Maria originally created the non-profit organization, Children’s Lifesaving Foundation (CLF), in 1993 to help secure the healthcare and social needs for at-risk children. Maria has expanded the Foundation’s mission over the years to one of securing housing and jobs for selected at-risk families in the extended Los Angeles area.
CLF’s five program components also provide homeless children living in shelters and attending low-income service programs an opportunity to enjoy and appreciate life in a way they normally could not do. These segments include The Spring and Summer Camp Enrichment Program, Project Angel Wings Program, Kids Helping Kids-Project Imagination, and Adopt-A-Family Program, and the Learning Center. All have created opportunities for families-at-risk to learn, to grow, and to reach their potential. Services range from educational enrichment programs for shelter-bound children to helping secure permanent housing, counseling, and follow up for homeless families. CLF provides a year-round Life-Learning Center for children, a Summer Camp Enrichment Program, and various other initiatives for youth from the infancy on through seventeen years of age.
For example, the new Learning Center focuses exclusively on a smaller group of at-risk children, helping mentor and tutor them through to college age. Since the summer of 1993, Maria and the Children's Lifesaving Foundation have brought together 27,500 children, teens, and their parents to the Circle X Ranch in Malibu, a National Park site. 2,200 attended during the 2005 Camp Enrichment Season, and Maria plans for an even larger outreach event this year. The children arrive at camp from shelters, missions, Boys and Girls Clubs, foster-care homes, elementary and high schools, churches, and other organizations dedicated to at-risk youth. CLF enables children to play, learn, and participate in activities at no charge. Each constituent program serves a purpose towards bringing children, families, and communities together in a way that instills pride and hope in their futures, which creates a space for opportunity and motivation to become invaluable assets to the LA community at large.
Maria gives everything of herself -- her time, her expertise, and her resources -- to help transform the lives of children and families at risk. Arriving in the U.S. as a poor immigrant from Italy at the age of twelve, Maria retains an intimate awareness of how very difficult the life of immigrants and the marginalized in the midst of plenty can be. At 49 years old, Marie D’Angelo started her agency to bring hope, opportunity, and connection to the most vulnerable, forgotten, and disaffected in our society. Through her vision and tireless efforts, the Children’s Lifesaving Foundation has grown into a comprehensive, compassionate program that serves thousands throughout the year in Los Angeles. We are all the richer for it.
To learn more about Maria D’Angelo and her cause, and how you can make a difference, please visit:
www.childrenslifesaving.org.
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