Providing a Safety Net So Families Can Focus on What Really Matters

What if a flat tire meant you couldn’t pay your rent that month? What if an unexpectedly high water bill meant you couldn’t afford childcare? When you live paycheck to paycheck, your mental health comes at the expense of your basic needs. Para Los Niños is on a mission to change that.  

“All of us have leaned on somebody at one point. But the families we work with don’t have the safety net that so many other families have,” explains Dan Nieman, vice president of external affairs at Para Los Niños. “Inflation is high and wages aren’t keeping up. These families are working really hard within the obstacles of the system, but the gap between living in Los Angeles versus actually thriving in Los Angeles is big – it can be a huge challenge to get to the other side when no one has your back.”

With 16 locations, Para Los Niños (PLN) partners with 10,000 of Los Angeles’ most vulnerable residents every year. Through a suite of comprehensive support services, PLN starts by addressing families’ basic needs today and helping them improve their mental health for the future. 

“For so many families, it is the difference of $3,000 between having a stable home environment and being homeless. Often it is much less. We worked recently with a family who needed $181 to stay housed. They were waiting on a voucher that didn’t arrive in time. By providing this small amount, we were able to keep them housed so they were not scrambling to find shelter with a young daughter,” says Nieman.

Once Para Los Niños has connected families with resources that can help keep them housed, fed, and stable, they encourage families to seek out the other services that are available both from PLN and within Los Angeles County. After learning about Para Los Niños, Ana sought support from the PLN mental health team. 

“My whole life, truthfully, has been challenging. My life has been challenging because my mother died when I was a year old,” says Ana. “[My childhood] affected me because, without realizing it, I wasn’t very loving [to my children]. I was one of those moms who didn’t hug her children, the kind that thought it wasn’t necessary because I didn’t have it.”

But after working with a therapist, Ana was able to reflect on her own experiences and forge a closer relationship with her children. She credits Para Los Niños for supporting her while she healed from her past and helping her better connect with her daughters. 

“Families living under pressure, whether they have sick or elderly family members or are budgeting from one paycheck to the next, are constantly in crisis. For PLN to be able to meet those immediate needs and then provide a space for families to really address what is going on in their lives and affecting their children – that is how we measure success,” says Nieman. “We want to make sure everyone has the opportunity to focus on what
really matters.”