LIVEA Way Home for Women & Children
Help us provide a way home for women and children experiencing homelessness on the streets of Los Angeles.
Please describe your project proposal.
As part this Grants Challenge, Union Rescue Mission will help 15 mothers and their children get into permanent housing over the next year. The project connects women and children experiencing homelessness with food, supportive services and a healthy place to LIVE. It engages and connects caring citizens and local communities with opportunities for service. And it gives all of us the chance to work together to transform Los Angeles into a place where everyone deserves to thrive.
Which of the LIVE metrics will your proposal impact?
Access to healthy food
Housing affordability
Healthcare access
Self-sufficiency
Resilient communities
Residents receiving coordinated healthcare services
Homelessness
Mental illness
In what areas of Los Angeles will you be directly working?
Central LA
East LA
San Fernando Valley
South LA
County of Los Angeles
Describe in greater detail how your proposal will make LA the best place to LIVE?
At Union Rescue Mission, we believe that providing a way home for women and children is just the right thing to do. What better way to transform Los Angeles than to provide a tangible pathway from the streets, and from under the bridges, from cars and motels, from hopelessness to healing and to a home.
Our dream for LA in 2050, is a city where no-one is homeless. LA will be a place where EVERYONE has the chance for a job, food, and LIVE with a roof over their head. As part of this $100,000 Grants Challenge, Union Rescue Mission wants to team up with the people of LA to help 15 mothers and their children get into permanent housing over the next year.
In Los Angeles, our city, there are more than 46,000 people who live on the streets. More than half are women and many of them live in one of the most dangerous parts of Central Los Angeles—Skid Row. Right now, Union Rescue Mission has 735 women and children living at the Mission. These are record numbers and for the first time in history, we have more women than men living at the Mission. Union Rescue Mission is one of the only places where families experiencing homelessness can go. We never turn a woman or a family with children away, setting up emergency shelter in the chapel when at full capacity. The women and children we serve come to us lost and broken. They are depressed and deeply worried about their children. Many have simply given up hope.
As a result of this Grants Challenge, more women and children will get off the streets of Skid Row and get their lives back on track. This starts with the provision of emergency food and shelter at the downtown shelter, followed by transitional housing and access to comprehensive, holistic services at Hope Gardens Family Center. This is followed by help finding a job and moving into permanent housing. More than 1200 women have found a pathway to healing and hope at Hope Gardens Family Center, since the program began in 2007. We plan for many more miracles to take place in this life-transforming place.
At Union Rescue Mission, we provide more than a meal. Our comprehensive services and transitional housing programs provide a tangible pathway to health, jobs and housing. We are a group of people who believe that every person deserves to LIVE with a roof over their heads, and want to do something about it. Please join us. Together, we CAN end homelessness.
Please explain how you will define and measure success for your project.
This project will be evaluated as an on-going part of Union Rescue Mission's commitment to measuring and tracking progress and impact. Outcome measurements tracked will include: number of women, children and families enrolling in our program each night; number of families moving to Hope Gardens and other transitional housing programs; number of women participating in comprehensive recovery programs or utilizing the medical clinic.
How can the LA2050 community and other stakeholders help your proposal succeed?
Money
Volunteers
Publicity/awareness
Education/training
Network/relationship support