St. Joseph Health System (SJHS) employees have a new way to help aid victims of natural disasters. The Disaster PTO Donation Program will enable them to donate the cash equivalent of accrued paid time off (PTO) to help fund relief efforts. This program complements SJHS Foundation’s efforts, which provide grants to address the needs arising from disasters throughout the world.

In response to employee requests, the new PTO Donation Program was launched in March 2010 to empower staff to participate in the SJHS mission by proactively responding to people and communities in need. Employees are able to use their accrued PTO – which combines vacation, sick time and personal time into a single bank of days for paid time off – to fund donations to approved non-profit charities that support natural disaster relief and aid efforts.

“As we saw in the aftermath of the disasters in Haiti and Chile, there was an overwhelming desire to personally support relief efforts from our staff to provide a meaningful way for them to give,” said Sr. Jayne Helmlinger, Executive Vice President Mission Integration. “Our health care ministry is focused on healing and service, and we are proud to have so many engaged employees who demonstrate their compassion and generous response to the needs of others. This program gives them an opportunity to help in these devastating moments like earthquakes, fires and other uncontrollable disasters that displace people and their families.”

In the tradition of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange and SJHS’s desire to work collaboratively with other community partners to meet the needs of vulnerable communities, PTO donations are provided to non-profit relief organizations that help with critical need both short term and long term. Last year, the Foundation donated $120,000 last year alone to address poverty and suffering that followed multiple catastrophic events.