ECS Secures Three Grants for Uptown Safe Haven, Head Start, & Para Las Familias

ECS is grateful to those who support our work and our clients. December 2022.

ECS secured three grants from September to November: 

1) $2,923 from Women of St. James by-the-Sea for Uptown Safe Haven (UTSH).

2) $12,500 from the PNC Foundation for Head Start (HS).

3) $5000 from The Big Lots Foundation for Para Las Familias (PLF).

As a nonprofit organization, grants are a valuable resource that helps fund our programs and services and requires a lot of time and preparation to secure.

Our programs impact the daily lives of thousands of San Diegans in need of fundamental health and human services support. These families and clients depend on us to provide high-quality services with care — clients like River, an UTSH resident since August. Before moving to UTSH, River participated in another program that did not achieve effective results. Since becoming a resident of our program, River has enjoyed the freedom of feeling respected in a safe environment while building the skills needed to create mental and physical stability to pursue a better life.  So, partnerships with organizations like those mentioned above are essential in accomplishing our mission.

Grant Highlights:  

In September, the Women of St. James by-the-Sea generously awarded a $2,923 grant to refresh all the linens at Uptown Safe Haven, a 19-unit residential facility that provides transitional housing and support to single adults experiencing chronic homelessness. When residents move into permanent housing of their own, these linens will welcome them with open arms into a dignified, upgraded environment that feels like home.

ECS’ Head Start & Early Head Start programs provide early childhood education and development services to break cycles of poverty among low-income, high-potential families. In October, the PNC Foundation invested a $12,500 grant to support a pilot project at ECS' Head Start in San Ysidro, providing flexible music and movement curricula in collaboration with Kindermusik. When music and movement are practiced together, all lobes of the brain are engaged, creating peak neurological connections for young learners.

In November, the Big Lots Foundation awarded a $5,000 grant to PLF, which currently provides free bilingual and bicultural behavioral health services to children ages 0-12 and their families across San Diego County's South Region. This grant supports efforts to develop a future generation of leaders by reducing the prevalence of mental illness/serious emotional disturbance in daycare, preschool, and elementary school children.

With gratitude, we offer sincere thanks to each organization.

If your corporation or group would like to provide a grant to any ECS programs, please contact Timothy Whipple, Interim Development Director.