Youth mentoring by an adult can benefit a child’s emotional and psychological well-being, peer relationships, academic attitudes, and grades. We love our WWS family.
Beauty Bus Foundation delivers dignity, hope and respite to chronically or terminally ill men, women and children and their caregivers through beauty and grooming services and pampering products.
Beauty Bus accomplishes our mission through:
Click here to learn more about Beaty Bus.
Teacher’s Fund was created to help Santa Barbara County teachers get the tools and materials they need for their classrooms and their students. Teacher’s Fund has granted more than $1.6 million dollars to Santa Barbara County public and private kindergarten, Elementary, Middle and High School teachers.
In 2002, Renee Grubb the owner of Village Properties established The Village Properties Teacher’s Fund (Teacher’s Fund). The non-profit organization was established to assist local teachers with the purchase of supplies, materials and equipment needed for classrooms. Village Properties and several Village Properties real estate agents supported Teacher’s Fund, and were the sole donors for several years until the non-profit’s mission and reputation were established.
Recognizing that the desire to support teachers was a shared mission in the community, Village Properties began encouraging others to join in supporting the nonprofit organization. They removed the Village Properties name from the nonprofit organization and today, Teacher’s Fund continues to be a strong and vibrant 501(c)(3), with major funding from Village Properties, their real estate agents, in addition to several businesses, individuals and foundations.
On average, the Teacher’s Fund was receiving more than $25,000 a month in requests for grades K – 12. In April of 2009, due to the magnitude of budget cuts to schools, Teacher’s Fund once again expanded support to include grades 9-12 for most Santa Barbara County public and private schools.
While Teacher’s Fund may not be able to solve the budget restraints on the Federal, State and school district levels, Teacher’s Fund support can make a difference one classroom at a time.
“Established in 1993, the Save Our Youth (SOY) Center was founded through the hard work and steadfast vision of parents on the Westside of Costa Mesa who believed their teenagers needed an alternative to gangs and the temptation of the streets. As a non-profit agency serving low-income youth to provide a worthwhile option to an at-risk lifestyle, SOY provides a challenging and healthy environment where teens receive mentoring, tutoring, and college preparedness. This includes visits to college campuses throughout California where they are often given a tour by SOY graduates attending the college visited.
At SOY the students reduce stress and anxiety or just enjoy working out in our fully equipped physical fitness program; gain knowledge and love of nature through monthly wilderness hikes, even to the top of Mt. Whitney; participate in sports teams; add to their cultural awareness by visits to museums, lectures, plays, and learn the value of volunteer community service through projects such as “clean the bay”.
SOY students also develop and exhibit their talents through dance, art and music with classes, workshops and presentations, including talent shows, dance performances and community events. Over 200 SOY members have gone on to colleges and universities across our state and nation. Many SOY alums come back and volunteer as tutors, coaches, and event assistants.
SOY serves the students of the intermediate and high schools of the Newport Mesa Unified School District, including those at TeWinkle, Ensign, Costa Mesa Intermediate School and Estancia, Costa Mesa and Newport Harbor High School.”
OPICA Adult Day Program and Counseling Center received a grant to support their Volunteer Internship program including staffing expenses associated with volunteer recruitment, training, supervising and retention as well as activities associated with connecting volunteers to in-need seniors with memory impairment. The program assists families in delaying institutionalized care for their loved ones. OPICA’s mission is to enable adults impaired by dementia to continue to live at home by 1.) providing compassionate and stimulating day programs, 2.) supporting family caregivers through counseling and respite and 3.) increasing community understanding of memory disorders through education, resource referral and professional training. They currently serve 120-170 people.
Click here to learn more about OPICA Adult Day Program and Counseling Center.Â
Our families live in our shelters for approximately 3-6 months. During that time, our goal is to provide them with the skills needed to live on their own. One of the skills we teach them is to budget and save, as this is necessary for financial stability. After our clients gain employment, they are required to save a portion of their paychecks to be used for future necessities.
After a family moves into their own housing they begin the next phase of LAHR’s services by becoming part of our unique After Care Program. This program provides follow-up services and case management to help the families transition to a stable and secure life, including assistance with securing mental health support close to their new housing.
We track the progress of our clients intensely, with monthly contact, for however long is needed. We will assist the family to resolve any unmet goals with continued support.
LAHR keeps up to date on information such as:
LAHR operates a program called “Women to Women.” This program invites past residents to return monthly for support and friendship while sharing a casual meal. This monthly event is an excellent time for volunteers to share their expertise with our clients.
Our monthly “Women to Women” themes include:
When the funds are available this group has taken short trips for rest and relaxation, which is nearly unheard of for poor women and children.
In April 2018, they opened our Sanctuary of Love Resource and Referral Center in the heart of Hollywood where 6,000 young people sleep on the streets every night. Since opening the SOL , they have been able to serve more homeless and disenfranchised youth through our street outreach, self-empowerment workshops and support service events more consistently. Their outreach, self-empowerment and support events throughout the year provided meals to more than 2,400 plus clothing and hygiene for young people in need. Since August, we’ve served 225 at 6 self-empowerment workshops with more planned in the upcoming months with support and funding from our community partners and amazing supporters.
Street outreach is a critically important part of our work, as trust is a luxury that most homeless youth cannot afford.
Throughout the year, our volunteers (a.k.a. LOVE Warriors) take to the streets and plan events and services to support the needs of our homeless youth.
Having a regular presence helps build trust and rapport so we can then provide other services such as our self-empowerment workshops.
Evaluation results from self-empowerment workshop participant surveys:
90% reported positive impacts in the areas of self-worth, confidence, happiness, joy, & forgiveness
95% desired more workshops
1-on-1 interviews measured our events’ impact on clients:
100% requested more frequency with our events
98% were highly satisfied with services delivered
98% reported immediate positive impacts in happiness, self-worth, self-respect, & self-confidence
90% felt better prepared to make better choices for their lives.
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