Compassion for Teen Life: Instilling the Importance of Education

In 1999, Compassion for Teen Life was founded to provide children and teens from age 6 to age 22 and their families education, support, and lifestyle services. They work with local organizations including pharmaceutical and health companies to promote “Health Lifestyle” seminars on HIV/AIDS and obesity in public school students.

Compassion for Teen Life’s Goals for Children and Teens

• Health - Compassion for Teen Life emphasizes the importance of facing health issues globally such as women’s reproductive health; STDs and HIV; marijuana, alcohol, and drug abuse; and obesity.
• Maintaining an Active Lifestyle – The sports program with CFTL focuses on the both physical and psychological benefits from physical activity. Sports help students set and attain their goals by teaching them to work hard.
• Education - CFTL provides students with the technology and necessary skills they need to develop into adults that function in society with real jobs and real careers.

Get Involved with Compassion for Teen Life

You can volunteer with Compassion for Teen Life or donate to them. Visit their website and see what opportunities are available. To donate you can mail it to  Compassion for Teen Life (CFTL) at 1201 E. Florence Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90001. Their phone number is 323-375-0401 and their email address is info@comp4teenlife.org.

Children of the Night: Rescuing America’s Children from Prostitution

Children of the Night works to help children between 11 and 17 who are forced into prostitution for survival. Girls and boys have been pulled from prostitution and rescued from the domination of pimps for over 30 years now.

Partnered with a small group of FBI agents, detectives, and prosecutors, Children of the Night works to bring a stop to the child prostitution circuit. The majority of children who fall into child prostitution are used to being abused by a parent or guardian, or even a vicious pimp, against whom many of the children testify against. After being pulled from prostitution, many children need assistance or a home to go to since many don’t have the resources that most children need. Children of the Night works to help these children move into everyday society.

Child Prostitution is More of a Problem Than You’d Think

Modern child prostitution has become more complicated than ever. Pimps are becoming increasingly sophisticated at recruiting children that they force into prostitution.

Homeless teens who are alone are those who need are most susceptible to falling into child prostitution. Pimp promises of riches lure them to a distant city where they are forced into prostitution as means of survival. Children of the Night targets these pimps to protect the children.

Protect the Children, Give Back to Children of the Night

Become a volunteer today to help give back to Children of the Night. Once you complete a volunteer application and provide 3 references, you will go through an orientation then placed as a clerical, professional, service professional, public speaker, or an out of state awareness volunteer. Volunteer today!

You can also donate to Children of the Night. 86% of funds go directly to the program, 7% go to fundraising, and 7% go to administration.

Contact them at 14530 Sylvan Street, Van Nuys, CA 91411. Their phone number is 818-908-4474 and their hotline number is 800-551-1300.

Los Angeles YOUTH Network: Empowering Homeless Adolescents

The Los Angeles Youth Network provides street outreach, emergency shelter, food, education, and transitional living options in a safe environment. Over 7,500 homeless adolescents will sleep on the streets of Los Angeles nightly, where they are at risk to falling to drugs, prostitution, and disease – predominantly HIV/AIDS.

LAYN wants to bring these adolescents out of their violent, filthy squats where most grow up to be on welfare or criminals. Since 1984 they have worked to end homeless one teenager at a time who has been abused, neglected, and abandoned. They want each homeless adolescent to transition completely out of street life and push towards functioning in society permanently.

Homeless Youth and Teenagers Statistics

• Over 1.3 million youth are homeless at any given time each year.
• 1 out of 8 adolescents under 18 will run away from home and become homeless, needing help from charities.
• 12-17 year olds are at a higher risk of becoming homeless than adults are.
• Before leaving home, 43% of the homeless adolescence report being beaten with 25% requesting sexual activity.
• 65% of emancipated foster youth lack stable housing.

The importance of charities like the Los Angeles YOUTH Network

Give Back to the Los Angeles YOUTH Network

There are many ways to give back to the Los Angeles YOUTH Network. Volunteering can be a long term or short term commitment; you can work doing recreation, administrative duties, day projects, fundraising events, educational programs, street outreach, meal sponsorship or mentor programs. See other volunteer opportunities with LAYN and sign up.

You can also donate to the Los Angeles Youth Network if you don’t have time for volunteering. As little as $5 feeds youth for a day.

To contact the Los Angeles Youth Network you can call 323-467-8466 or reach them at 1754 Taft Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90028. Their email is info@layn.org.

My Friend’s Place: A Place to be Safe, A Place to Belong

The mission of My Friend’s Place is to assist and inspire homeless youth to build self-sufficient lives.

My Friend’s Place is a nonprofit resource center that gives free emergency resources like food, clothing, health services, education, and therapeutic to over 1,800 homeless youth and their children per year.  Their mission is to push Los Angeles’ homeless youth to build self-sufficient lives. What started as a mobile meal program, My Friend’s Place now works to meet the challenges of the abandoned homeless youth well beyond hunger. The social services they provide reach thousands of youth from 12 to 25 per year.

My Friend’s Place: Truly Unique

My Friend’s Place is not government or religiously affiliated and they are 99% funded. Overall, they are one of the most visited Resource Centers for the homeless youth in Southern California.

For homeless teens and homeless youth, the stigma that people associate with this demographic is enough to cause shame and deter these people away from looking for help. My Friend’s Place minimizes the social barriers that usually discourage people to looking for help. They also reduce the high risk behaviors that are so commonly adopted by youth living on the streets of Los Angeles.

Help Out a Teenager in Need

The best way to give back to My Friend’s Place is to become a member either online (Online Giving Form) or through mailing a donation to My Friend’s Place, Membership Program, P.O. Box 3867, Hollywood, CA 90078.  A gift as small as $50 will give someone in need transportation to and from a job interview, and a gift as large as $5,000 provides one-on-one therapy twice a week for an entire year for a teenager suffering from a mental illness.