Helping Families Move Forward

Even in the relatively affluent communities of south Orange County, people fall on hard times. Worse, they wind up on the street -- homeless, jobless and hungry.

But they are largely invisible.

“You don’t see large congregations of people living on the street or pushing shopping carts or doing things we as a community typically associate with homelessness,” said Margie Wakeham, executive director of Families Forward, an emergency homeless prevention program based in Irvine. “But we served over 5,000 individuals last year and I can tell you they exist in our communities.”

Their needs may be as simple as a little financial help to pay the utilities, temporary shelter or a basket of food. Then, maybe they need career counseling, clothes, a safe place away from an abusive spouse.

Most of those helped by Families Forward, which is marking its 20th anniversary, are families in financial crisis, out of work, “living on the edge, having trouble making ends meet,” Wakeham said.

The holidays can be especially painful for a mother barely holding on to the apartment but wanting to see the kids smile Christmas morning as they open a few simple gifts. But sometimes there’s not a spare dime to make that happen.

“During the holidays, we saw a lot of people who were experiencing true basic needs like shelter, and then you compound that with the needs of the holidays,” Wakeham said.

One single mother, Wakeham recalled, had been out of work for several months but now had a job, although she wouldn’t get paid until January.

When she arrived at the center to pick up food, she asked if there was someone, someplace who could help her brighten the holidays for her three school-age children.

“We were pretty excited to be able to say, ‘Here’s where you can get gift certificates,’ ‘Here’s a place where they adopt families for the holidays,’ ” Wakeham said. Sometimes, she added, meeting basic needs is just a beginning. “It’s emotional needs too,” she said, and seeing children smile can make the difference.

Families Forward, which received $5,000 from the Times Fund last year, also wants their clients to move forward. “Our goal is to find out why they are not self-sufficient,” Wakeham said, and offer services at the Irvine program center or steer them to groups elsewhere that might help turn the tide.

That might mean scheduling career-counseling sessions, parenting and child development classes, or time with the doctors and nurses from the Laguna Beach Community Clinic who are at the center every other Thursday.

“Our goal is to make it as easy as possible on people who are in the middle of some crisis to resolve their issues,” Wakeham said.

Recently, the center has been assisting striking supermarket workers, she said, who need help with rent or paying utility bills.

Out of the estimated 30,000 people in Orange County who are homeless, many are working, she said.

And many of the rest, she said, “are three paychecks away from being homeless.”

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HOW TO GIVE

The annual Holiday Campaign is part of the Los Angeles Times Family Fund, a fund of the McCormick Tribune Foundation, which this year will match the first $800,000 raised at 50 cents on the dollar.

Donations (checks or money orders) supporting the campaign should be sent to: L.A. Times Holiday Campaign, File 56986, Los Angeles, CA 90074-6986.

Do not send cash. Credit card donations can be made on the website: latimes.com/holiday campaign. All donations are tax deductible.

Contributions of $50 or more may be published in The Times unless a donor requests otherwise; acknowledgment cannot be guaranteed. For more information, call (800) LATIMES, Ext. 75771.