Upward Bound House, a leading provider of housing and supportive services to homeless families in Los Angeles, accepted $100,000 that will help support the construction of an emergency shelter in Culver City for families with children. The gift was given by longtime supporters Robert and Marion Wilson, who helped found Upward Bound House’s Family Place in 1997.
“We are overwhelmed by the Wilson’s generosity,” said David Snow, executive director of Upward Bound House. “This gift will enable us to meet our core operating and program needs, and will play a critical role in filling the final gaps in our capital efforts to complete our new emergency shelter. This is a wonderful blessing for the hundreds of children who will move from the streets to stable homes. ”
The new facility — the only on the Westside of Los Angeles for families with children — is scheduled to open mid-2009 and will serve 240 individuals each year, including over 125 children. It will complement the agency’s 21-unit Family Place facility located in Santa Monica. By offering both emergency and transitional housing, Upward Bound House will operate a distinctive “continuum of care” that guides families from crisis into stability, Snow said.
Santa Monica City Councilman Richard Bloom, an advocate to end homelessness regionally, congratulated Upward Bound House on this major gift.
“Upward Bound House’s Family Shelter facility will employ a model ‘Housing First’ program designed to rapidly move homeless families into permanent housing,” Bloom said. “This is one of the key strategies in our regional effort to end homelessness.”
Upward Bound House is a community-based, nonprofit social service agency located in Santa Monica. Since 1997, more than 1,000 individuals — including over 600 children — have graduated from Upward Bound House and are no longer homeless. There are more than 10,000 homeless children in Los Angeles County every night, according to the organization.
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