Today we’d like to introduce you to Francesca Mccaffery
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
After college, I was living in Manhattan, and went to California to visit my mom and brother. Long story very short-I ended up staying! My mother, Maria D’Angelo, had just started a fledging nonprofit-the Children’s Lifesaving Foundation, of which I am now the Executive Director. (My brother, Sean, is our program director.) I started helping her write grants, and it snowballed from there! It really was an example of a family getting together to help underserved families and youth in Los Angeles. My mother was a single mom at the time, and had immigrated to Staten Island, NY from Naples Italy when she was just twelve years old. She knew very well how tough life could be, especially coming from an immigrant family, and her compassion has guided our work to this day. It has always been really important to me to give back-as I always knew, as the expression goes, “There by the grace of God I.” Any one of us could be born into a myriad set of varying circumstances. If you can count yourself lucky, you can amplify your life by helping others. I have absolutely learned this on my journey working with the Children’s Lifesaving Foundation.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
My mother started the Children’s Lifesaving, (or CLF) in the very early ’90s, without having an inkling about how a nonprofit should work. She was fortunate to have found a community which helped, guided her, and lifted up her ambitions. She started it with very little of her own personal funds, so, most definitely, there have been some very bumpy times. We were essentially a female-led company (albeit a nonprofit one!) at a time when that was quite rare. So, you had those things to contend with, as well. On the level of the actual work, we have experienced both tremendous heartbreak, to absolute elation. We have worked with youth who have experienced almost imaginable trauma, and seem them rise, survive, and often thrive. You also have the heartbreaks-such as parents and youth falling prey to addiction. Through it all, we have been able to maintain a resilience and calm, optimistic outlook-although, of course, the challenge always lies in maintaining this outlook. Having wonderful supporters, volunteers a dog course, great friends, makes it all flow.
We’ve been impressed with The Children’s Lifesaving Foundation , but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
The Children’s Lifesaving Foundation (CLF) is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization, dedicated to transforming the lives of underserved, BIPOC youth and houseless families living in shelters and transitional housing in Los Angeles through a unique approach of providing outdoor education through amazing Summer and Surf Camps, inspiring Holiday Events and awesome Field Trips in and around Los Angeles, and Educational Assistance and Scholarships for youth through to college-age. We also provided crucial Emergency Funding during the COVID-19 Crisis to the families in our Vita Network. What sets us apart is that all of our programs are free-of-charge to all participants, including our Camp for All Program, and we have worked with many of our families in our Vita Network Program for many years at a time. The CLF has been able to maintain a great base of supporters while operating very successfully with a small staff and very little overhead. We are truly most proud of the services we are able to deliver while staying within our budget. (Many people have noted that our small staff does the work of a staff ten times greater.) If you are looking to support a local nonprofit that provides tangible services with genuine, heartfelt results-we are the nonprofit for you! We also have a great CIT (Counselor-In-Training) and Student Ambassador Program-both of which we are greatly ramping up this year. We want to help develop the future leaders in Los Angeles-and they are coming from all neighborhoods and socio-economic backgrounds.
*Our History: The Children’s Lifesaving Foundation was founded in 1993 by Maria D’Angelo, after she had been volunteering at a homeless shelter in Central Los Angeles. She began by bringing children to get necessary physicals and minor surgeries, and soon began organizing field trips to amusement parks and local attractions.
Dr. Chris Landon introduced her to the National Park Service in 1993, and with a great group of like-minded friends and volunteers (including some amazing members of the Agape International Spiritual Institute) she helped refurbish the Circle X Ranch in the Santa Monica Mountains. In the summer of 1993, she brought up the first group of seven children. Our Summer Camp Enrichment Program was born. By 1994, the CLF was serving over 2,200 youth and families from various homeless shelters and agencies serving underserved youth annually. We also began finding financial sponsors to move specific families out of homeless shelters, and into their own homes. These families formed a group called the Adopt-A-Family Program, and, later, formed a program called the Vita Network.
Programs began to organically spring up from the work needing to be done: Project Angel Wings Holiday Program was formed to provide personalized bags of gifts, new clothing, and incredible events for low-income LA county students. Later, our Care through College Program was created to help academically prepare the youth in our Vita Network for high school, and to provide crucial scholarships for college.
Today, we have served over 85,000 underserved youth and homeless families through our various programs, have given out over 125 college scholarships, moved 50 families and individuals into new homes, created a one-on-one tutoring and college readiness program, distributed millions of dollars in brand-new in-kind goods and direct service to L.A.’s underserved youth and families and families experiencing homelessness, and distributed over $130,000 in direct financial stipends and in-kind donations during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
We are currently focusing upon making our Camp for All Program accessible to even more and more Los Angeles youth and families, and we hope to build our own facility within the next five years…
Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
Showing children that they are truly “seen,”-I feel this is the greatest gift you can give any youth you come into contact with-even waiting online at the coffee shop! I love knowing I have gotten through to a kid, that, if only for a moment or an afternoon-they have been seen, heard and appreciated. This is the basis of love, I feel, and I try to practice this whenever possible, but especially and obviously, when I am working with the youth whom we serve. On a lighter note, I love thrifting and finding true treasures, I’m an avid reader, and I’m also hard at work on my first novel, a literary mystery of sorts. I also love watching films (old and new-and in the actual theater!) and am quite a film buff. I just like to engaged, with whatever it is I happen to be doing. If that has happened-it has been a good day.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.childrenslifesaving.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/childrenslife/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheChildrensLifesavingFoundation
- Twitter: https://www.x.com/Childrenslife
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thechildrenslifesavingfoun2760
Image Credits
All Photos by Hannah Matteson
