Agency Awarded $5,000 Grant to Help Homeless Find Jobs
An employment agency that helps the homeless find jobs was awarded a $5,000 grant Monday, the beneficiary of a Santa Monica program to curb panhandling.
Funded by change dropped into two dolphin statues on the Third Street Promenade, the grant to the nonprofit Chrysalis was the second to be awarded this year, said Anh Nguyen of the Bayside District Corp., which manages the promenade and oversees the Dolphin Change Program.
The nonprofit California Community Foundation administers the program, including choosing the groups that receive grants.
Begun with one dolphin statue in 1993 as an effort to discourage panhandlers, the program has since grown to include a second statue and plastic dolphin banks in local businesses. A total of $30,000 has been collected and distributed to homeless service agencies so far, Nguyen said.
“This is really helping the homeless in the long run because the money goes back to the homeless,” Nguyen said.
In February, an additional $5,000 collected from the dolphins was given to Upward Bound House of Santa Monica, a transitional housing development for homeless families, Nguyen said.
Steve Knight, director of Chrysalis’ Santa Monica office, said the grant will help 100 homeless people find jobs.
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