Dress for Success: Suits to Self-Sufficiency

Dress for Success works to promote the economic independence of at-risk, disadvantaged women. Providing professional attire and a network of support, Dress for Success works to give women the tools they need to develop their careers and gain self-sufficiency.

The Los Angeles affiliate branch of Dress for Success is the Dress for Success Worldwide – West headquarters. Low-income women are their focus and their goal is to remove these women from public assistance. Suits provide confidence, and help women look their best.

Dress for Success Statistics

Of the women Dress for Success assists:

• 40% are African American
• 37% are Hispanic
• 13% are Caucasian
• 2% are Asian
• 79% are mothers
• 76% are single mothers
• 15% are divorced, separated, or widowed

Volunteer and Donate to Dress for Success

There are a lot of volunteer opportunities at Dress for Success. From Image Consultants, to Career Coaches, Dress for Success is looking for volunteers to help women get their careers on track. You need to fill out the volunteer application and then send it to adriana@dressforsuccess.org.

If you don’t have time to volunteer you can always donate money or clothing. To donate money, click here. $50 sponsors one woman in the Suiting Program and provides her professional attire before her first interview.

You can also donate clothing. They accept clothing donations each month on the second Saturday of each month from 9:30 am to 12 pm at 1680 N. Vine, Suite 900 in Hollywood in the Taft building at the corner of Hollywood and Vine. You should pull up to the 5 min loading zone, park your car, and come in to the 9th floor. Volunteers can help you carry your clothing up. You can also park in metered street parking. For a list of what they accept, click here.

Contact Dress for Success Los Angeles at 323.461.1021 or email them at worldwidewest@dressforsuccess.org. They are located at 1680 N. Vine Street Suite 900, Hollywood, CA 90028.

Downtown Women’s Center: Ending Homelessness for Women in Los Angeles

The Downtown Women’s Center works to give homeless women permanent housing and a safe, healthy community that increases their self-respect and personal stability. Their goal is to eradicate homelessness for women.

The Downtown Women’s Center (DWC) opened in 1978. Before their existance, homeless women were dominated by the “man’s world” of Skid Row and other homeless areas that were only accessible to men. Women, especially mentally ill women, were left homeless on the streets with the closing of psychiatric hospitals in the early 1970s. Thus, Jill Halverson in 1978 founded the city’s first day center for women providing a place to live and meals to women in need.

Statistics: Women in Homelessness

• Over 50% of homeless women are homeless due to domestic violence.
• 75% of poor elderly people are women.
• 60% of women getting public assistance have been victims of domestic violence
• 14% of the homeless population are single women
• 92% of homeless mothers were victims of physical or sexual assault

Women and children are often referred to as “the hidden homeless” because they are the most turned away group of people from homeless shelters due to safety concerns of aggressive homeless men.

“It is not acceptable for children and families to be without a roof over their heads in a country as wealthy as ours.” – President Barack Obama

The DWC provides lasting solutions for homeless women and the children they provide for.

Give Back to the Downtown Women’s Center to Help Homeless Women

You can volunteer or donate to the Downtown Women’s Center to give back.

Volunteering at the Downtown Women’s Center is an easy process. You can choose from one of their available volunteer opportunities and then fill out the individual application or group application and send it to volunteer@dwcweb.org. Then you will have to attend a volunteer orientation/training session (which is not required for all volunteer positions). Check out their events calendar to see which dates work for you.

Don’t have time to volunteer? You can always donate money or in-kind donations. Donate online or send a check to 325 S. Los Angeles Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013. $36 provides a monthly management session for 3 DWC residents and $2000 provides a year of individual and group counseling reaching over 100 women. Every bit helps. For more information on how to donate click here.

You can also contact the Downtown Women’s Center at 213-680-6000 (administrative offices) or 213-613-0761 (day center). They are located at 442 S. San Pedro Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013.

Ocean Park Community Center (OPCC): Empowering People to Rebuild Their Lives

The Ocean Park Community Center is dedicated to helping people who have faced house foreclosures, job loss, medical bills, and other factors that are forcing people into homelessness. They focus on making up for the under-funded homeless population in this time of unexpected economic crisis.

The OPCC Facilities

The OPCC works at empowering people to rebuild their lives by helping them overcome mental illness, poverty, homelessness, and domestic violence. They provide the tools to help the needy gain trust in a community as a support system and regain dignity. The OPCC provides a common ground for the community and a push to end human suffering through public policy and creating a higher level of response to human services.

The OPCC is a non-profit organization. The City of Santa Monica, the County of Los Angeles, the State of California, the Federal Government, and private donations fund the company. But with the economic recession, their funds have been hit hard and they have been having to make a bigger impact with less resources.

Statistics Show Success

• 350 teens, children, and adults have received counseling through school outreach and victims of crime programs.
• 3,000 phone calls have been made on the domestic violence hotline.
• There is a 90% success rate for the graduates of the transitional housing program – they have lived in permanent housing for over a year.

The OPCC serves 8,000 individuals of which: 98% live below poverty level, 85% are homeless, 50% are mentally ill, 44% are minorities, 45% are female, and 20% are under the age of 21 (opcc.org).

A Grandmother’s Testimonial

Jane, an 81-year-old homeless woman with congestive heart failure, had been living off and on in local area motels since 2005. OPCC staff discovered that at the end of each month when she ran out of SSI income she went to the local hospitals for medical care and a place to stay. OPCC’s Access Center staff worked intensively with Jane and successfully secured permanent housing and transportation through the City of Santa Monica’s Project Homecoming. The day before Mother’s Day, Jane was reunified with her adult son and family living in another state and has been living in her own apartment and caring for herself. She has not been hospitalized in over a year.

The OPCC Access Center

Give Back to the OPCC

There are many ways to give to the OPCC. You can donate, volunteer, or give in-kind donations.

Donating is easy. You can donate to the OPCC with cash gifts, stocks and bonds, or real estate to expand their property when you’re not using it. You can even choose to which property you would like to donate. To donate now, click here.

There are plenty of volunteer opportunities. If you are interested, email dmiller@opcc.net or give a call to 310-264-6646. You can look at a list of group volunteer opportunities here.

You can give initiatives in the form of donations of gift cards and goods, becoming a trained volunteer on their 24 hour hotline, or donate to their wish list.

The Weingart Center Association: Where Transformations Happen

Keeping up with the Homeless Assistance theme this week, today we are focusing on the Weingart Center Association who works to better the homeless population through residential programs, non-residential programs, and permanent housing. The main goal: to break the cycle of homelessness and to help these individuals and families lead fulfilling, self-sufficient lives.

The Skills to Break the Homelessness Cycle

Skills that the Weingart center offers to the homeless include job assistance, permanent housing, sobriety assistance, increased education, mental and physical healthcare, pulling them out of debt, reuniting families, and setting attainable goals for the future.

They offer specific services that include:

• Legal Aid
• Work attire
• Transitional and Permanent Housing
• Education
• Substance Abuse Support
• Healthcare (mental health, medical health, family planning)
• Life and workforce skills
• Nutrition

Their individualized and compassionate support that adapts to the changing community has made a huge impact on the large homeless community in Los Angeles.

Making an Impact

From Operation Welcome Home, a program helping to assimilate veterans back into society, to their Open Door Program, helping locate jobs for parolees, the Weingart Center alleviates the homeless struggles of many.

The Weingart Center Association helped me to get my life back.

They have housed 600 people every day in an 11-story building, served 225,000 healthy meals annually, created a medical clinic to control TB and HIV in the early stages, and miraculously uses 82% of funds to give back to the community.

Interested in lending a hand to the Weingart center? There are many ways for you to give back.

1. Donate: The money or goods that you donate will be used to directly help out the 48,000 homeless people in Los Angeles.
2. Volunteer: By volunteering with the Weingart Center you can directly affect a life. The Weingart Center suggests organizing a clothing drive, sponsoring an event, giving a participant a make over, volunteering at one of their many volunteer events, or becoming a Weingart Center partner.
3. Wish List: Give back by ordering the Weingart Center one of the items on their wish list.

For upcoming events, visit their event page and their blog. You can even call the Weingart Center Association at 213-627-9000 and email them at center@weingart.org. Their address is 566 South San Pedro Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013.

PATH (People Assisting the Homeless): A Hand Up, Not a Hand Out

Mission: To break the cycle of homelessness by empowering people with the tools for self-sufficiency.

PATH helps homeless people and families turn their lives around. Some of the many services they offer include helping people to find work, to save money, and to find stable housing through self-empowerment.

Arnold Schwarzenegger gives a helping hand at PATH

Housing

PATHWays offers transitional housing, interim housing, and links to health services.  The transitional housing provides 39 beds for men, 21 beds for women, and 18 beds for men with special needs, and 20 beds for women and their children in the Regional Homeless Center in Los Angeles, and 32 beds for men, women and families in their Westside Center. That’s a total of 130 beds.

The PATH Ways Interim Housing at the Hollywood Center offers 65 beds for chronicaly homeless men and women with personalized support towards housing placement.

LA HEALS also offers links for discharged homeless patients through PATH. It pushes homeless patients towards self-sufficiency and permanent housing.

Job Centers

PATHFinders Job Centers is a collection of employment centers that offers homeless job-hunters looking for resources and skills towards finding a stable income. Along with training, workshops and counseling, PATHFinders Job Centers offers all of the tools a homeless person could need to find a job, giving them a leg up with their desire to exit homelessness.

Other services offered by PATH include street outreach teams, a Hollywood emergency response team, a personal care center, and their PATHMail Partners network where clients can access service providers.

Volunteer at PATH

Looking to volunteer with PATH? They have many opportunities for you to give back to the homeless community.

Donate

You can donate online through Network for Good, donate through fax at 323.644.2288, or donate through mail:

PATH
340 N. Madison Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90004

You can also send in-kind donations in the form of blankets, books, interview-appropriate clothing, basic toiletries, kitchen supplies, daily planners, digital cameras, office supplies, gift cards, and bus passes/gas cards. In addition, you can donate your car with Cars4Causes.

Volunteer

There are a handful of volunteer opportunities with PATH. Volunteer at one of three PATH facilities by working directly with homeless participants and doing administrative duties. Click here to find out about more volunteer opportunities near you.

For up to the minute updates, you can join the PATH newsletter.