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What is the need?

The need to reach the troubled youth of the inner city is very great. Statistics tell us that 600 individuals tragically lose their life due to gang violence in Los Angeles County each year. Most are fatherless boys looking for the love of a family to belong too. Many youths end up committing murder in order to be initiated into the gangs.

    The Los Angeles County police department reports 4,000 runaway and abandoned youth are homeless from the west coast to Hollywood. These youths eat out of dumpsters, panhandle, and live under bridges or in abandoned buildings to survive. The main reasons that they run away from home is because of the breakdown of the American family unit and due to abuse. If not intercepted within two weeks of living on the streets, 80% end up addicted to drugs, forced into prostitution, or involved in gangs or crime lifestyle. In short, these youth are vulnerable to be preyed upon by pimps, pornographic movie hustlers, gang presidents, and drug pushers. After this, we see their lives go down a very destructive path leaving them with tragic emotional and mental wounds for the rest of their lives.

    For nearly 34 years, Hope for Homeless Youth (HFHY) has been providing transitional housing, meals, leadership training, and other services to the hurting youth of Los Angeles County. During the spring of 2018, our organization lost its Headquarters/Men’s Home. This building was sold and we were given a few weeks to vacate the premises. For nearly six years, we had used this building for multiple vital activities, including: food collection and distribution to over 200 destitute families each week; training and launching of outreaches each week to the Red-Light District, gang areas, etc.; Bible and leadership training; and transitional and discipleship housing for up to 17 needy men off the streets.

    The financial need of our organization is primarily to replace this building with a larger facility and to support hiring a full-time administrator and fundraiser.

What We Do

Our primary service includes the Hope Computer Center, offering computer training and refurbishing for over five years, alongside E-waste recycling certification. We provide free training to low-income individuals, awarding a computer to those who complete a three-month course. This successful program has received over 6,000 computer donations from LA County, indicating our need for a larger facility.

Additionally, we conduct Christian ministry training five mornings a week, essential for rehabilitation and requiring more space for our classes.

We support needy families by distributing groceries to at least 200 families weekly in South Central, Los Angeles. In 2018, we assisted over 41,500 people with food, hygiene products, clothing, and more.

Our Youth Inventor’s Club fosters job skills and an entrepreneurial mindset in young people, leading to several successful inventions and over 20 patents.

At our Men’s Emergency Shelter and Discipleship Home, we offer leadership training to transitional men, with a high success rate in preventing returns to destructive lifestyles.

Furthermore, we conduct gang-prevention outreaches across multiple locations, aiming to run 17 weekly sessions to combat gang influence.

Pastor Clayton Certificate.PNG

Hope for Homeless Youth History and Supporters

 Hope for Homeless Youth was founded by Clayton and Leanne Golliher. The couple served for six years on staff with Youth With A Mission (YWAM) and another 6 years as licensed pastors with Hope Chapel Hollywood.  HFHY was then operated out of The Dream Center’s Los Angeles headquarters for 18 years until 2013, when the organization became an independent entity.

Organizations that have endorsed HFHY over the years include:

  • Southwest Airlines

  • 7/11

  • AM/PM

  • Shell Corporation

  • Dream Center Foundation

  • Youth With A Mission (YWAM)

  • Life Force International

  • Church on the Way

  • Phoenix First Assembly (now ‘Dream City Church’)

  • The Gathering Place

  • Canyon View Vineyard Church

  • Barbara Boxer (D)

  • Diane Feinstein (D)

Our Greatest Immediate Needs

HFHY has 3 major needs:

  1. Full-time administrator and fundraiser

  2. New facility to serve as HFHY Headquarters

  3. To expand our present Men’s home so we can house and disciple 15 men at a time.

Full-time administrator and fundraiser

We need a fundraiser for several reasons. Due to the numerous activities and services we provide each month, we do not have the time to devote to ongoing fundraising initiatives. Additionally, no one on staff is equipped to oversee administrative and fundraising tasks.

Ideally, the person in this position would increase the number of individuals who partner financially with HFHY. Secondly, this person would pursue institutional partners to potentially commit to larger annual donations. Another major responsibility for this position would be to closely monitor the incoming contributions and budget each month to ensure the organization is operating without a loss. Finally, this position would also support various administrative activities of HFHY and work to increase volunteer engagement in the weekly activities and outreaches.

New Facility 

The next urgent need is a building to serve as the headquarters for the various services HFHY provides on a weekly and basis. Specifically, this building would be used for the computer training classes, food procurement and storage, youth Inventor’s Club, discipleship meetings, and outreach launching center. (For details on activities, see 2. What we do).

We are interested in moving into a building of about 6,000 square feet located in Sunland, CA. We have priced locations and believe it is best option to rent with a potential option to purchase, the cost of which would be at a low end $6,000 per month. Thus, we would need at least $15,000 to move in (first and last month’s rent, plus $5,000 renovation costs). We have located potential facilities.

We need $5,000 to put aside to pay for an administrator/ fund raiser/grant writer.

An additional $9000 is needed to finish renovating our present Men’s home and secure a second home so we can rehabilitate/disciple 15 young men at a time.

$6,000 would be put aside to pay for the first month’s rent.

In conclusion; the summary financial need is as follows.

A total goal is to raise the initial $40,000 for the above listed expansions and grow.
And secondarily to raise an ongoing $6,000 a month to cover rent and operational expenses.
We would also like to offer the option of receiving a $1 million donation in order to purchase a building. This would be very much more preferred rather than to pay rent.

Fundraising Event Idea

We would like to do a fundraising event in the near future, potentially to mark the 35th anniversary of Hope For Homeless Youth being in operation. A fundraising event could look like the following:

  1. Present the problem of youth homeless in Los Angeles and the need of services to reach them (See Ray of Hope video on the home page and Media page)

  2. Speak about the work Hope For Homeless Youth has done in the past and describe the services that we provide on an on-going basis

III. Hear from Hope For Homeless Youth “success stories” – persons who have personally turned their lives around from Hope For Homeless Youth

IIII. Describe our current needs (i.e., full-time administrator/fundraiser and new facility)

  1. Provide the opportunity for new people to make monthly or annual commitments to partner withHope For Homeless Youth

  2. Invite all persons to serve on theHope For Homeless Youth Advisory Board of Directors, which meets once a month to discuss the organization and provide input

  3. Perhaps have a silent auction. 

How donated funds are handled

About 70 individuals, associations, businesses and churches’ support Hope for Homeless Youth financially each month. These contributors make up the majority of HFHY’s operating budget. Several companies and individuals also make larger annual commitments. Hope for Homeless Youth is also partially supported by ‘Technology From Heaven’, which is a 509 (a)(e) nonprofit trust. Hope for Homeless Youth provides a tax-deductible receipt at the end of each month and also a receipt at the end of each year.

    Hope for Homeless Youth is a 501(c)(3) charity and is run by the Board of Directors. The Board of Directors set the budget and determines and approves all spending except for small items. Donated funds are kept under the management of our accountant Mike Tang, who makes all bank deposits for incoming donations. 

Current expenses and budget
(as of June 2018).

2017 Income Statement Is available for details. Our monthly budget is about $15,000 each month and we spend around $14,500 each month

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