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The Whole Child Receives Bezos Day 1 Families Fund Grant to Help End Homelessness in Los Angeles County

WHITTIER, Calif. -- The Whole Child, a lead housing agency for families experiencing homelessness in Southeast Los Angeles County, announced that it has been selected to receive a $5 million grant from the Bezos Day One Families Fund.

"We are honored to be one of the recipients of this year's Bezos Day 1 Families Fund grant," says Constanza Pachon, CEO of The Whole Child. "This grant comes at a critical point in the fight against homelessness in Los Angeles County. It will enable us to serve many more families with children experiencing homelessness."

This one-time grant, awarded to organizations moving the needle on family homelessness, will allow The Whole Child to pilot various initiatives including employment and education/training services, longer term shallow subsidies to support housing retention for families and larger flex fund pools to remove barriers not usually contemplated on regular housing/rental assistance programs. It will also help build needed specialized shelter beds for families experiencing homelessness in the region.

The Whole Child is one of 32 nonprofits across the U.S. to receive the second annual Day 1 Families Fund grants see full list, as part of a broad investment to help solve family homelessness. The Day 1 Families Fund issued a total of $98.5 million in grants this year. The fund worked with an advisory board of homelessness advocates and experts who identified and invited organizations to submit grant proposals to support their efforts to address homelessness.

"With the help of The Whole Child, my family was able to find a place to call home after leaving a violent partner left us sleeping in motels," explains Melina Gomez, who was helped by The Whole Child Housing. "Having a safe home for me and my boys has provided the stability I needed to find a new job and pay off my student loan debt. For the first time this year, we will be hosting Thanksgiving at our place! The Whole Child helps so many families and children. I can't wait to see how much more they will be able to accomplish with this grant."

The Bezos Day One Fund was launched in 2018 with a commitment of $2 billion and a focus on two areas: funding existing nonprofits that help homeless families, and creating a network of new, nonprofit tier-one preschools in low-income communities. The Day 1 Families Fund issues annual leadership awards to organizations and civic groups doing compassionate, needle-moving work to provide shelter and hunger support to address the immediate needs of young families. The vision statement comes from the inspiring Mary's Place in Seattle: no child sleeps outside.

For more information, visit: https://www.bezosdayonefund.org/day1familiesfund

About The Whole Child

The Whole Child is a 62-year-old nonprofit organization providing mental health, family housing, parent enrichment and nutrition education services to some of the most vulnerable families in Los Angeles County. Our mission is to help families raise emotionally and physically healthy children and have a place to call home.

We provide our array of multidisciplinary services across 11 locations in Los Angeles County to more than 4,600 families annually and a total of more than 12,500 people, including 7,000 children. 86 percent of our clients are low- to extremely low-income families with a single female head of household who is raising two to three children.

Learn more: https://www.thewholechild.org/.

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The Whole Child Celebrates Grand Opening of their Safe Families Transitional Housing in Echo Park

LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- Melina fled her home to escape domestic violence to protect herself and her children. They had nowhere to go so they turned to The Whole Child.

"I left not one but two abusive homes, first to get away from a violent spouse then a threatening situation while staying with a family member; and my children and I found ourselves homeless," explained Melina, The Whole Child Family Housing client. "Things felt hopeless."

The Whole Child's Safe Families Interim Housing Program located in Echo Park marks the nonprofit organization's entry into the field of housing development and will provide 44 units/102 new beds into Los Angeles County's Coordinate Entry System (CES) for Families experiencing homelessness.

Families will receive an array of interdisciplinary services designed to provide a strong start on their journey back to permanent housing, including the agencies own mental health, parent enrichment and nutrition education services. The welcoming grounds provides a safe place for children and their families to heal and find stability needed to be successful long term.

"Today we celebrate a win for Los Angeles County," pronounces Supervisor Hilda Solis at the Safe Families grand opening. "It is our priority to make sure that children are kept safe from the harshness of sleeping in cars and motels," she continued.

The Whole Child welcomed their first families into residence at the Safe Families Interim Housing Program the first week in September.

"Eighty percent of children experiencing homelessness will become homeless adults," explains Constanza Pachon, CEO of The Whole Child. "This facility will reduce trauma in children experiencing homelessness and will help break the cycle of generational homelessness in Los Angeles," Pachon added.

Over 8,000 children under eighteen are currently experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles County. More interim and affordable housing are needed to combat this epidemic.

"To the families staying at Safe Families 'Welcome home'," announces City of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, "and to The Whole Child, thank you for providing a safe place of love and light for families experiencing homelessness."

Last year The Whole Child served nearly 2,000 families experiencing, or at risk of homelessness through Prevention and Rapid Resolution, Crisis Placement, Rapid Rehousing and Permanent Supportive Housing, as well financial acumen, employment and many other supportive services. With the help of The Whole Child, lead agency for the family population in the CES for the Southeast region of Los Angeles County, the number of families experiencing homelessness decreased by 42.6%* from 2018 to 2019 in the region they lead.

"I am working full-time now and have been living in an apartment with my two boys for two years now," shares Melina. "I recently paid off my student loans, and I am debt free! I look forward to an exciting future watching my boys grow up in a peaceful house. Thank you to The Whole Child for being with me every step of this journey home," she added.

The Whole Child would like to thank Supervisor Hilda Solis and the Los Angeles Housing Services Authority (LAHSA) for providing the funding to bring this program to life and ensure its success.

We thank the City of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, Councilmember Mitch O'Farrell, Gateways Hospital, and the community of Echo Park for the warm welcome. We were honored to have LA Channel 11 news anchor Christine Devine as our emcee at our grand opening celebration. To our staff who worked tirelessly to ensure the facility was ready and welcoming to our clients over the last two months, thank you for your hard work and dedication to ending homelessness in our community.
ABOUT THE WHOLE CHILD

The Whole Child is a 62-year-old non-profit organization providing mental health, family housing, parent enrichment and nutrition education services to some of the most vulnerable families in Los Angeles County. Our mission is to help families raise emotionally and physically healthy children and have a place to call home. To find out more, please visit us at http://www.thewholechild.org.

Follow us @thewholechildca

Media Contact:
Micki Charley
Communications & Community Engagement Manager
mcharley@thewholechild.org
(562) 692-0383 x265

VIDEO (YouTube): https://youtu.be/1fjjzJvWj6Y

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The Whole Child Triples Home Visiting Program for Children and Their Parents – Prenatal to Five Years

WHITTIER, Calif. -- The Whole Child is thrilled to announce the agency has been awarded the Parents as Teachers Home Visiting Program contract through the Department of Public Health that will triple their existing program. This contract will allow The Whole Child to increase client capacity by 300% as well as expand our geographic reach deeper into Los Angeles County Service Planning Area (SPA) 7 Southeast Los Angeles County and newly enter Service Planning Area (SPA) 3 San Gabriel Valley.

"The most exciting piece of this program expansion is the removal of barriers to enter the program for families to access these important services," explains Constanza Pachon, CEO of The Whole Child. "The challenges of parenthood do not discriminate; every new parent needs support."

Parents as Teachers curriculum (https://parentsasteachers.org) promotes optimal early development, learning and health for young children by supporting and engaging their parents and caregivers. This program is designed to help build a strong parent-child bond through practicing attachment activities and monthly socialization groups are held to help parents of young children feel more supported and less isolated. Developmental screenings are provided an opportunity for early detection and intervention, so children can enter kindergarten ready to learn.

Parent Educators identify and link families to additional community-based resources to address needs of the family outside of child development. Unique to The Whole Child, car seat safety workshops, infant massage and lactation consultation services are offered to our clients.

Becoming a new parent or caregiver can be overwhelming, challenging and defeating while at the same time be one of the most rewarding experiences in life. There are several reasons for these challenges. Our Parent Educators are trained to help each caregiver feel supported and confident in their ability to be their child's best first teacher.

Last year The Whole Child served more than 160 families through these prevention services. Our staff detected 17 developmental delays with valuable time to provide early intervention for each child to get the support they need to be kindergarten-ready. We distributed over 50 car seats through our monthly Car Seat Safety Workshop offered in English and Spanish on alternating months.

The Whole Child's Home Visiting program under Parent Enrichment services is a free and voluntary home-based visiting program for pregnant women, and caregivers with a child between 0 - 3 years of age.

For more information, please visit our website at https://www.thewholechild.org/. Families are now able to self-refer on our website by submitting the Get Help form and selecting Parent Enrichment.

About The Whole Child:

The Whole Child is a 62-year-old 501(c)(3) non-profit organization providing mental health, family housing, parent enrichment and nutrition education services to some of the most vulnerable families in Los Angeles County. Our mission is to help families raise emotionally and physically healthy children and have a place to call home. To find out more, please visit us at https://www.thewholechild.org/.

Follow us on social at: @thewholechildca

Media Contact
Micki Charley
Communications & Community Engagement Manager
mcharley@thewholechild.org
(562) 692-0383 x265

VIDEO (YouTube): https://youtu.be/sD_F68Dkyyc

Related link:

This news story was published by the Neotrope® News Network - all rights reserved.