CREATING A KINDER WORLD...
A portion from each design project goes to the organizations Food on Foot, Maitri, or The Trevor Project, at no extra cost to the client. Let’s discuss which one you’d like to contribute to, as we work together to create a kinder, more beautiful world.
To learn more about each organization, please read below:
Maitri is a free, confidential, non-profit organization based in the San Francisco Bay Area that aspires to creating a society where all relationships are built on dignity, equity, and compassion. Maitri’s mission is empower South Asian survivors of domestic violence to lead lives of dignity and self-sufficiency through holistic programs, and, enable healthy relationships and gender equity through community education, engagement, and advocacy. Maitri primarily helps families and individuals from South Asia (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives) facing domestic violence, emotional abuse, cultural alienation, or family conflict. Since1991, Maitri has done trans-formative work empowering over thousands of survivors and has become the go-to agency for the South Asian community. What started as a referral service decades ago, has now expanded to several programs and services to provide holistic help though programs such as Maitri’s Helpline, Peer Counseling, Transitional Housing Program, Legal Advocacy, Economic Empowerment, Individual therapy & Supports Groups, Volunteer Engagement, and providing referrals and resources. Programs include a unique Boutique that supports the agency’s Economic Empowerment program through sales of 100% donated gently used south Asian clothes and accessories. Maitri also does extensive outreach and prevention through for the Youth and general community via education, workshops, radio shows and social media campaigns.
For more information, please visit Maitri's website. To support Maitri directly, please visit www.maitri.org
Food on Foot was founded in 1996 by Jay Goldinger, with the mission to help the homeless and low income neighbors of Los Angeles with nutritious meals, clothing, and a fresh start through a life-skills education, full-time employment, and permanent housing.
Although Food on Foot originally started as a food distribution nonprofit, it became evident that more programs needed to be included. The underlying factors causing the homeless epidemic are a lack of confidence, resources, and community. This issue was tackled head-on by the creation of the Work for Food program in 1999, designed to help homeless individuals regain their footing back into society through full-time jobs, housing, life-skills and confidence building. Work for Food program participants are high-functioning homeless who slip through the cracks of other homeless programs. These are adults who are not on disability, probation or parole. We help these people get back to work quickly before they slip into chronic homelessness.
Food on Foot’s weekly Sunday Meal program and Work for Food program take place every single Sunday in the back parking lot of the LGBT Center in Hollywood, rain or shine.
Once a participant is halfway through the program, he or she receives a full-time job and their own apartment. Food on Foot saves the participant’s paychecks as they work in their new full- time job. During this time, Food on Foot provides everything the participant needs to survive and to be successful in their job. This includes rent and furnishing for their apartment, bus passes, a cell phone, food gift cards, and small, everyday things like haircuts and work clothes. Once a participant accumulates $5,000 in paycheck savings, they graduate the program with their full-time job, a fully furnished apartment, a life-skills education, and a $5,000 savings account.
Food on Foot does not take any government funding in order to provide immediate high-quality and individualized care without restrictions. As result, Food on Foot relies solely on donations from individuals, foundations, and grants. It costs over $15,000 for a homeless person to go through and graduate the Work for Food program.
For more information, please visit Food on Foot's website. To support Food on Foot directly, please visit www.foodonfoot.org
The Trevor Project is the premier organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to LGBTQ teens and young adults. In 1994, producers Peggy Rajski and Randy Stone saw writer/performer James Lecesne bring to life Trevor, a character he created as part of his award-winning one-man show WORD OF MOUTH. Convinced Trevor’s story would make a wonderful short film, Stone and Rajski invited Lecesne to adapt it into a screenplay. Rajski directed the movie and TREVOR went on to win many prestigious awards including the Academy Award® for Best Live Action Short Film. The Oscar-winning film eventually launched a national movement. When producer Randy Stone secured an airing on HBO with Ellen DeGeneres hosting, director/producer Peggy Rajski discovered there was no real place for young people like Trevor to turn when facing challenges similar to his. She quickly recruited mental health experts and figured out how to build the infrastructure necessary for a nationwide 24-hour crisis line, and writer James Lecesne secured the funds to start it. On the night their funny and moving coming-of-age story premiered on HBO in 1998, these visionary filmmakers launched the Trevor Lifeline, the first national crisis intervention and suicide prevention lifeline for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer & questioning youth.
Since then, hundreds of thousands of young people in crisis have reached out to The Trevor Project’s multiple in-person and online life-saving, life-affirming resources–Trevor Lifeline, TrevorChat, TrevorSpace and Trevor Education Workshops.
For more information, please visit the Trevor Project's website. To support The Trevor project directly, please visit www.thetrevorproject.org
