We’re all going through hard times right now but there are people who are really struggling and need help. They are in our backyard and in our community,” Jabara said.

He started the nonprofit at the beginning of the year although COVID-19 threw a curveball into his plans. Right now, he has set up an Instagram page to sell the shirts with the hope of connecting with a San Diego homeless shelter to distribute the donations raised—he hopes to get a website up and running by Thanksgiving break and for his ASU fraternity brothers to lend a hand with the care packages.

The Project Downtown San Diego Instagram page is tagged with a Bible verse, Proverbs 19:17: “Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord and will be repaid in full.”

“Even if it’s not a big impact I want to try and help out a little bit,” Jabara said.

Check out Project Downtown San Diego on Instagram at @ProjectDTSD