The Everychild Foundation, a giving circle whose members are mostly Palisadians, awarded 1736 Family Crisis Center (1736 FCC), a non-profit family service organization, with a $1 million grant to implement the Everychild Foundation Emergency Shelter and Youth Program.
In correlations with November’s National Homeless Youth Awareness Month, the grant will provide capital support to renovate a Mar Vista property that serves homeless and at-risk girls and boys, ages 10-17, in desperate need of safe shelter and care.
“This new emergency shelter and youth program will create a sanctuary for seriously at-risk children from all walks of life,” said Palisadian Jacqueline Caster, Founder and President of the Everychild Foundation. “The project will address the immediate problems of homeless youth by providing a safe, temporary refuge, encouraging family problem resolution through counseling, and helping youth decide on constructive courses of action for their future.”
The facility, when complete, will become the program’s permanent site and include a residential shelter, 24-hour intake, 24-hour crisis/suicide hotline response, 24-hour walk-in/drop-in services, individual/group/family mental health therapy, case management, life skills training, safe post-shelter housing arrangements, aftercare services, and outpatient services for at-risk community youth.
“Never in my 30 years as CEO at 1736 could I have imagined the current level of danger to homeless children, right here on our streets,” said CEO and executive director of 1736 Family Crisis Center, Carol Adelkoff. “This project will rescue kids from depression, homelessness, suicide and hopelessness. Together, with our community partners, we are driven and absolutely determined to rescue these at-risk children.”
The renovated site will provide much-improved amenities including ADA ground floor access, additional bathrooms and counseling rooms, larger bedrooms, a teaching kitchen and outdoor recreational space. The new facility will also include a new 1,350 square-foot Youth Empowerment Center in a connected structure that will offer crisis intervention services and educational, job training and life skills activities for residential and non-residential youth.
“There is such a dirth of services and housing options for homeless youth, but there just are not enough,” Caster said. “This problem is growing exponentially and this project is going to serve thousands of children. We get so many worthy proposals, but 1736 has been so tenacious and their proposal met our criteria so well.”
The mission of 1736 FCC is to help children (newborns through adolescents), women, men and families through crisis circumstances, including domestic violence, homelessness, abuse, neglect, poverty, substance use, post-traumatic stress disorder, and distress, and to improve their prospects for long-term housing, safety, survival, financial stability, and success.
The EveryChild Foundation organization makes one grant per year to a Los Angeles area non-profit agency benefitting children and youth, ages 0 to 24. The grant is funded by annual contributions from the 224 foundation members, comprises largely of women from Pacific Palisades, Brentwood, Santa Monica and the Westside. This grant is the fifteenth consecutive grant made by Everychild, bringing their overall community contribution to over $13.5 million.
For more information on Everychild Foundation visit www.everychildfoundation.org. For more information on 1736 Family Crisis Center visit www.1736familycrisiscenter.org.
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