People in Progress: Creating Self-Reliance, Building Addiction Free Lives

People in Progress has given intervention support and substance-abuse support to families and individuals in crisis targeting those who need help in their struggle with substance abuse, economic deprivation, hunger and homelessness. People in Progress believes that this helps people to create self-reliance and to build addiction-free lives.

Serving over 25,000 people per year, P.I.P. works to transition people back into the community and transform them into productive pieces of society. People in Progress gives people the resources they need toward self-sufficiency.

Services to Counter Addiction

From medical and dental services to housing and legal services, People in Progress collaborates with a lot of local service providers in order to give comprehensive services to clients. Employment, youth tutoring and art, recovery, immigration, and other services are also included in the program.

Their drug and alcohol treatment services give services to the population that needs it the most: the homeless population of Los Angeles. They suffer from alcohol and drug dependency as well as mental and physical disabilities. The homeless population struggles with drugs and alcohol proportionately more than any other demographic.

Give Back to People in Progress

Help be a part of the addiction-free lives by donating to People in Progress. To get an idea, a $196.25 donation will give toiletries and clothing to 105 residential and 52 transitional clients. Donate today to People in Progress.

If you would like to contact People in Progress visit 701 South Mariposa, Suite 105, Los Angeles, CA 90005. You can call them at 213.384.6689 or email them at admin@peopleinprogress.org.

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.

Los Angeles House of Ruth: Empowering Women, Changing Lives

The Los Angeles House of Ruth has experience helping women in emergency situations. They say that most of the women that they encounter have recently left their abusive husbands with nowhere to live, nothing to eat, and children to support. House of Ruth works to give women not only a place to stay, but also the life skills to live independent, successful lives.

“Our program is so successful that we have a 95% success rate in keeping families off the streets for the rest of their lives ensuring positive futures for their families and future generations.”

Since 1978, the House of Ruth has been one of a few specialized shelters in Los Angeles. They offer an environment that resembles a home, and give immediate attention to children who suffer from the consequences of chaotic, toxic environments. The Los Angeles House of Ruth offers both women and children a “new way of life.”

Special Circumstances Call for Your Immediate Attention!

2010 has been an especially tough year for the House of Ruth in Los Angeles with the need for homeless assistance rising by 50% and the donations decreasing by 30% leaving them with a shortfall of $150,000 for the year.

If they do not raise that money, they will be forced to close one of their four shelter houses and put homeless families back on the street.

Campaign 15 is a push to raise $150,000 in 15 days. They say that for the cost of two lattes and a bagel, you can keep families off the streets and help women and children in their journey to living successful lives.

Donate now to the Los Angeles House of Ruth to save one of their shelters.

To get in touch with the Los Angeles House of Ruth, email them directly at Ruth33288@aol.com or call the office at 323-266-4139. You can also send them mail at PO Box 33288, Los Angeles, CA 90033.

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.