Los Angeles LGBT Center Expands Services for Homeless LGBTQ Youth With Support From S. Mark Taper Foundation

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 21, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today the Los Angeles LGBT Center announces it has received a $100,000 grant from the S. Mark Taper Foundation to support the Center's homeless youth services. The grant will help fund holistic services including food, showers, emergency shelter, transitional housing, education, college access services, employment training, job placement assistance, addiction recovery and other health and wellness support.

On any given day or night, there are several thousand homeless youth ages 24 and younger living on the streets of Los Angeles. At its Youth Center, which is open seven day a week, the Center provides three meals per day; clothing; support group; a charter high school, GED and college prep program; an employment preparation, training, and placement program; and more. The Center also offers a place to stay at its emergency shelter and longer term housing at its transitional housing program.

In 2016 the Center served more than 74,000 meals at its Youth Center and provided more than 22,858 bed nights to homeless youth. Additionally, more than 109 homeless youth secured jobs through the Center's Youth Employment Program.

"With a staggering 40 percent of youth living on the streets in Hollywood identifying as LGBT, the Los Angeles LGBT Center will be able to expand its life-saving services to homeless youth because of the S. Mark Taper Foundation's generosity," said Center Director of Children, Youth & Family Services Simon Costello. "No organization offers a wider range of services for LGBT and questioning youth than the Los Angeles LGBT Center. We are honored to work with the S. Mark Taper Foundation to provide whatever support and services that youth need to get off the streets and become healthy, equal and complete members of society."

"The Los Angeles LGBT Center does exceptional work in helping homeless youth find a better quality of life, and we are proud to help the Center continue its mission," said S. Mark Taper Foundation Executive Director Adrienne Wittenberg. "Too many youth find themselves trying to survive on the streets of Los Angeles, but with our relationship with the Center, together we will transform and uplift the lives of these youth for the better."

About the Los Angeles LGBT Center
Since 1969 the Los Angeles LGBT Center has cared for, championed and celebrated LGBT individuals and families in Los Angeles and beyond. Today the Center's nearly 600 employees provide services for more LGBT people than any other organization in the world, offering programs, services and global advocacy that span four broad categories: Health, Social Services and Housing, Culture and Education, Leadership and Advocacy. We are an unstoppable force in the fight against bigotry and the struggle to build a better world; a world in which LGBT people can be healthy, equal and complete members of society. Learn more at lalgbtcenter.org.

About the S. Mark Taper Foundation
The S. Mark Taper Foundation, founded in 1989, is a private family foundation dedicated to enhancing the quality of people's lives by supporting nonprofit organizations and their work in our communities.

SOURCE Los Angeles LGBT Center