Everychild Foundation Grants $1 Million to The Whole Child Organization

By DAYNA DRUM | Reporter

At the 16th annual Everychild Foundation Luncheon on Tuesday, March 15, Founder and President Jacqueline Caster handed over a giant symbolic check for $1 million to The Whole Child (TWC), an organization based in Whittier, California.

Each year the Pacific Palisades based foundation awards a grant up to $1 million to an organization that has been invited to apply and gone through a rigorous application process.

The foundation is made up of about 200 Los Angeles women who commit $5,000 annually, with more than 95 percent of its funds going toward the annual grant.

The 2015 recipient of the grant will use the funding for TWC’s Everychild Foundation Family Housing Program, which will work to provide housing for families that are homeless or at risk of homelessness.

The program anticipates assisting approximately 168 families over the course of two years.

TWC CEO Charlene Dimas-Peinado told the Palisadian-Post the organization had competed for the grant for six years before finally receiving it. To win this year’s grant was an indescribable feeling but very exciting, Dimas-Peinado said.

The Sweet 16 luncheon was held at the Skirball Cultural Center, where foundation members and city officials were in attendance.

Previous grant recipients were also in the audience and a couple of them gave updates on their projects, which have been funded through Everychild.

“You’ve changed the nature of philanthropy,” Carol Adelkoff, CEO of the 1736 Family Crisis Center and 2014 grant recipient, told the members of Everychild.

During the event, Whittier Mayor Fernando Dutra presented Caster with a plaque of proclamation on behalf of the city of Whittier, thanking the foundation for their work.