1736 Family Crisis Center

The mission of 1736 Family Crisis Center is to comprehensively help children, women, men and families through crisis circumstances, including domestic violence, homelessness, abuse, neglect, poverty, substance use, post-traumatic stress disorder, and distress, and to improve their prospects for long-term housing, safety, survival, financial stability, and success.

For the past 50 years, 1736 Family Crisis Center (1736 FCC) has been a leading provider of life-saving services for children, youth and families in crisis. The organization was established in 1972 as an Emergency Youth Shelter to help homeless, runaway and abandoned girls and boys who were sleeping on local beaches. In response to growing community needs, the agency expanded to include 24-Hour Hotline and Drop-In Services offering food, clothing, counseling, and suicide intervention. In 1981, 1736 FCC's first emergency domestic violence shelter was established at a separate, confidential location. In 1984, we established one of Southern California's first clinically-focused transitional domestic violence shelters to give victims and their children licensed mental health counseling, job preparation, life-skills education, and self-confidence tools needed to build safe, independent lives. The agency incorporated as a nonprofit in 1986 and since then, has strategically expanded its programs and geographic footprint to address unmet needs of underserved populations and communities.

Today, the agency operates four confidentially-located shelters for domestic violence victims and their children, two Veteran Families Programs (Orange County and Los Angeles County), an emergency youth shelter, a Legal Services Program, an employment program serving homeless Veterans and domestic violence survivors, five 24-hour crisis/suicide hotlines, and four Community Service Centers that serve low-income individuals, children and families. 1736 FCC's programs and administrative capabilities have been acknowledged by federal reviewers, including from the Youth and Family Services Bureau (U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services), as best practices in the field compared to programs nationwide. In June 2015, the Community Action Board of the City of LA recognized 1736 FCC's FamilySource Center (youth academic and family self-sufficiency services) as a top performer, with 4 out of 4 stars, for customer satisfaction, program quality and administrative excellence. In 2013-14, the Dept. of Veteran Affairs designated 1736 FCC's Director of Veteran Programs as a Program Mentor for one of its signature initiatives to end veteran homelessness nationally. As one of only 3 such designees in California that provides rapid re-housing services to very low-income Veteran families, our Director and his staff assist the VA to provide training and capacity building assistance to peer agencies in Southern California.

1736 Family Crisis Center serves approximately 9,000 individuals directly through in-depth residential and nonresidential programs, and more through educational and street outreach. The agency is funded through public and private sectors, including the United States Government, State of California, Counties of Los Angeles and Orange, City of Los Angeles, surrounding municipalities, foundations, corporations, clubs and service organizations, churches, community groups, and individuals. Organizational accomplishments from the past year include the opening of a new youth shelter, housing the agency's Everychild Foundation Emergency Shelter and Youth Program; continued strengthening of the OC Veteran Families Program, with the opening of an office in Garden Grove; the continuation of vital human trafficking victim assistance funding from the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services; and the successful completion of a Housing First program for victims of domestic violence, also supported by the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services.  In 2018, we continue with the programs describe above, among other long-standing programs, in service to children, youth, women and men affected by violence, abuse, sexual exploitation, and human trafficking; homeless Veterans; and low-income families. Additionally, agency advocates have served alongside LAPD-Harbor Division through the Domestic Abuse Response Team (DART) Program since 2015. In 2020, during the height of the pandemic, the agency opened its sixth shelter. The #SheDoesHaven provides bridge shelter and supportive services for unhoused single women.

1) New funding to replace employment and domestic violence services funding that has been eliminated due to federal budget cuts or reallocated to serve other populations.
2) Mental health and health care services for Veterans; current funding does not cover these services and yet external, community-based resources are inadequate
3) Financial donations from the community to help us fill program gaps such as described in #2
4) In-kind donations from the community to help us continue to respond to the most basic needs of our various clients (food, clothing, etc.)
5) Volunteers

While placing no geographic limitations on the communities served, 1736 Family Crisis Center serves communities throughout Orange and Los Angeles counties, with a focus on North, East and West Orange County and South and Central Los Angeles County.