Charity Hopes to Get Foot in Door for Girls Homes

It’s not like Kris Giles doesn’t already have plenty to do.

As executive director of Kids to Kids, the Camarillo mother of two spends holidays delivering Thanksgiving meals, Easter baskets and Christmas toys.

If parents can’t afford birthday gifts for their children, the group provides them. If youngsters are short on school supplies, Kids to Kids shows up with pencils and notebooks.

“Wherever there’s a need, we jump in to try to meet it,” Giles said.

But after nearly 30 years of service work in Los Angeles, Ventura and San Diego counties, the small nonprofit is ready to hit the big time.

Kids to Kids is seeking to buy a 17-bedroom facility near Ojai to establish Restoration House, a group home for adolescent girls. As envisioned, the home would serve youngsters age 13 to 17 who are coming out of juvenile hall, the foster care system and other social service agencies.

If all goes as planned, Restoration House would serve as a model for similar homes Kids to Kids hopes to establish across Ventura County.

“We’re truly taking Kids to Kids to the next level,” said Giles, a substance abuse counselor. “We want to work with these girls and show them that there’s another way of life.”

The group was founded in 1976 in Redondo Beach by Giles’ mother, Sunny Rice, and friend Joann McSweeney in response to a hurricane that ravaged the Baja California city of La Paz.

The women collected clothes, toys and toiletries for flood victims. And when the donations kept on coming, they simply continued to dole out whatever they took in wherever they found a need. They provided food and clothing to low-income families. And every year at Christmas, they collected gifts and delivered them to the poor.

“It was going to be no big thing, but people heard about us and just kept on giving,” said Rice, who serves as the Kids to Kids’ secretary and lives with Giles in Camarillo.

Giles started pitching in when she was just a girl, and when McSweeney passed away in 2001, she took over as executive director. Now Giles and her mother spearhead the operation, working out of their home and relying on a small army of volunteers to distribute items they collect from local businesses and other donors.

Neither woman draws a salary, and the group receives no government funding, relying exclusively on donations.

Kids to Kids’ only fundraiser is an annual Christmas toy drive, scheduled for Dec. 4, that supplies hundreds of gifts each year to underprivileged youngsters.

This year’s campaign is off to a slow start.

Kids to Kids needs 650 new, unwrapped gifts to give away the day of the drive and at least 1,200 more to distribute closer to Christmas. Giles said she was well short of those targets and was scrambling for money, gift certificates and other donations. Any extra toys will be given away at Christmas to youngsters in homeless shelters, motels and military housing.

“We can never have too many,” Giles said. “We’ll take anything, anytime and anywhere.”

In the meantime, the organization is preparing to launch Restoration House, the proposed adolescent group home on the outskirts of Ojai.

Recently, Giles, Rice and new Kids to Kids board member Marilyn Noorda toured the 17-bedroom home where they hope to establish the facility.

The trio liked what they saw, marveling at the large kitchen and dorm-like rooms capable of accommodating two girls each. They walked the spacious grounds, nearly an acre set back from the street and dotted with fruit trees, eucalyptus and oaks.

“This is a miracle in action,” said Noorda, a Camarillo pastor who plans to help raise money to buy the facility. She said she was so moved by Giles’ passion for the project that she couldn’t help coming on board.

“She’s the real deal,” Noorda said. “She’s not in it for the money. She’s not in it for the glory. She’s in it for the girls.”

Kids to Kids wants to lease the home with an option to buy, which would give the organization a year to come up with the $1.3-million asking price.

The group is working toward obtaining licensing for the facility. And its focus will be adolescent girls, because it’s often hard to place those youngsters after they get out of juvenile detention or after they are removed from their homes for their own safety.

“These girls are often warehoused in juvenile facilities, where they don’t need to be,” Rice said. “They need guidance, they need structure. Really, when you talk to some of them, they may come off as rough and tough, but all they really want is someone to give them a hug and say, ‘I’m proud of you.’ ”

Giles said she eventually wants to open homes for pregnant teens and other adolescents on the verge of adulthood and in need of a push in the right direction.

“The way I see it with these kids, they’ve hit a crossroads in life and maybe some have traveled a few miles down the wrong road,” Giles said. “There’s nothing that says I can’t reach my hand out and help lead them back onto the path.”

Contributions can be sent in care of Kids to Kids, P.O. Box 283, Camarillo CA 93011. For information, call (805) 573-0752 or e-mail forkids2kids@aol.com.