Organizations
The Giving Spirit is privileged to work with the following organizations who join us in our commitment to help the most vulnerable of those who need to survive on the street – children, women and families.
The Downtown Women’s Center
Founded in 1978, the Downtown Women’s Center (DWC) is a nationally recognized nonprofit organization that provides 40,000 meals, 47 permanent supportive housing apartments, and a wide array of health, education, and other supportive services to more than 2000 homeless women each year. The Center’s mission is to offer a safe and supportive community along with the resources homeless women need to reconnect with their sense of self, reclaim goals lost in the day-to-day struggle for survival on the streets, and move toward self-sufficiency. In the local Skid Row community, the Downtown Women’s Center is the only resource that is exclusively for and singularly dedicated to serving the unique needs of this population. Established in 1978, DWC operates both a day center (providing meals and a wide array or resources on a drop-in basis) and a residence (47 single unit apartments providing permanent, affordable, supportive housing to formerly homeless women) out of two beautifully renovated, adjoining buildings located at 325 S. Los Angeles Street.
The San Fernando Valley Rescue Mission
Established in 1998, the San Fernando Valley Rescue Mission provides essential life services and referrals to homeless in the Valley. The San Fernando Valley Rescue Mission is a Mobile Mission, collaborating with local congregations to provide multiple facilities and locations to meet the needs of the homeless. Headquartered in North Hollywood, the San Fernando Valley Rescue Mission reaches out to all areas of the Valley, from North Hollywood to Chatsworth, and from Pacoima to Woodland Hills. The San Fernando Valley Rescue Mission is an outreach ministry of the Rescue Mission Alliance, a non-profit, privately funded, faith based Christian organization providing food, shelter, clothing, counseling, and case management services to homeless families. Additional resources for the families are garnered through collaboration with other organizations providing such services as vocational training, and drug and alcohol recovery. Through the various programs, the Rescue Mission is providing over 1,000 nights of shelter and 7,000 meals per month. The San Fernando Valley Rescue Mission currently provides the homeless with food, clothing, counseling and referral to other Rescue Mission Alliance.
Ocean Park Community Center
OPCC (Ocean Park Community Center) is the largest and most comprehensive provider of housing and services on the Westside to low-income and homeless youth, adults and families, battered women and their children, and people living with mental illness, particularly homeless mentally ill women. OPCC currently operates 257 emergency and transitional beds in six facilities, and has over 150 individuals living in apartments throughout the region with rental subsidy vouchers obtained by OPCC. Staff, volunteers and clients work together with mutual respect to address the effects of poverty, abuse, neglect and discrimination. The agency’s programs are designed to empower people to access the resources they need to ensure their survival, end their victimization and improve the quality of their lives. OPCC provides a common ground for our diverse community to affect public policy and advocate responsive human resources. OPCC was founded in 1963 as a community resource center for low-income families in the Ocean Park neighborhood of Santa Monica. As the needs of the community have changed over the last 45 years, and homelessness, domestic violence, and mental illness have become prominent social issues, OPCC has evolved into a multi-faceted social service agency serving more than 8,000 people annually, empowering them to rebuild their lives and become self-sufficient.
My Friend’s Place
The mission of My Friend’s Place is to inspire and assist the homeless and high-risk street youth of Los Angeles to build self-sufficient lives. From necessitites like food and clothing to education and individual case management, My Friend’s Place seeks to provide the spark that awakens our young people to the possibility of life beyond the street.
Midnight Mission
The Midnight Mission offers a path to self- sufficiency to men, women and children who have lost everything. Our emergency services, 12-step recovery program, job training, education and work programs offer a compassionate bridge to productive lives. Through our services, we remove obstacles to self-sufficiency and provide the accountability and structure that people who are experiencing homelessness need to rejoin their communities. Our conviction and commitment to their success define us.
Union Rescue Mission
Union Rescue Mission (URM) is dedicated to serving men, women, and children experiencing homelessness. We provide comprehensive emergency and long-term services to our guests to help them escape the dangerous streets of Skid Row.
URM is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that was established in 1891. Today, we are one of the largest rescue missions of our kind in the United States, and the oldest in Los Angeles.
Hope of the Mission
Our goal is to meet the needs of the “whole” person — spiritually, emotionally, and physically. The organization is governed by a skilled and experienced local board of directors comprised of men and women who have a tremendous passion to see the needs of the hurting met in the San Fernando Valley. Our Mission is to attract people and resources to assist in the effort of meeting the needs of every hungry and homeless man, woman and child in the valley. Through strategic partnerships and services, we empower our clients with the faith, knowledge, resources and skills to lead a life of wholeness and self-sufficiency.
Safe Place For Youth
Safe Place for Youth’s mission is to inspire, nurture, and empower the resilient human spirit of homeless youth by providing immediate and lasting solutions, one young person at a time. Our program prioritizes low barriers for entry, harm-reduction, a trauma-informed approach, and the provision of a safe, supportive environment. Basic human needs are addressed through a “safe haven” atmosphere of hope and concern. SPY provides three core areas of service provision: Street Outreach, Drop-in Center, and Case Management.
Los Angeles LGBT Center - Youth Center on Highland
Be safe. Be welcome. Be yourself. If you’re one of the thousands of homeless lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or questioning young people (ages 12 – 24) without a home, the Los Angeles LGBT Center's Youth Center on Highland can help.
We empower people to lead full and rewarding lives without limits based on sexual orientation and gender identity, by providing the highest quality educational, cultural, and wellness programs to residents of Los Angeles County. Heal the damage caused by discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, by providing the highest quality health and social services to residents of Los Angeles County in need. We advocate full access and equality for all people regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, by promoting our communities' needs at local, state, and national levels; and lead through example, by living our values, sharing our expertise, and celebrating the full diversity of our lives, families, and communities.
Greater W Hollywood Food Coalition
The GWHFC is comprised of actors, producers, writers, artists, teachers, journalists, lawyers, housewives, and a corps of former “clients” who have all had a strong desire to give back by volunteering in Los Angeles. Serving a meal to the “homeless and hungry” is the smallest part of what we do. We meet them on their own turf, talk to them, and listen. We get to know them as individuals, and, little by little, in all kinds of ways, we then help them to think better of themselves and to not be shy about asking for specific, practical help – which the Greater West Hollywood Food Coalition, entirely unsystematically, then tries to provide. All together, volunteers and homeless, form a kind of microcosm of what the larger community ought to be, but now, in the big city, is no longer. The motto of the GWHFC is simply this (with no religious strings attached): I Am My Brother’s Keeper.
Covenant House
Covenant House California (CHC) is a non-profit agency whose mission is to reach out to at-risk homeless youth living on the streets and offer them hope and opportunities to turn their lives around. We help abused or neglected youth who have nowhere else to go. A large number have been thrown out of their homes while others have aged out or left the foster care system with no family, no support, and no one to turn to.
Since 1988, CHC has impacted the lives of more than 160,000 homeless youth out of our Los Angeles and Bay Area locations. More than 80% of our funding comes from private donations.
Freehab
The Teen Project's FREEHAB (free-rehab) Life Transformation Center serves LA's most vulnerable homeless youth, addicted and alone, refugees from foster care and abuse. There are approximately 4,000 youth living on our streets right now. FREEHAB gives these kids an equal chance at life. Freehab is a unique innovative center that combines drug treatment and technology to springboard youth lacking a family into a life of success.
Your Participation
- Donating Goods – Let us know if your company/organization is interested in making a bulk goods donation
- Donating Funds – Let us know if your company is interested in making a financial contribution to our cause.
- Donating People – Let us know if you’d like to find out how your company/organization can participate in our events
- Donating Resources – Let us know if there are there services your company/organization would like to contribute to our organization.
- Matching program – Does your company participate in donation matching? You’ll need to get the appropriate form from your Human Resources department, and include the completed form with your check that you send to us.