Office: 760-843-0701
24/7 Hotline: 760-949-4357
I think we all sometimes think back and consider how our lives would have been different if some small thing had been different. For the keynote speaker at our gala, she has had plenty of those. One that I am most happy about is that she happened to sit next to Tracey Rick at a class at Valley College. The two of them got to know each other and Tracey told her about the Family Assistance Program and a job opening we had. Yvette applied and has now worked with us for over 10 years. Yvette is an amazing person, and I am excited that she will share her story for us at our gala this year.
Our gala is different than most. We honor our clients, staff, and a community champion. We focus on people who are working to make the world a better place, regardless of where they may have started. I hope you will all be able to join us as we celebrate successes. And, since it is a circus theme, it is an opportunity to wear clothes you would not normally wear. I am looking forward to dressing as ringmaster, definitely an outfit that I could not wear to most galas.
Thank you to The Life Church – Victorville and their “High Desert We Love You” program for volunteering to beautify three of our Transitional Age Youth houses to make them beautiful and safe homes for our sheltered youth! The homes look so beautiful after all the repairs and new decorations! The volunteers came out on August 22nd and 24th and worked extremely hard to beautify our homes for the homeless youth in the High Desert.
We are pleased to report that several of the clients spoke about the redecorating and painting and they were very happy with the results and appreciated the effort. The youth absolutely love the new look! We look forward to working with Life Church in the future!
Come out on October 25th and show your support, ride with the sea of purple as we show our support for those we have lost and those still going through abusive relationships. We are also taking donations of water, food items, snacks for the walkers, or monetary donations; if you are interested please contact Sylvia Romo at sylvia@familyassist.org
The Hope House Shelter has been talking about healthy eating habits with clients this month and helping the parents in the program find fun ways to feed the kids fruits and veggies. Clients have been very receptive to the information and recipes that the staff have provided to them. One client even expressed wanting have her own garden one day to grow fresh fruits and vegtables to create those recipes. While in the shelter, clients have the ability to focus on themselves and build skills they never had the opportunity to work on before. Often times in an abusive relationship, you aren’t allowed to cook what or how you want; you have to cook what the abuser likes or wants. Now free from that, these individuals have a chance to explore the culinary world and try new things, and Hope House Staff is in total support of that!
Tiffany is the new HUD Case Manager for the Program, and Tasha is the new HUD Housing Navigator. We are so glad to have them here and can’t wait to see them grow with the Empowerment Center.
The Hope House Empowerment Center and shelter knows that it is only September, but is it ever too soon to start Christmas shopping? We have started our yearly Adopt-A-Family for Christmas fundraiser and we need your help! This fundraiser ensures that all of the kids, moms, dads, and youth who are part of our program get to have gifts under the tree on Christmas morning.
To be the next Domestic Violence Advocate in your community? Because we totally think you are ready and we CAN’T WAIT to train you…and did I mention it’s FREE!!! Our next Domestic Violence Advocacy 40-Hour Training is kicking off next month, please see the flyer below for registration information. We can’t wait to see you there!
If you have any questions or would like to donate in some way, please reach out to Sylvia or Tracey at 760-843-0701; or by email sylvia@familyassist.org and tracey@familyassist.org
This service is available Monday through Friday, from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm. Please call Jobi at 760-843-0701 for more information.
Thank you to all of our sponsors for our annual Dreams Come True Gala. It will take place on Saturday, October 7th at the Hilton Garden Inn Conference Center in Victorville. Cocktail hour starts at 4:30 pm.
We are pleased to introduce our guest speaker for the 2023 Dreams Come True Gala, Yvette Abreo, who is a true inspiration. Yvette has overcome incredible odds to achieve great things, and their story is a testament to the power of human determination. We are confident that Yvette will leave us all feeling inspired and motivated.
Thank you to all of our amazing sponsors! If you are interested in sponsoring this event, contact misty@familyassist.org
Welcome Home opened in December 2022 as a queer-focused Transitional Living Facility. Since opening, Welcome Home has built a network of LGBT-positive resources.
San Bernardino Planned Parenthood has been one of our biggest supporters. Planned Parenthood outreach staff has come to our facility each Friday for a new presentation. The topics range from gender to healthy relationships to STI prevention.
In addition to educational opportunities, clients have had pizza parties, game nights, a trip to L.A., and swam in Silverwood Lake. Staff have added items to the home gym, including a punching bag and dumbbells. Clients and staff have played basketball at the park nearby.
Oscar Lobos has recently been promoted to Shelter Manager and has become a familiar face on local committees. In August, Welcome Home staff members participated in the monthly LGBT Subcommittee.
Welcome Home would like to take a moment to honor the memory of Lauri Carleton, a store owner who tragically lost her life at the age of sixty-six. She was murdered simply for displaying a pride flag in her window. It is a solemn reminder of the ongoing work that needs to be done to combat discrimination and promote inclusivity for all.
Welcome Home is an LGBT transitional living facility in San Bernardino that focuses on transitional-aged youth, 18 to 24. If you know of anyone suffering from homelessness who might need our services, please reach out to Welcome Home at 909-567-2123 or e-mail us at WelcomeHome@FamilyAssist.org
The number of delicious meals that have been coming out of the Open Arms kitchen this month has been amazing. Our clients have been thriving during our nutritional cooking classes and we are excited to expand our menu. Besides our clients becoming successful in life skill groups, Open Arms has had the opportunity to attend various resource fair events. The collaboration with Operation New Hope for the August resource fair showed great success and we are happy to announce another collaboration for the month of October. The Street Outreach team as well as the Victim of Crime Advocate were able to participate and offer services to those individuals who were affected by the 4th Street Apartment closure.
We would like to touch on a few success stories that have occurred during this month as well. The Street Outreach team has been able to successfully house 6 youths into emergency housing programs. Our Victim of Crime Advocate has been able to reach 18 youths and provide them with assistance. We are extremely happy to announce one of our TAY youths successfully exited our housing program and entered independent living.
Open Arms is excited to announce we have partnered with Community Action Partnership and will have mobile showers at our location every Monday from 9am – 2pm. Please refer clients to come take advantage of this amazing opportunity every Monday.
Open Door had an awesome time at the Riverside Pride event at the Convention Center. There were over four thousand people in attendance. We made some great contacts to collaborate with.
We just received an employment contract with Valley Star Community Services. Our Employment Specialist will teach classes on resume building, and job hunting and hold mock interviews for our participants.
Open Door’s youth advocate has been mentoring a CSEC client. In the last 3 months, she has maintained placement and is back in school.
Caroline is our new DV advocate who provides services to the local CFS office. She is also our Financial advocate. If anybody is interested in any of her services, please contact her at Caroline@familyassist.org
What an amazing Fiesta we had on Friday, September 15th! Tickets sold out and we were able to raise over $6781 for our Tiny Home Village for homeless youth! Since our goal was $10,000 we are closing out the donation on September 30th so help us reach our goal and schedule your donation TODAY.
Hi all from FamSpot and the high desert TAY. We are excited to announce that we have a new location for FamSpot. We have been working on it for a couple weeks to get it up and running to serve our clients. We look forward to being back and serving the youth. We have truly missed seeing them in our day-to-day operations. Please watch out for our announcement to reopen. During the last couple weeks, we have continued to serve the youth in our community at parks, local businesses, schools, and more. We continue to move forward with our school support groups as well as building new relationships to bring more resources to our local schools.
As for our TAY housing, the youth are growing more in their successes. Several have jobs, go to school, and continue to learn to be independent. We would like to give a HUGE thank you to Life Church for making our TAY homes beautiful with new paint and home decor. The clients and staff jumped in to help paint as well. We look forward to working with them in the future.
Your generosity will ensure that local young people have a place to stay safe after school and in the summertime. It is also one of the only places that connects homeless youth to housing and employment opportunities. Again, we thank you for your support.
And a special shout out to the team of volunteers who stepped in to decorate, cook, and promote this event. Thank you Ahea Llamas, Diana Peñaloza, and mom, Cristina Moncada, and Magali Garcia for your culinary support! Thank you to the FamSpot and TAY housing team members who worked extra hard to make this event possible.
Lastly, thank you to everyone who brought in raffles and donated live at the event. Your generosity is what will help us expand the youth drop-in center, which includes a tiny home village for youth.
We would like to thank our local business community for supporting this event, without you this would not have been possible.
Courtyard by Marriott Hesperia
Elementum Services Inc
Patterson Print Shops
High Def Entertainment
DJ Juwelz
Ballet Folkloriko Flores del Desierto
CARS Auto Body Shop
Ay Ajos Pickled Garlic
Rudy’s Salsa
Options for Youth Public Charter Schools
Chingona Tacos
Angelitas Quesadillas
Sweet Treats by Bella
Mojave High School ASB Club
High Desert Food Collaborative
You can be a part of the solution to end homelessness by donating to the tiny home village. On behalf of the young people who are going though extreme hardships, we thank you. If you would like to learn more about our program and/or volunteer please contact zazette@familyassist.org.
The California Department of Social Services (CDSS) Civil Rights, Accessibility and Racial Equity (CARE) Office announced the Family Assistance Program as one of the recipients of the Stop the Hate Funding (STH) for Fiscal Years (FY) 2022-23 and 2023-24. The CDSS allocated $91.4 million in funding. A total of 173 organizations are awarded for the service period of July 1, 2023, through June 30, 2026. Family Assistance Program was awarded $450,000.
“An attack on any of our communities is an attack on everything we stand for as Californians,” said Governor Newsom. “As hate-fueled rhetoric drives increasing acts of bigotry and violence, California is taking action to protect those who are targeted just for being who they are. We’re bolstering our support for victims and anti-hate programs and tackling ignorance and intolerance through education to prevent hate from taking hold in our communities.”
The announcement comes as hate crimes, and racial, religious, sexual orientation, and gender bias events have increased in California. Just this past month, a Southern California shop owner was shot and killed because a rainbow pride flag hung outside her clothing store. And in the first month since Governor Newsom launched the “CA vs Hate” hotline, there have been 180 reports of hate acts across California.
Domestic or Relationship Abuse
Theft
Bullying
Physical or Sexual Attacks
Illegal Evictions
Hate Crimes
Mistreatment by the Authorities
Family Assistance Program is here to support and advocate for you. If you’ve been victimized or just need someone to talk to, don’t hesitate to call us at 909-571-5659. Together, we can explore your situation, your rights, and find a path forward. Watch the videos on our website to learn more about how we can help you.
We are currently hiring full and part-time for many open positions.
Click here to see all of the open positions at Family Assistance Program:
If you are interested in applying for any of our open positions, email your resume to hr@familyassist.org
If you want to help the most at-risk members of your community, you can donate to Family Assistance Program:
Donate– Opens in a new window.
If you are interested in donating items or anything other than a monetary donation you can email angela@familyassist.org
If you are homeless and feel that your civil rights were violated by police or community official please click this link to fill out a form from the ACLU.
Family Assistance Program envisions a community where each person has a loving, nurturing home life. We provide the tools necessary to create healthy interpersonal relationships, economic empowerment, and stable housing.
15075 7th Street, Victorville, CA 92395
Main Office: (760) 843-0701
Toll Free: (866) 770-7867
