Wishing You A Joyous New Year!
While 2023 has been a difficult and divisive year, I am reminded every day that when we join hands we can make sure children are safe, loved, heard and valued. Here at CLC, we remain steadfast in our commitment to providing excellence in advocacy for children and youth impacted by abuse and neglect – to ensure that our dedicated staff have the tools and resources they need to keep our clients’ wants and needs at the center of all we do.
Here are some of the highlights of 2023:
CLC represented over 37,000 children and youth in foster care across California this year alone. This amounted to over 140,000 court appearances, over 12,000 children reunited with family or loved ones, 1,500 client needs requests fulfilled, 60 young parents given the tools and support needed to provide loving and safe homes for their children, and 166 transition-age clients placed in safe, permanent housing with the assistance of CLC’s housing unit. CLC’s new program to break the intergenerational cycle of foster care, the Family Support & Advocacy Center, served over 40 former foster youth and their children by preventing court involvement while connecting them with needed services. The generosity of our donors allowed us to fulfill holiday wishes for over 2,000 children with our Uplift with a Gift Program – and counting! Most importantly, CLC showed up for our clients in their time of need with over 100,000 client contacts. By telephone, in court, in person, or in the midst of crisis, our clients received the one-on-on support they needed from their CLC attorney and support team last year.
As we close out the year, I want to thank CLC’s staff – attorneys, peer advocates, parent partners, case managers, investigators, administrative and support staff – who work tirelessly day in and day out to fight for children in foster care both in and out of the courtroom. I want to thank CLC’s board and supporters for giving us the encouragement, resources and space to be at the forefront of child advocacy law. Most of all, I want to acknowledge our young clients for displaying incredible strength, resiliency, courage and optimism in spite of their often difficult circumstances. Our clients serve as a collective reminder that we need to do better for children and their families. With your support, we will put everything we have into making sure CLC’s staff are at the ready to help every child we represent be their best self.
Wishing you and yours a wonderful New Year,
Leslie Starr Heimov, Executive Director
Year In Review
CLC was busy in 2023!
Here’s a numerical look as some of CLC’s accomplishments this year.
Uplift With A Gift Brightens The Holidays!
Thank you to our community of supporters for making the 18th year of Uplift with a Gift a great success!
Hundreds of people drove to the store or browsed online to brighten the holidays and ensure every child on our list had gifts to open this holiday season.
A special thank you to a few donors who made huge contributions. Thank you to the students at High Point Academy in Pasadena who hosted a toy drive and dropped off dozens of boxes for our clients. Thank you to luggage company Beis for filling a truck full of weekender bags and carry-on roller bags stuffed with toiletries and water bottles for our older clients. Thank you to Netflix for filling cars with dozens of hand-wrapped gifts.
Thank you to Temple Menorah for bringing their community together at Hannukah time to give gifts and spread cheer during the season of light.
Because of all of you, CLC staff has delivered thousands of gifts to our most in need clients. Thank you for your continued generosity. We can’t do it without you.
We Made The List!
CLC is honored to be chosen for The Giving List Los Angeles edition for a third year!
The Giving List is a curated guide to philanthropic giving that tells the stories of a select list of nonprofits doing vital work in the LA region. The Giving List team consulted with leaders across philanthropy, financial services, and philanthropic advising to determine which organizations should be highlighted, and we are thrilled to have been selected! Read about our work here. 
CLC’s First Financial Literacy Graduation
Congratulations are in order!
Five expectant and parenting youth recently graduated after committing six weeks to CLC’s first ever financial literacy program!
A huge thank you to CLC’s housing team, our partner organization, Just in Time, and of course our dedicated mentors from American Business Bank who dedicated their time and treasure to this important program.
The youth spent hours learning the values behind how we spend money, budgeting, investments, retirement, loans and interest, and so much more!
Now five more of our youth are more equipped with knowledge to help them meet their financial goals and support their independence apart from the system.