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Charitable Matters

Forward with Families Nonprofit steadies the unsteady feet. By Craig ReemPublished: June, 2006

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Nonprofit steadies the unsteady feet An Orange County nonprofit is ready to take a  step toward financial stability – much like the hundreds of  residents it helps each year – by spearheading a social- enterprise  plan that includes an acre of land. Families Forward, the Irvine-based  group that helps low-income and homeless families with housing  and other needs, has an acre available to develop inside the future  Great Park at the closed El Toro base. For Executive Director Margie Wakeham,  this could be the moment to create a revenue-driven, multi-agency arena where  several nonprofits benefit from working close to, and with, each other. The first  order of business may be to secure more land at the base, but in the meantime,  this idea of financial sustainability has taken hold. “Our hope is to leverage that opportunity to get a larger piece of land,  and to work with both (homebuilder) Lennar and the city of Irvine in integrating  a social service fabric into the Great Park,” Wakeham says. By having other  nonprofits pay rent, and by sharing services, the Families Forward idea could  be self-fulfilling. “(It could mean) less money in overhead, and a collaboration  of services means better services, which means your donation won’t pay  only for the rent for X charity, but rather a higher percentage of it will go  to the programs. That’s what we see in a big way at the Great Park.” Among  the many questions is how many nonprofits would play a role and how the administrative-versus-services  component would play out. “What we envision  is an administrative hub and then satellite offices, like the spokes of a wheel – a  family resource center; a boys and girls type of center that looks after school-age  kids; a preschool center; a program that might address senior needs, perhaps incorporating other things like Alzheimer’s, Social Security, veterans’ benefits,  so you really bring together those organizations that are looking at the same  or similar clientele,” says Wakeham. In the meantime, Families Forward continues  to provide several services to needy families, including rent-reduced homes. Presently, there are 14 homes within  Irvine, and Lennar is building 14 more homes at the county’s other closed  military base, now known as Tustin Legacy, for the nonprofit. The first condominium  may be available by the summer. Transitional housing, as it is known, allows  families to worry less about outrageous rents and more about getting  their financial house  back in order. Maximum stays are two years, though Wakeham says the average is 12 months. Single parents, those  going through a divorce, those who have lost the lifeblood of child support  or a job and those who have sustained a family illness comprise  the biggest need. “What’s unique in Orange County is that homeless families are invisible  to us; they’re living in garages and in cars and in parks and at the beach,  and they are folks that kind of blend in to the perfectly planned Orange County  vista,” Wakeham says. “They are not pushing shopping carts; they  are not obvious to us. We get probably 500 phone calls in a year where we are  looking at families that are homeless for a variety of reasons.” Wakeham,  a 35-year Irvine resident, is a former Irvine Unified School District board member. She has been associated with Families Forward for nearly  15 years  and has seen the nonprofit move from “a very small kind of organization” to  what it is today. FAMILIES FORWARD REACH Irvine-based Families Forward helps low-income and homeless families  get their feet back on a financial balance. Through 14 Irvine-based  homes, and another 14 being built by Lennar at the Tustin Legacy  within the next year or so, the nonprofit is expanding its outreach  by providing low-rent opportunities. The tenants are carefully  picked to meet several criteria. The goal is to get a family back  on its feet in two years or less. In addition, other services  include counseling, food, education, case management, life-skills  training and rent and utility assistance. Housing assistance is  a huge issue for the estimated 35,000 homeless people in Orange  County, and the thousands more just on the edge. There is virtually  no affordable housing in one of the nation’s most expensive housing markets, where a typical apartment rents for about $1,200 a month. There are several  ways to help:     •     As a volunteer for the nonprofit.     •     Buy a ticket or a table to the annual  fund-raising event. This year, Sept. 16 at the Balboa Bay Club,  it is entitled “There’s  No Place Like Home.”     •     Provide individual or group/business  donations of food to the nonprofit’s pantry. For information: families-forward.org or call 949.552.2727.

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