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The Gift of Giving By Lookout Staff November 5 -- You don’t need to step outside Santa Monica to help the less fortunate this holiday season. The city has a host of major social service providers that are working year round to make a difference in thousands of lives. From helping the mentally ill and the elderly cope with the daily tasks we often take for granted, to providing food, clothing and training for the poor and homeless, many of whom are increasingly families, the Bayside District’s social service agencies have stepped up to lend a helping hand. Here are the stories of four of those agencies and some of the clients they have helped. Stepping Up to Help The voices told Thomas everything: what to do, whom he could trust, if he should take his medication, even when to cross the street. The problem was that the voices were not coming from a friend or doctor, but rather from his own head. And they lied. Then he got a second chance at Step Up on Second, a psychosocial rehabilitation center on Second Street downtown. After seven years of help from the case managers and psychiatrists at Step Up, Thomas was able to ignore the voices caused by his mental illness. Thomas now has his own apartment, works at the Santa Monica Farmers’ Market, volunteers at Step Up and helps others. That’s a long way to come. This is the kind of story that makes Tod Lipka, CEO of Step Up on Second, beam with pride and joy. Lipka calls this “noble work,” and it gives him satisfaction to be “contributing to a better Santa Monica community” by offering critically needed services to the mentally ill. “What do you want to do?” That’s the first question asked of start up members. Lipka and his staff believe a process that recognizes the goals and desires of each member will have a much greater chance for success. They are careful to focus on the strengths and talents -- not only the illness -- of each member.
Step Up is geared specifically to help the mentally ill. And while about half of the 250 to 350 individuals who frequent the agency on any given day are homeless, many are not. A diagnosed, severe and persistent mental illness and a willingness to improve one’s life through the programs offered are the only requirements to becoming a member. Step Up offers a rich variety of services to its members. The four-story building provides permanent housing in 36 furnished, single apartments, and its cafeteria serves some 35,000 meals a year at breakfast and dinner. In addition, the agency offers mail service, support meetings and job training and placement. It also boasts its own café and store, The Fresh Start Café, which is open to the public. The café, as well as Fresh Start Catering, provides on-the-job training for members. Asked if Step Up has a holiday wish, Lipka said, “We can always use blankets during the winter.” Donations of cash, services and other goods also are welcome. Donations are tax-deductible. Step Up on Second is located at 1328 Second Street in Santa Monica and
on the Web at www.stepuponsecond.org. Story above by staff writer Phil Wayne Marching into the Holiday Season Like presents tucked beneath a Christmas tree, nearly 20,000 cans of food have been squirreled away by the local chapter of the Salvation Army on Fourth Street in anticipation of the approaching holiday season -- a time when finances are especially tight for people on fixed and low incomes. “That’s about 650 boxes with 25 to 30 cans per box,” said Captain Brian West, chaplain and officer at the nonprofit charitable foundation’s local headquarters Downtown.
For many, the organization’s image remains forever tied to bell-toting Santas ho, ho, ho-ing for loose change and dollars. But the reality is that the faith-based group goes far beyond solitary Santas, with hundreds of volunteers, dozens of staff and an operating budget of nearly $1.5 million that help the group’s Santa Monica facilities serve nearly 4,000 people every year in Santa Monica, Venice, Mar Vista and West Los Angeles. Canned food drives are just a part. “We service all aspects of the community. From seniors to families and adults, we help everyone get the food and goods they need to get by,” West said. “We raised nearly $10,000 at our ‘Christmas in September’ event,” said West. “Without this community involvement, we would never be able to have hit that goal.” The Salvation Army has been helping poor families through “adopt-a-family,” a program that facilitates in-kind gifts. “The program allows someone to buy such things as shoes for kids,” said West. “Picking up those extra purchases allows people to pick up a few presents for their own kids. During Christmas those extra purchases can be quite a strain, when people are just worried about how they’re paying rent." West said the group is currently exploring a similar year-round program in which anonymous donors sponsor needy families. Just a block from the bustling Third Street Promenade, the Salvation Army’s local headquarters also hands out free meals, cleaning kits, blankets and clothes to the poor and homeless who line up daily for a helping hand. West said many of those using their facilities also use SAMOSHEL, the group’s homeless shelter at the back of the bus yard on Colorado Avenue near Seventh Street. With annual operating costs of nearly $600,000, the shelter serves about 100 adults each night. By the summer of 2005, it will relocate down the block on Olympic near Sixth Street. “With the help of the community, we’re making a difference for many as they face the upcoming holidays,” added West The Salvation Army is located at 1533 Fourth Street. Story above by staff writer Olin Ericksen Drop-In Center Provides Safety Net Cherry Castillo's office at the Ocean Park Community Center (OPCC) doubles as a play area. An army of stuffed animals face off against binders full of data and folders full of case histories, some three inches thick. "We sometimes have kids play in here while their parents are in counseling, so they can talk freely or let out their emotions if they need to," said Castillo, who runs the agency’s drop-in center Downtown. "If their children are not in school, we make sure we get them in school right away." Families are the fastest growing demographic among the homeless in Santa Monica, Castillo said. "We've seen a steady increase in families coming here for help, with maybe three to five families a day coming in now," said Castillo, who blames the increase on a soft economy and the crippling of the City’s Rent Control law. Between 275 and 300 homeless clients a day walk through the doors of the inconspicuous brick building on Seventh Street near Colorado Avenue, where they depend on the meals, clothes and counseling that help them deal with the hard realities of life on the streets of Santa Monica. "We feed them, provide them with places to wash up, give them clean clothes and provide them access to counseling and case managers," said Castillo. "It can be a thankless job, but it can be very rewarding when you help someone." Those cramped quarters will be relieved next summer, when the facility’s shelter is relocated to the City’s industrial corridor, Castillo said. A major challenge facing the center is the prevalence of mental illness among the homeless. “Maybe half the people we see have some trouble with mental illness,” said Castillo, who adds that OPCC’s counseling services provide a much-needed outlet for the homeless. “Part of the counseling’s effect is to provide them with self-esteem. We can also refer them to mental health services and get them access to medication.” Funded by City, County, State and Federal grants, as well as private donors, OPCC’s access center’s total operating budget is around $825,000, and the agency supplements its paid staff with about 375 volunteers who pitch in throughout the year. “Without our great staff, we couldn’t do the work we do here,” said Castillo. “We empower people here.” The OPCC drop-in center is located at 1616 Seventh Street. Story above by staff writer Olin Ericksen Becoming Active and Independent with WISE One afternoon almost a half century ago, a little girl named Janice told her mother, "When I get big and you get little, I'm going to take as good care of you as you take of me." Today, that little girl is fulfilling her promise to care for the woman who adopted her when she was a two-pound preemie - but she is juggling care of her mother with nursing school and life with her fiancée. Janice, like two decades of Santa Monicans before her, uses the WISE Adult Day Service Center to supplement the care she can give to her mother, Rosemary, a former radio station executive who has Alzheimer's disease. The adult day center on Pico Boulevard is open five days a week, 11 hours a day, for seniors and people with disabilities to exercise, eat meals, do arts and crafts and simply have companionship while their caregivers are at work or taking time for themselves.
"We're there to provide a support system," said Nancy Hayes, president and CEO of the nonprofit WISE Senior Services. "The whole goal of this is to keep people active and involved and living independently as long as they can and desire." There are classes for people with different degrees of dementia, Alzheimer's, stroke or other disabilities. On a tour through the facility one rainy October afternoon, one room was filled with seniors waving their arms during an exercise course, a class for those with mild memory loss. Across the hall, those with more severe afflictions listened to a man sing and strum a guitar. Others danced in another room, participating in the free program for Spanish-speaking seniors who have no memory loss. Adult day programs are only the beginning of what WISE does, however. Dial-A-Ride vans, run by WISE, the City and the Big Blue Bus, take seniors and people with disabilities anywhere in Santa Monica for 50 cents a ride. WISE places seniors looking for community involvement in volunteer positions at schools and libraries, and the organization's care managers go into the community to help the elderly who might be in trouble - providing free help, for example, helping obtain health insurance for seniors who have not been able to apply for it on their own. The City consistently supports WISE's programs, said Josh Einhorn, program director of the adult day center. "The City of Santa Monica is so supportive," he said. "They are so into this program. They give such a high priority to the needs of seniors." A few years ago, the City gave $500,000 to help WISE construct its new adult day center, a bright glass-filled building designed pro bono by Hayes' husband, a world-renowned architect. "They wanted us to stay in Santa Monica," Einhorn said. Cost for the adult day center varies with the level of care needed, but is typically $7 to $15 per hour. Seniors with severe financial hardships occasionally receive scholarships to attend at no cost. Wise Senior Services is located at 1527 Fourth Street. Story above by staff writer Susan Reines |
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