Our Unique Mission...

1736 Family Crisis Center is a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the safety and fostering the long-term survival and success of runaway and homeless youth... battered women and their children... and other individuals in need. Since 1972, 1736 Family Crisis Center has worked to protect and empower our community's most distressed individuals and families... teens on the run from problems at home... battered women and their children... and others who need help overcoming depression, anxiety, family troubles, and other traumas. Help is only a phone call away through our 24-hour crisis hotlines. Our shelters can offer immediate refuge, and other critical aid is available at our community service centers. Extensive training, community education, and advocacy efforts broaden access to life-changing healing and hope. We provide services in English, Spanish, and other languages.

What We Do...

Our oldest program, started in 1972, is our Emergency Youth Shelter, located in Hermosa Beach. Through the years, our Youth Shelter has helped thousands of teenagers get off the streets, reunify with their parents, and redirect themselves in safe and productive ways.

In 1981, 1736 Family Crisis Center opened its domestic violence program. Today, 1736 Family Crisis Center's domestic violence program consists of confidential emergency and transitional shelter in four cities of Los Angeles County.

1736 Family Crisis Center also provides counseling, job development, and other services to domestic violence survivors who do not need shelter, through its community service centers. People who need counseling and referrals immediately can call 1736 Family Crisis Center's four 24-hour hotlines (310-379-3620, 310-370-5902, 213-745-6434, 562-388-7652).

1736 Family Crisis Center's three community service centers (in Torrance, Rancho Dominguez, and South LA) help children, adults, and families who need counseling and case management.

1736 Family Crisis Center staff does educational outreach throughout LA County.

How We've Helped...

1736 Family Crisis Center reaches, touches, and helps some 30,000 people each year. More than 7,000 of these people access our shelter, counseling clinic, and hotline services (known as "direct services").

An example of the success we can help our clients create is our Department of Labor Welfare-to-Work project, a five-year effort to help battered women. In five years, the project helped nearly 13,000 people. More than 500 enrolled in the program and more than 200 got career-level jobs. As one measure of success, the government asked that participants increase their earnings by 6% within the first year of employment; our participants' wages increased by 113%. The funding was not reauthorized by Congress. At the end of the contract, we closed some aspects of the program and are working to sustain the most valuable services.

Last year, 1736 Family Crisis Center experienced a 25% increase in demand for direct services. At the same time, 1736 Family Crisis Center is experiencing a reduction in funding, due to fewer government funds available.

We believe that more people will seek help, and we have fewer resources with which to help them. We hope that the community will help make up some of the monetary gap by donating as generously as they can. We encourage people to call us if they, or someone they love, needs help. We encourage everyone to go to 1736's web site for information and updates.

Pioneering Services...

1736 Family Crisis Center is a recognized service leader with over three decades of healing "firsts" launched to benefit children and families reeling from violence and other traumas:

Caring for kids on the run... 1736 Family Crisis Center's first shelter, opened in 1972, gave runaways sleeping on beaches in Los Angeles County's South Bay a safe, comfortable place to stay and non-judgmental help to guide them back onto a promising life course. This site remains one of only four licensed emergency shelters in Los Angeles County for girls and boys ages 10 through 17.

Embracing hurting women and children... 1736 Family Crisis Center's emergency shelter for battered women and their children, opened in 1981, was the only such refuge in the South Bay for over two decades.

Bridging the gap between safety and success... 1736 Family Crisis Center's next domestic violence shelter, opened with 15 beds in 1986 and expanded to 24 beds in 2002, was Los Angeles County's first model of post-emergency shelter for abused women. This model was one of the first in the U.S. to offer battered women extended shelter stays combined with an array of services to boost their ability to attain financial and emotional stability leading to safer, more productive lives.

Saving lives though frontline domestic violence training... 1736 Family Crisis Center's domestic violence training program for hospital emergency personnel and other health care professionals was introduced in 1998. The program has been expanded to a variety of hospital, private practice, and emergency response settings to provide for better identification, treatment, and referral of victimized women.

Offering jobs to prevent welfare dependence... 1736 Family Crisis Center's efforts to help abused women get and keep good jobs to sustain viable lives away from their batterers were significantly expanded in 1999 with a welfare-to-work grant from the U.S. Department of Labor. Out of 64 grants awarded nationally, 1736 Family Crisis Center was the only agency in California, out of six organizations across the country, selected to focus specifically on domestic violence victims as a hard-to-employ population.

Broadening the safety net... 1736 Family Crisis Center's most recent two domestic violence shelters in the Greater South Bay area, opened with 20 beds in 2000 and expanded to 64 beds in 2002, were the city's first long-term shelters for battered women and their children. The shelters offer hurting women, including mothers with girls and boys ages birth through 17, up to two years of nurturing refuge, counseling, job training/placement, and other aid to help ensure their best possible futures.

If you think you need help

1736 Family Crisis Center offers a broad range of ever-growing services. We also link with hundreds of other agencies we can refer hurting community members to for assistance. If you think you need help, call us today at one of our four 24-hour crisis hotlines: (213) 745-6434 ~ (310) 379-3620 ~ (310) 370-5902 ~ (562) 388-7652