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Child and Family Guidance Center
Recipient of First
Everychild Foundation Finalist Merit Award

The Everychild Foundation has announced the Child and Family Guidance Center as the recipient of the First Everychild Foundation Finalist Merit Award. The award will include a gift of $25,000 in cash.

The Everychild Foundation is a group of philanthropic Los Angeles women that selects a single project each year to receive a grant award of $1 million. The project must fill a critical unmet need of children in the Los Angeles area by easing suffering due to disease, disability, neglect or poverty.

The Finalist Merit Award was created to recognize the runner-up in the Foundation’s yearly grant process. The Child and Family Guidance Center, serving the San Fernando Valley, had proposed an expansion of its successful Champions for Children program.

“Each year we face a difficult decision between two finalists for our grant,” said Everychild Foundation Founder and President, Jacqueline Caster. “This award recognizes the excellence of the runner up and provides them with a monetary award that we hope will serve as the catalyst for funding their proposed program.”

“We hope the award will bring attention to our grant runner-up from other potential funders,” said Ms. Caster.

Champions for Children is the Child & Family Guidance Center’s successful, evidence-based best practices mental health services program serving disadvantaged children with severe behavioral or emotional problems that place them at risk for removal from their home, school expulsion and trouble with the law.

The program expansion, which would be achieved over 18 months, would serve an additional 250 high-risk children with emphasis placed on underserved populations, especially Latino and Spanish-speaking children and families, and the most vulnerable children whose behavior problems are not being managed appropriately in traditional settings by either parents or teachers.

“The Child and Family Guidance Center has identified a major gap in intensive mental health service for disadvantaged children, and specifically the need for highly qualified therapists,” said the Foundation’s Grant Screening Board Chair Hilary Nelson Jacobs. “The Center has stepped up to the challenge and has created a process that will have long-term impact on the community at large.”

This is the ninth year the Everychild Foundation has given a grant to an agency in the Los Angeles area to help children and the third year the grant has reached the $1 million level. This year”s awardee is St. John’s Well Child and Family Center’s Healthy Homes, Healthy Kids project, addressing the causes of lead poisoning and asthma in low-income neighborhoods.

Past recipients of the Everychild Foundation grants include: Mar Vista Family Center (2007), Heart of Los Angeles Youth (2006), Los Angeles Orthopedic Hospital (2005), Hillsides (2004), Optimist Youth Homes (2003), Violence Intervention Program (2002), Wonder of Reading (2001), and QueensCare (2000).

For more information on the grant to Child & Family Guidance Center and the Everychild Foundation, please go to: www.everychildfoundation.org.

Media Inquiries may be directed to:

Erika Maya
Ballantines PR
erika@ballantinespr.com
http://www.ballantinespr.com/
Tel: 310 454 3080
Cell: 310 850 0309

$1 Million Everychild Foundation
Grant Goes to
St. John’s Well Child and Family Center

St. John’s Well Child and Family Center is the recipient of the Everychild Foundation’s Annual $1 million grant. The grant will implement the agency’s environmental health project, Healthy Homes, Healthy Kids.

The announcement was made on November 13 by Everychild Foundation President and Founder, Jacqueline Caster, and Hilary Nelson Jacobs, Chair of the foundation’s Grant Screening Board.

ECF Grant Screening Board and Outreach Committee

Each year the group of 215 philanthropic Los Angeles women selects one project to receive a grant award of $1 million. The project must fill a critical and unmet need of children in the Los Angeles area by easing suffering due to disease, disability, neglect or poverty.

Healthy Homes, Healthy Kids uses a comprehensive approach to help children who have literally been sickened by slum housing. The program specifically targets two primary illnesses: asthma, one of the leading causes of missed school days, and lead poisoning, a serious condition that can lead to brain damage, kidney disease and nerve damage.

The project integrates comprehensive pediatric medical care with education, case management services and tenant assistance to reduce children’s exposure to health hazards present in their homes including lead-based paint, mold, vermin, cockroaches and dust mites. The project uses successful strategies employed by St. John’s in earlier, smaller projects.

“Our members like this project because it clearly seeks to repair a part of the health care system that is broken in impoverished communities in the Los Angeles area,” said Jacqueline Caster. “The program breaks the cycle of illness by educating families, providing resources and materials and helping them navigate the housing bureaucracy.”

Over an 18-month period, Healthy Homes, Healthy Kids will provide comprehensive health care and educational services to 4,000 children suffering from asthma, lead poisoning, or other serious environmental conditions. Three hundred of these children would also receive intensive home-based case management services.

The project will improve the health of hundreds of other children because the vast majority of families in the community have multiple children and many share homes with others. In addition, the project will eventually have a large-scale impact on slum housing by channeling compelling health data into advocacy that helps children across Los Angeles.

This is the ninth year the Everychild Foundation has given a grant to an agency in the Los Angeles area to help children and the third year the grant has reached the $1 million level.

Past recipients of the Everychild Foundation grants include: Mar Vista Family Center (2007), Heart of Los Angeles Youth (2006), Los Angeles Orthpaedic Hospital (2005), Hillsides (2004), Optimist Youth Homes (2003), Violence Intervention Program (2002), Wonder of Reading (2001), and Queens Care (2000).

For more information on the grant to St. John’s Well Child and Family Canter and the Everychild Foundation, please go to: www.everychildfoundation.org.

Media inquiries may be directed to:

Erika Maya
Ballantines PR
erika@ballantinespr.com
http://www.ballantinespr.com/
Tel: 310 454 3080
Cell: 310 850 0309

MEDIA ALERT:
The Everychild Foundation announces
its $1 million Grant Award Winner
on Thursday, November 13th.

WHEN:
Thursday, November 13, 2008
1:00 p.m.

WHERE:
12735 Hanover Street
Los Angeles, CA 90049

The Everychild Foundation (ECF):
The Everychild Foundation was born out of the belief that there is a group of women in Los Angeles who together can award grants to make a serious difference in the lives of children in need. All of Everychild’s funds are derived from member dues in lieu of fundraising events, which can often be costly and require many hours of planning. Each woman contributes $5,000 in annual dues and has an equal vote in the grant decision.

Each year, the group of 225 philanthropic women selects one project to grant an award of $1 million. The project must fill a critical unmet need of children in the Los Angeles area, easing suffering due to disease, disability, abuse neglect or poverty. This year, there are two finalists with amazing projects that are vying for the grant – The Child and Family Guidance Center and The St. John’s Well Child and Family Center. This will be the foundation’s 9th grant award and its third for $1 million. Press is invited to attend the grant winner announcement on Thursday, November 13th. Their year long efforts will come to an exciting moment as the members gather to open and tally the ballots.

The Two ECF Grant Finalists:
The Child and Family Guidance Center serving the greater San Fernando Valley and the Antelope Valley has requested the Everychild grant to support its Champions for Children expansion project. The award would be used towards the prevention of out-of-home placement of at-risk children and youth, striving to keep families together. The money would also support their efforts to decrease children’s rates of antisocial behavior and other serious problems, improve family functioning and increase the number of bilingual mental health professionals who will serve these at risk children.

St. John’s Well Child and Family Center, serving an area with one million residents that include South Los Angeles and Compton, has requested the Everychild grant to implement Healthy Homes, Health Kids. This is an environmental health project that uses a holistic approach to help children who have literally been sickened by slum housing. It targets two primary illnesses – asthma, one of the leading causes of missed school days, and lead poisoning, which can lead to brain damage, kidney disease and nerve damage. The proposed program will integrate comprehensive pediatric medical care with education, case management, services and tenant assistance to reduce children’s exposure to health hazards present in their homes.

Past recipients of the Everychild Foundation grants include: Mar Vista Family Center (2007), Heart of Los Angeles Youth (2006), Los Angeles Orthopedic Hospital (2005), Hillsides (2004), Optimist Youth Homes (2003), Violence Intervention Program (2002), Wonder of Reading (2001), and Queens Care (2000).

For more information on the Everychild Foundation, please go to www.everychildfoundation.org.

To attend the ECF Grant Announcement, or schedule an interview with one of the finalists, please contact:

Erika Maya
Ballantines PR
erika@ballantinespr.com
http://www.ballantinespr.com/
Tel: 310 454 3080
Cell: 310 850 0309