Assistance League Of Huntington Beach
PROGRAMS
Operation New Beginnings - Veterans Resource Centers and Scholarships
Purpose and goal of the committee: 1.To develop and award scholarships to various educational programs in the community. Scholarships are awarded (in person by committee members) to single parent, college students in the Project Self Sufficiency program, as well as the Golden West College Criminal Justice Training Center, to full-time veteran students in Golden West College and Coastline Community College, to Golden West College Nursing students, to high school graduates who are part of the Scholars' Hope Foundation program and students in the Therapeutic Riding Center program. For 2024-2025, over $223,000 was awarded to 103 students in these scholarships. 2.To keep the Veterans Resource Centers (VRC) at Golden West (in 2019-with 200 veteran students) and at Coastline (in 2020 with 380 veteran students) filled with needed supplies, such as groceries, snacks, kitchen equipment, gas and grocery gift cards, for a total of $16,000.00 in 2024-2025, Providing scholarships and supplies to the VRC helps further the education of single parent families and veterans striving for an education to help improve the quality of their lives. Therefore the community benefits by having a healthy population.
Our organization's desired outcome is for these Nursing students, Criminal Justice students, Veteran and single parent college students and high school students to graduate and achieve employment that will help them contribute back to our local community.
Links to Learning
Links to Learning Program began in 2008 as a partnership with the Fountain Valley School District. In 2011 Huntington Beach City School District was added. The Ocean View School District was added in 2014, and Westminster School District in 2015. The program includes 50 elementary and middle schools in the cities of Huntington Beach, Fountain Valley and Westminster. The program provides funds to allow elementary and middle school teachers to purchase learning tools, not supplied by the State of California, that will enhance the learning experience of students. Examples are books for expansion of literature, iPads, manipulatives for math programs, physical education equipment, fine arts and STEM materials and Weekly Readers. Teachers submit award applications to the Links to Learning committee for up to $500, detailing needs for their classrooms. Applications are received in May-June, evaluated over the summer, with applicants notified in September and checks distributed in October. Teachers are asked to complete an outcomes survey on the benefits of these materials at the end of the school year. For FY 2024-2025, 176 teachers were awarded grants in 41 schools (some applications were from multiple teachers). 32 new teachers were awarded $6,200.
Scores of teachers, local schools and thousands of children will receive the benefit of better educational tools far into the future, as the schools will retain the equipment, books, & tools for future classes. Prior to the recent pandemic, a total of 69% of teachers returned Outcomes surveys, which were 99% positive in stating that the educational materials made a significant impact on the children's learning experience during the year. With schools back to normal operation, it was fully expected that a much higher volume of applications would be received in the 2022-2023 school year. with a similar 99% positive response. It is estimated (using an average of 30 students per class) that the total number of students who benefitted from the enhanced learning opportunities provided by these awards to be around 4,680 in grades TK-8 in our four districts!
Operation New Beginnings
The mission of Operation New Beginnings (ONB) program is to provide clothing for children and adults from our Thrift Shop, Corner Boutique, and through gift cards for Target stores to purchase shoes and personal items. It works in partnership with 11 community based programs that refer clients to ONB for this service. These partner agencies refer qualified clients from programs for abused children and adults, college students qualifying for federal assistance programs such as EOPS (Extended Opportunity Program Services) and C.A.R.E. (Cooperative Agencies Resources for Education), high school students in need of assistance, emancipated foster youth, homeless families that qualify under McKinney-Vento programs, and those seeking help from several faith-based community support programs. The exact number of clients served varies from year to year. All referred clients who kept appointments at two private shopping events per month were served. In 2024-2025, ONB served 397 clients in this primary program. In addition to the primary program, ONB served 533 clients and spent a total of $51,961, with over $10,329 in Thrift Shop & Boutique merchandise, $7,825 in Target gift cards, $27,782 for Family Shopping events and $6,000 in ALHB purchased food gift cards . (In partnership with Albertsons Nourishing Neighbors Program, we distribute grocery gift cards to 10 of our agencies to be distributed to clients or used for restocking their food pantries.
A goal for this program in 2023-2024 is to reevaluate our client appointment system and to increase the effectiveness of ONB's outreach in the community by increasing the number of referring partner agencies, which decreased with the pandemic affecting referral numbers.
Some of the community organizations served were Interval House, GoldenWest College CARE; EOPS students, Huntington Beach "Waymakers" Youth Shelter, Project Self Sufficiency, Build Futures-for homeless young adults ages 18-23, Coastline Community College Veterans Resource Center, Ocean View School District McKinney-Vento Program, Pathways to Independence, Soroptimist International HB DOE.. As of June 2023, the number of partner agencies has been increased to 10, from 8 in 2021-22, adding Collette's Childrens Home and S.H.I.P.(Self Help Interfaith program).
Operation School Bell (OSB)
This program began in our Huntington Beach chapter in 1975. OSB provides economically disadvantaged students with new clothes and shoes. Each year we see the numbers of referred students continue to increase. Students are from the school districts of Fountain Valley, Huntington Beach City, Huntington Beach Union High School, Ocean View and Westminster. In 2024-2025, OSB clothed 2,433 K-12 students at 75 Target and JC Penney shopping nights, assisted by our volunteers, between September 2024 to May 2025. Selection of the students is made by school personnel including health aides, community liaisons, teachers, nurses and principals. We accommodate working parents in the evening and children don't have to leave school. Families meet us at the store on specified nights with their voucher from the school. Students have the opportunity, working within their specified budget, to choose their own new school clothes, shoes and hygiene supplies. All students referred to OSB must be enrolled and attending school in Westminster, Fountain Valley and Huntington Beach. Expenses in 2024-2025 were $381,106.00. In addition, we ran a "Fill a Backpack" campaign that garnered $11,335.00 and allowed us to purchase and fill 227 backpacks with food that were then distributed to our 5 districts.
Teachers and school counselors report that new, school appropriate clothing can improve student self-esteem and attendance, reduce bullying, improve classroom behavior. and improve chances of scholastic success. A new type of outcomes survey, completed by school liaisons is planned for 2024-25.
CONTACT
Assistance League Of Huntington Beach
8071 Slater Ave
Ste 240
Huntington Beach, CA 92647
Kelli Hayward
Phone: 714-596-9935