Building Futures with Women & Children (San Leandro, CA)

General

• Mission:

For over two decades, Building Futures with Women and Children has provided one of Alameda County’s most vulnerable populations—homeless and battered women and their children—with a comprehensive safety net of services. Literally thousands of women and children have received life-changing support through our shelters, housing, and support services.

Building Futures’ mission is to build communities with underserved women and children where they are safely housed, free from homelessness and family violence.

Last year we served 324 women and 279 children at three crisis shelters serving homeless women and children and domestic violence survivors.

Three hundred sixty five days a year, 24 hours a day, these warm environments provide shelter and supportive services tailored to meet each resident’s individual needs. In addition to providing beds, three meals a day, clothing, showers, and laundry facilities, Building Futures offers residents mental health counseling, employment and housing assistance, money and time management life skills training, medical services and linkage with health insurance, support groups, and benefits advocacy. Case management and support services at all of our sites help each resident identify and resolve housing barriers so she can end her family’s homelessness during this current stay in shelter. Our supportive services have been designed to help each of our residents attain safe and permanent housing and reach a greater level of self-sufficiency.

• History:

Building Futures began in 1986 (incorporated in 1988) as an overnight shelter providing a cot, one hot meal, and a sack lunch to homeless women and children. In 1994, the San Leandro Shelter became a 24-hour per day operation, with added services like case management, group therapy, and healthy relationships groups to help residents progress toward self-sufficiency. In 1996, with the help of the City of San Leandro, the agency opened Sister Me Home safe house for battered women and their children, and also began offering DV support services at the San Leandro Shelter.

In 2001, the City of Alameda asked us to take over operation of the Midway Shelter. In 2002, we opened the doors to Bessie Coleman Court, a supportive housing site for formerly homeless and abused woman and their children. Building Futures played a major role in planning for homeless uses at the decommissioned Alameda Naval Air Station. The collaborative effort was honored by the NPH, the San Francisco Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

In 2009, Building Futures began serving as the lead agency in the Mid-County Housing Resource Center, a new collaborative of public and private entities that helps individuals and families who are homeless or at risk of homelessness by providing temporary financial assistance, case management, and housing resources. Also in 2009, the agency launched Pathway Home Program, which rapidly re-houses domestic violence survivors and their children, providing case management and assistance securing housing.

Today, Building Futures serves homeless women and children and those fleeing abuse at the three emergency shelters listed above, at our affordable housing site for formerly homeless survivors of domestic violence, at scattered site housing; through a full domestic violence outreach program and 24-hour crisis line, and with children's services.

Building Futures’ mission is to build communities with underserved women and children where they are safely housed, free from homelessness and family violence.

Last year we served 324 women and 279 children at three crisis shelters serving homeless women and children and domestic violence survivors.

As our economy has stumbled, family violence and the numbers of homeless women and children is on the rise. As we confront a State budget crisis devastating for those living in poverty, Building Futures’ greatest challenge currently is maintaining our life-changing emergency shelter and safety net programs.

• Year established:1988

Registration

• Organization type:Grantseeker
• Country of registration:United States
• Year established:1988
• Tax Determination Letter:Received Determination Letter
• IRS Section:501(c)(3)
• IRS Subsection:Operating

Web Listing

• Guidestar listed:Yes
• Charity Navigator listed:No