In the time since I wrote to you last September so much has changed in our country and in our community.  Last summer I described the steps that we had taken towards expanding and improving our services.  Since then we’ve taken some new steps toward providing more and better services.  But now there is a new sense of urgency about expanding our funding base.  As you know, the attacks of September 11^th severely reduced the number of passengers at LAX.  LAX was forced to tighten its belt financially, and this resulted in a major funding cutback to our agency.  We are facing this new financial challenge with an even greater sense of determination to fulfill our mission.  We need your support now more than ever before.

We can no longer take for granted a sense of business as usual where our funding is concerned. We must find new sources of funding.  What motivates us to do so is our conviction that the services that we provide continue to be critical to the people we serve. With this in mind let me give you some reasons why I believe that our agency deserves your continued donations.

We are all part of one, single community.  The work we do to support homeless youth and adults in Hollywood helps the direct recipients of our support. It also contributes to a safer, healthier, more humane community for us all. HIV/AIDS knows no demographic restrictions.  Our For Love Or Money program is helping to educate youth on how to protect themselves from this epidemic.

We are an efficient agent of the community’s social services funding.  86% of every dollar that we receive goes directly to the people who use our services.  We are committed to continuing to provide our services in a cost-effective and wise manner.

We are an effective agent of community support.  Our Quality Improvement Committee has documented positive outcomes for the services that we provide.  Please check out our website at www.tasla.org for the latest report from our Quality Improvement Committee.

We provide a unique and much needed service.  No other agency addresses our mission to serve individuals and families in crisis without immediate resources, due to mobility, homelessness or other disruptive circumstances.  This means family reunification of stranded travelers at LAX, Union Station, and it means helping the homeless youth and adults in Hollywood both at Teen Canteen and at the new PATH Regional Homeless Center.  It includes helping to relocate victims of domestic violence. It includes helping older adults, who get lost at LAX, to reach their intended destination. It includes providing assistance to nearly 1,000,000 travelers per year at LAX 365 days each year.

We serve homeless and “throwaway” youth.  These kids don’t have any parents, no parental role modeling, no one to protect them, no trusted adult to give them advice, to listen to them, to encourage them, to discipline them.  They have no one.  Teen Canteen does more than provide needed meals, showers, and casework services.  Teen Canteen provides a supportive, safe environment with attentive staffers who understand the issues with which our youth struggle.  Our business as usual means educating youth about safe sex.  It also means helping youth to get home or, if that is not feasible, to find housing.  We help youth to overcome challenges of drugs, sex, and violence.

We collaborate with the community to make Los Angeles a better place.  For example, we are proud of the fact that on 9/11 our volunteers did not leave their booths until they were told to leave for their own safety.  On 9/13 our LAX Volunteers were called back to staff their booths at the 9 arrival terminals at LAX, and they did so. Our Teen Canteen staff participates in the Hollywood Homeless Youth Partnership, a cooperative effort of local agencies serving youth.  We also participate in the Hollywood Community Police Advisory Board.

Our nearly 300 Volunteers at LAX and Union Station provide welcome information, access to meals and shelter, and access to a social caseworker, every day, for stranded travelers and for people in crisis.

Even while we are looking for new funding sources to sustain our agency, we are finding new opportunities.  Recently, we’ve accepted new funding from the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health to offer a new Caseworker for Youth Services at the PATH (People Assisting The Homeless) Regional Homeless Center, newly opened at 340 N. Madison, Los Angeles. This new position represents an opportunity to refer youth to Teen Canteen as well as to refer adults to our newly relocated Adult Caseworker, also located at the PATH Regional Homeless Center.

In addition to our new funding from the Department of Mental Health, we have received $7,500 from the County of Los Angeles with the help of Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky.  We have also received a gift of $5,000 from Macy’s West/Federated Department Stores.  We are extremely proud of having received two, new grants to support our efforts to establish a Development Department responsible for ongoing fund raising and capacity building activities:  We’ve just received a two-year grant from The Weingart Foundation in the amount of $40,000 ($20,000 per year) to help us to support our capacity building work.  We’ve received a grant from The Parsons Foundation for $50,000 also to support our capacity building.

We depend upon the support of the community.  I’m proud of the work that we have been doing and of our tradition of service since 1922.  Please help us to continue our mission.

I welcome your phone calls and comments, 323/468-2500, extension 23, or paul@tasla.org.

Thanks!

Paul E. Hollombe, LCSW, BCD

TRAVELERS AID SOCIETY OF LOS ANGELES
1507 Winona Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90027
323/644-3500
Fax 323/644-3505
E-mail: travelers@tasla.org