Projects Supported by the Everychild Foundation 

More than $5.5 million in grants made in 8 years and over 150,000 children served

2008 Everychild Foundation Grant Awarded

The Everychild Foundation has awarded its 2008 grant to the Mar Vista Family Center. The $1 million grant represents the last major piece of funding needed by the agency to expand its existing facilities. The new building will be named the Everychild Youth Center.

The Mar Vista Family Center is a grass roots agency that serves a low-income, densely populated, gang-ridden urban neighborhood adjacent to the only federal housing project in West Los Angeles. Demand for Mar Vista’s programs far outstrips available space. The building will allow Mar Vista to clear its 300 child waiting list by increasing its program capacity by 50%, from 650 to approximately 1,000.

The completed Youth Center will be a two-story, 11,500 sq. ft. building, and will house a classroom, counseling rooms, a computer lab, a multi-media room, a library, a health and fitness room, a game and recreation room, a multi-purpose space for performing and fine arts, a central plaza for performing arts groups, small meeting spaces, and a large multi-purpose room for community meetings and activities. The Youth Center will be the anchor building for the entire Mar Vista complex. It will house the agency’s By Youth for Youth group of programs, which offer youth-led life skills training, leadership opportunities, and academic enrichment to at-risk youth ages 13-21.

Approximately 90% of the grant will be applied to the Youth Center, representing approximately 15% of the total capital budget; the remaining 10% would pay for a new half-time mental health counselor and a new Youth Program Director in the first year of expanded programming.

HOLA AND THE LAFAYETTE COMMUNITY CENTER RENOVATION

The Everychild Foundation awarded its 2007 grant to Heart of Los Angeles Youth ("HOLA"). Working in tandem with the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks, HOLA will use our $1,000,000 grant to transform the Lafayette Park Community Center, located in a dangerous park in the blighted Rampart District, into a "safe space" for neighborhood children. Specifically, HOLA will:

• Add to and modify the Community Center to include a technology learning center, expanded classroom space, and program staff offices.
• Expand and enhance HOLA's existing educational, arts, and athletic programs, providing an additional 900 spaces for the neighborhood's disadvantaged children.

This proposal is a public/private collaboration. With our grant HOLA can leverage existing Proposition K funds already being spent on the Community Center, thus expanding their free after school, intersession, and vacation programs for local children. HOLA will use the renovated Community Center to give neighborhood children a chance at the kind of childhood the rest of us take for granted.

UNIVERSALLY ACCESSIBLE PLAYGROUND AT ORTHOPAEDIC HOSPITAL

On March 7, 2006, the Everychild grant for year 2006 of $925,000 was presented to Los Angeles Orthopaedic Hospital Foundation to construct a universally accessible playground on the Hospital’s grounds. The playground - the first of its kind to be built at any hospital in the Western United States and which will serve more children than any other hospital-based playground in the nation -- will be designed to accommodate children with wheelchairs, leg braces, crutches and other barriers that leave special needs children on the sidelines at traditional playgrounds. Sensory-rich equipment will create a fun environment where children with disabilities can interact with their able-bodied friends and siblings.

Play is an essential component in every child’s life, fostering physical, cognitive and social development. However, children with disabilities are routinely denied access to playgrounds. At present, there are only six universally accessible playgrounds in Los Angeles County, none located near Orthopaedic Hospital.

"The playground will be built on Orthopaedic Hospital’s downtown campus, but will be open to the community. There is a tremendous need for a place where children of all abilities can interact, and this playground will be used by more children in a single year than any other universally accessible playground in the nation,"says Mary F. Schmitz, president of the LAOHF. It is estimated that the playground will be visited by over 42,000 children with disabilities and over 85,000 able-bodied children each year. The playground will not only benefit pediatric patients, their siblings, and children from the entire community for years to come, but will serve as a model for similar projects in other communities as well.

Groundbreaking for the playground is scheduled for June of this year, and a December 2006 opening is planned.

HILLSIDES YOUTH MOVING ON PROGRAM

Our year 2005 grant of $715,000 was awarded to Hillsides, the Pasadena-based residential and community treatment center for troubled children. The money will be used to purchase an apartment building with 25% of the units set aside for Hillsides' Youth Moving On project. The project will provide transitional living, support services and life skills training for an estimated 28 emancipated foster youth per year who have been psychologically damaged by abuse; the remaining 75% of the units are rented to the community at fair market value with the receipts used to service the purchase loan and the down-payment for a second such building purchase.

This project, the first of its kind in Los Angeles County, provides an innovative, cost-effective approach to much needed wrap-around services for emancipated foster youth who, upon turning 18, lose eligibility for government funded housing or programs. The new Youth Moving On facility welcomed its first tenants in April, 2005, and is now fully occupied; once this groundbreaking program is fully launched, Hillsides is committed to sharing their model with other foster care organizations. With this grant, Everychild hopes to contribute to a larger systemic change in the future prospects of emancipated foster youth.

YOUTH LEARNING CENTER AT OPTIMIST YOUTH HOMES

Our year 2004 grant for $630,000 was the lead gift for construction of the new Everychild Foundation Youth Learning Center at Optimist Youth Homes & Family Services in Eagle Rock, near downtown Los Angeles. Dedicated in November, 2005, the new center expands Optimist’s highly successful services to deeply troubled teenagers in a specialized high school that combines intensive education with several types of therapy. Our grant funded construction of a new, larger high school building with space to integrate education and therapy, allowing the agency to increase the number of students served from 400 to 550.

In 100 years of caring for children, Optimist has demonstrated that it transforms the lives of teenagers who have failed in every other placement, including many referred by the juvenile justice system. The agency’s leadership in the field, and its remarkable results, promise that this project will become a model prototype for turning around the lives of brutalized and neglected children who are often called, with cruel accuracy, "throwaway youth."

VIOLENCE INTERVENTION PROGRAM

In year 2003, Everychild awarded a $600,000 grant to Violence Intervention Program (VIP). Under the direction of its internationally-known founder, Dr. Astrid Heger, VIP has become a national and international model for assessing and treating children impacted by violence. VIP is the only 24-hour comprehensive child abuse program in Los Angeles County.

Our grant helped renovate a 70 year-old building and has enabled VIP to help over 3,000 abused children each year, about 45% more annually than in past years. Also, due to the increased physical capacity of the renovated facilities, the program took a big leap forward in 2004, using a $1 million grant from First 5 LA to launch a new program to perform 600 new emergency foster care assessments per year for 0-5 year olds. It will ensure that these children are placed in safe foster care situations and will be monitoring their health, emotional well-being and school achievement.

The Everychild Foundation Center for the Vulnerable Child at VIP now houses the VIP Community Mental Health Center and the Forensic Medical Clinic. With our funds, VIP has been able to expand diagnosis, treatment, long-term counseling, mentoring and tutoring services for children who have been physically and sexually abused, improve the therapeutic environment, and enhance coordination among multi-disciplinary child services, including legal advocacy. The Center also houses a computer-equipped education center for children and their families.

15 NEW LIBRARIES FOR LOW-INCOME LOS ANGELES PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Our second project funded the building of 15 libraries in low-income Los Angeles Unified School District elementary schools lacking adequate library facilities. Unbelievably, there is no budget in the school district for either libraries or librarians. Our grant also funded the purchase of all the books for each library and training of volunteer reading tutors at each school.

Everychild formally presented its grant of $385,000 to the Wonder of Reading in March, 2002. This group's mission is to build (or rebuild) libraries in public schools which have substandard or nonexistent facilities. Each participating school must raise a portion of the construction costs to assure the school's commitment to the library. This project also empowers parents and children with an entrepreneurial spirit and ability to affect and change their school and environment.

When completed, these new libraries become a tremendous source of pride and a focal point for the entire community where they are located. Adult literacy programs, pajama reading nights, and other programs enhance reading and school performance.

The 15 Everychild-funded libraries were built over a four year period, with the final library opening in August, 2005. Everychild also provided over 10,000 books and trained over 100 volunteer reading partners. By the end of this year, our libraries will have served over 25,000 students and their families.

A portion of the grant ($10,000) is also being used for the preparation of a "how-to" manual. The Wonder of Reading will provide this manual to other charitable entities around the country interested in replicating this program. Wonder of Reading, which has now built over 160 libraries over 10 years in LAUSD schools, is the only program of its kind in the country.

[ YEAR 2001 ]

MOBILE DENTAL CLINIC


The first Everychild project was the purchase of a 48 foot, fifth-wheel trailer and its complete outfitting as a new, state-of-the-art dental clinic. Everychild granted $230,000, all raised between August and December of 2000, to QueensCare, the operator of the clinic. QueensCare is a non-profit health care provider to the indigent of Los Angeles. The clinic's purpose is to serve some of the lowest-income schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District on a permanent basis. The vehicle has three fully equipped dental stations, a laboratory and x-ray equipment.

The clinic is staffed by the USC School of Dentistry, under contract with QueensCare. Dental services are provided to second and third-graders. These grades were targeted by USC as the most optimal to treat because, without dental intervention by this age, lifelong problems may result.

The lack of dental care among these children is incredibly widespread. Many have never seen a dentist nor ever brushed their teeth. Many children don’t have their own toothbrush and, if they do brush their teeth, sometimes share their toothbrush with other family members. As a result, the degree of decay, pain and disease among them is of staggering proportions.

The dental problems of these children were much more severe than were ever anticipated by either QueensCare or USC School of Dentistry staff. As a result, the Everychild Clinic experience has served as a catalyst to others in the community to purchase and equip three additional Mobile Dental Clinics which are already in operation along with ours. During the last calendar year alone, the four mobile clinics visited 15 schools and served almost 2,000 second and third graders. They provided a total of nearly 19,000 procedures, including over 7,000 exams, 7,000 preventive procedures, 3,300 restorative procedures, 324 crowns, 414 root canals, and 482 extractions.

Since the first clinic funded by Everychild opened in May 2001, the mobile dental clinic program has now treated over 6,300 children, conducted over 75,000 procedures, and distributed over 15,000 oral hygiene kits. Moreover, in follow-up visits a year later, program staff has found vastly improved dental health in the students previously treated, with no problems except a few cavities and the need for additional sealants.

WESTSIDE FOOD BANK

On September 11, 2005, 150 Everychild volunteers - including more than 75 children - gathered at the Westside Food Bank in Santa Monica for the annual Everychild Family Day service project. In the largest volunteer gathering ever held at the Food Bank, Everychild volunteers packed 4,320 pounds of food, diapers, children’s clothing, supplies and linens that they had brought to the Food Bank for distribution to families displaced by Hurricane Katrina. On the following day, Westside Food Bank provided trucks and drivers to deliver the supplies to the Salvation Army Shelter in Bell, near downtown Los Angeles, where families of hurricane victims were temporarily housed.

In addition, Everychild volunteers also sorted 20,160 pounds of food for distribution to children, families and individuals in need on the Westside.

BLANKETS FOR HOMELESS CHILDREN

In October 2004, Tracy and Christopher Esse hosted the Annual Family Day which targeted the needs of homeless children. The beneficiary organization was Children Helping Poor and Homeless People, whose mission is to teach children about the needs of the homeless and to spur them to action. Through the efforts of our members, we were able to sponsor over 2,500 brand new blankets targeted for homeless children and families. During the day of the event, our children decorated the borders of a portion of these blankets and heard from Christine Schanes and Rod Taylor, the founders of CHPHP about the plight of over 8,000 homeless children, here in our very own city.

TEAM PRIME TIME

On November 16th, 2003, Everychild members and their families joined together at the home of member Wendy Block and husband Chuck for the Third Annual Family Day. Everychild families celebrated the beautiful November day by packing book bags with school supplies donated by our membership for local children at Team Prime Time, an after-school mentoring and enrichment program for at-risk children in local schools.

Team Prime Time is committed to turning around the lives of low-iincome middle schoolers who are struggling in school. The program provides three key resources to struggling students: tutors who provide academic assistance in a one-on-one setting, adult supervision while parents are at work, and counselors who serve as positive role-models.

By coming together for this event, the Everychild women enabled the program to expand its reach and capabilities. The program will be admitting ten new children as what founder/director Peter Straus calls "The Everychild Ten." Additionally, due to the special generosity of the Smidt and Goldsmith families, Prime Time received, respectively, all new sports equipment and new classroom computers. Everychild commends Mr. Straus on the tremendous impact and success of his program.

SHOES THAT FIT

During our October 2002 Family Day at the home of the Feintech family, Everychild teamed with Shoes That Fit, an non-profit organization whose mission is to provide new, custom-fitted shoes to low-income children who rarely, if ever, have properly-fitting new shoes. Over 200 pairs of new athletic shoes were generously donated by Avia, and each child brought packages of new socks. Speakers from Shoes that Fit spoke to the children about the lack of proper footwear for so many local children, and all the children in attendance decorated over 200 shopping bags into which the shoes and socks were placed. The bags were delivered to the Castle Heights Elementary School later that month and were distributed to some very delighted students!
  

KINDERGARTEN BACKPACK PROJECT

In 2001 at the home of Shelley and Frank Litvack, the children sponsored and stuffed backpacks for underprivileged incoming kindergartners at four different Los Angeles Unified Schools. Guess Jeans generously donated 600 new backpacks for the event. Teachers at the selected schools provided a wish list for the supplies, which included workbooks, glue, scissors, pencils, pads of paper and crayons.

When the backpacks were delivered to the kindergartners, some of the schools held a special ceremony. The children were ecstatic, as many of them had never before possessed any of their own school supplies.