Grantee Spotlight: St. Francis Medical Center of Lynwood Foundation

With the last grantee spotlight of the year, we are honoring the St. Francis Medical Center of Lynwood Foundation. Their program, in partnership with Faison and Faison Dental Practice, provides dental surgeries to special needs children from uninsured, low-income families in Southeast Los Angles. Few dentists serve patients who are uninsured, and few have the patience, compassion, and facilities to treat special needs patients, but the Faisons put their heart into doing both! We are so impressed by this team, and are proud to say that our grant provided surgery for 11 special needs patients this year. Keep up the great work!

Grantee Spotlight: AbilityFirst

This month's grantee spotlight is on AbilityFirst, a group that focuses on bringing high quality programming to participants who face significant challenges such as autism, cerebral palsy, Down Syndrome, and other intellectual/developmental disabilities! We are so proud to support their after-school program, an outcomes-based and person-centered program implemented to facilitate development of independent living skills through real-world practice; to build communication and socialization skills through group and community activities; and to encourage healthy living with a variety of individual and group recreational and fitness opportunities. Very impressive!!

For more information on programs and services, visit abilityfirst.org or call (877) 768-4600.

Grantee Spotlight: Reading Opens Minds

This month we spotlight our fabulous grantee, Reading Opens Minds, a group dedicated to promoting literacy in at-risk communities through book clubs! We are so proud to support their after-school book clubs, and LOVE listening in on the insightful discussions held during their Real WORD Podcast! The shared experience of reading and discussion nurtures self worth, fosters empathy, encourages meaningful communication, and increases the sense of community, especially in areas where youth are most vulnerable in after-school hours. Way to go Readers!!

For more information, visit readingopensminds.org, or to listen in on the Real WORD Podcast at lareviewofbooks.org/the-real-word/.

Grantee Spotlight: Mar Vista Family Center

This month we are putting a spotlight on another of our amazing grantees, the Mar Vista Family Center. MVFC operates on a cooperative model through which families remain involved from early childhood all the way through adulthood. Their programs stresses the importance of parents being partners in the education of their children, and the holistic model allows parents, teens, and other members of the community to become classroom volunteers, preschool teachers, mentors, fundraisers, and community advocates. A community once filled with gang violence and unsafe streets has been transforming into a flourishing community thanks to MVFC! We are so proud to support!

To learn more about the Mar Vista Family Center, visit their website at http://marvistafc.org/.

Grantee Spotlight: UCLA Intervention Program

Look at those SWEET faces!

The UCLA Intervention Program is a center-based early intervention program providing educational, diagnostic and therapeutic services to infants and toddlers with a wide range of developmental risks and disabilities since 1952.  Their professional team, Medical Director (a pediatrician with a subspecialty in Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics), early childhood educators, and therapists, seek to discover each child’s unique learning style; how he/she processes information and what motivates him/her. Through helping children develop successful strategies for learning and guiding them to feel proud of their accomplishments, children expand their images of themselves as competent individuals open to life-long learning.
 
For more information please visit http://www.uclainterventionprogram.org or call (310) 825-4821.