Beyond Shelter: About Us, Adopt A Family for the Holidays

Beyond Shelter's Adopt-A-Family Program connects sponsors with homeless families in Los Angeles County to "adopt" for the Holidays. Sponsors are provided with a family profile and wish list, buy presents for the family, and deliver them wrapped to Beyond Shelter. The family's Case Manager then delivers the presents to the families in the week before Christmas.

The families that get adopted through this program are in dire need of assistance. They are all participants in Beyond Shelter "Housing First Program" for Homeless Families and are either currently homeless (living in a shelter or other temporary emergency housing) or we have just helped them to move into permanent rental housing. They are all in the process of trying to rebuild their lives.

The majority of the families we serve are headed by single mothers raising their children alone. Many of them became homeless because of domestic violence. They are families that are surviving on extremely limited incomes and struggle to afford the most basic of necessities. Christmas presents are a luxury completely out of their reach.

For families who do not get adopted in the Adopt-A-Family Program, we run a Holiday Toy Drive where we collect new and unwrapped toys and distribute them unwrapped to the parents. In this way, the gifts can come from the parents and not from us.

With both programs, homeless families get a chance to celebrate something in the midst of what is probably the most difficult period of their lives. Just knowing that somebody cares for them can make a major difference in their lives.

Beyond Shelter is a nonprofit organization that helps homeless families to end their homelessness by moving back into and stabilizing in permanent housing. Each year, we serve hundreds and hundreds of homeless families, representing thousands of children. Since 1988, Beyond Shelter has helped more than 4,500 families to move into permanent housing. That's 200 families a year for 20 years.