The Dean’s List
Exemplary nonprofits
We prioritize working with organizations like these that take a holistic, human-centered approach to the complex challenges they confront. We work with you to identify organizations like them who are operating at the scale, in the sectors and with the populations that suit your charitable objectives.
MEND
Located in Pacoima, California, MEND serves some the most vulnerable members of our community, including those who are homeless, unemployed/under-employed, very low income, and older adults. MEND’s programs serve two ends: to meet the immediate basic needs of people, and to help them build resources and skills to address and overcome long-term challenges that have kept them from thriving. Core services are provided by the Foodbank, Homeless Care Services and Clothing Center. Deeper case managed services are offered through the Family Support & the Pathways to Wellness Program.
Partnerships with local colleges and universities offer internship opportunities to students and help serve the community. The Buen Provecho Farmers’ Market provides abundant fresh produce to clients at no cost. The Little Health market, a specialty “store” stocked with healthy alternatives opens to support participants in the Pathways to Wellness Program.
Golden Heart Ranch
Golden Heart Ranch is a 40-acre permanent residential community in Agoura Hills, California dedicated to the continued safety, growth and achievement of young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities from the time they graduate high school to when they are senior citizens. Golden Heart Ranch provides on- and off-site jobs, organic gardens and ranch style homes where “Ranch Hands” can live permanently. Golden Heart Ranch offers classes, programs and social events that encourage and facilitate vocational and independent living skills for everyday life. Golden Heart Ranch combines the need for relaxation, fun and entertainment with skill-building activities. Activities include social and independent living skills programs, fitness and exploration club, cooking class, supper club and ranch days.
Many of these classes and programs are also offered in the South Bay in partnership with Manhattan Beach Parks and Recreation.
Hands4HopeLA
Located in North Hollywood, California, Hands4HopeLA (H4H) provides support to youth and their parents from low-income, underserved, predominantly single-parent minority households to improve their quality of life.
For Ages 8 – 18, H4H offers S.T.E.A.M.-based after-school programs and low-cost academic summer camps in a safe and supportive environment. During the school year, Monday through Thursday until 6:30pm, H4H provides students with free daily snacks, one-on-one tutoring support and enrichment classes. Their engaged staff, volunteers and instructors create a safe and personalized learning environment to help youth build relationships as they strengthen academic skills and learn new talents. While parents and caregivers are working, Hands4Hope LA works to feel like a home away from home, partnering with families to support student social, emotional and academic needs.
Zoe International
Having worked for decades in Thailand and elsewhere overseas, Zoe International, has adapted and replicated its model in the United States and has recently opened a short-term residential therapeutic program (STRTP) for female youth in Los Angeles who have been trafficked. This home provides safe shelter, medical care, counseling, education, vocational skills, life skills, and support in transition to birth/foster families or independent living. Zoe has actually worked in this community for many years, serving on several anti-human trafficking task forces, providing support and services for minors who have been trafficked, and studying domestic trafficking in the U.S. Zoe is contracted with Los Angeles County’s Department of Child and Family Services and Department of Probations to provide 24-7 victim advocacy services when first responders recover a child from human trafficking in the North and East Los Angeles County regions.
West Coast Care
Located in Santa Monica California, the West Coast Care Foundation (WCC) provides direct intervention and outreach services to homeless persons in order to help them into housing, shelter facilities, medical facilities, reunite them with their families or other caregivers, and to help them rebuild their lives.
While WCC’s approach focuses on the reunification of homeless individuals with their families and close friends – rebuilding these essential support systems and equipping people for the journey back home- they recognize that reunification is not always possible. In those cases, WCC works with its partners to find housing and other service options. They continue offering support to their clients until a strategy to transition off the streets is found.
Louisville High School
Founded in 1960 by the Sisters of St. Louis on the site of the old Manzanita Ranch in Woodland Hills, CA, Louisville is a college preparatory, Catholic high school that envisions a world where women are unencumbered to lead with confidence, take risks, and initiate change to enrich their communities. As a Catholic all-girl school the educational, physical, socio-emotional, and spiritual development of young women is a forethought, not an afterthought.
African Sisters Education Collaborative (ASEC)
If you give a Catholic sister the tools to succeed, she’s going to change the world. One of those tools is education. Catholic sisters in Africa are using their education to solve some of the biggest development challenges our world is facing today, improving healthcare, food security and access to clean water, giving voice to people who are wrongly persecuted and silenced, caring for the young, the old and the forgotten, mentoring others and creating jobs. The impact they are making in communities across Africa is both admirable and heroic.
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