Why We Give Project

Housing and Homelessness

Expand existing project, program, or initiative

At least 50-60K of the Los Angeles population alone suffers from homelessness.We specifically focus on hygiene kits as these items are rarely provided to the unhoused as most shelters and non-profits provide food ONLY as the most immediate basic need. Many times these items aren't within their budget and we want to help fill that gap. Reduced hygiene-access among people experiencing homelessness has been associated with a variety of communicable and non-communicable life-threatening disease outcomes. The unhoused community faces severe challenges such as mental health issues, physical health issues, and threats to their safety. Hygiene items that are a daily necessity doesn't alleviate all of their problems but can help prevent health issues and curb existing ones. EVERY human DESERVES access to hygiene products. Access to hygiene products are a RIGHT and NOT a privilege.

This grant will help to support our CARE hygiene kits to be given to local shelters and non-profit organizations as well as our own street distribution. First, one of our goals is to give out at least 10,000 hygiene kits to the unhoused community by the end of the year. And second, we want to give more full size hygiene items vs. travel size so recipients can make more use of the products past a two week time period. This grant will also assist us in raising our platform and to attract more corporate sponsors to further assist us with product donation. We want to get as many hygiene kits in addition to socks and underwear (which are greatly in demand) as possible to our unhoused community. This grant will get us closer to our goal.

Los Angeles County will be different as our work continues to be successful because it directly addressing and being a viable solution to a social problem that negatively impacts Los Angeles county which is homelessness. The rate of communicable diseases has increased 2x in the homeless population since the pandemic and our solution can help to curb some of the health issues that our unhoused community faces. In addition, street medical teams find our hygiene items to be on popular demand as it helps them to solve immediate health care needs that the unhoused community faces. The impact of increasing hygiene items to the unhoused community of Los Angeles can assist other state funded and nonprofit programs who are in the field to address the healthcare needs this community suffers from. The more items we can distribute then the bigger the impact we can make for those who need our items the most.

I get feedback from events via surveys given to volunteers and donors to see how we can improve on our process and what people identify as our strengths. We also use this information to scale our events, increase our platform, and increase engagement in volunteerism for our volunteers (they are 3x likely to continue volunteering via our events or with other non-profit organizations after experiencing our event as opposed to if they haven't volunteered with us). In addition, feedback is received from local shelters and other non-profits we give hygiene kits to, to see what hygiene products work best or don't and if we need to change/expand on particular items. We have also been working with local street medical teams, larger nonprofit organizations, and with representatives from the Los Angeles City Council to get more definitive, factual information on the status of the unhoused community and how we can customize our efforts to be a more viable solution.