STORIES

EL NIDO FAMILY CENTERS
Celebrating 90 years of transforming lives
El Nido Family Centers, one of Los Angeles’s
oldest social service agencies, has come a long
way from our modest beginnings in 1925 as
a camp in Laurel Canyon for undernourished,
neglected and sick children. El Nido, which means
“the nest” in Spanish, was originally founded by
the National Council of Jewish Women. Today
an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit agency, we
help to transform the lives of more than 10,000
children, youth, and family members in some of Los
Angeles’s most disadvantaged neighborhoods.
Our comprehensive programs include prenatal
case management and parenting programs for teen
parents, Early Head Start for infants and toddlers
and their parents, parent education and family
development, child abuse prevention and treatment,
family counseling, and youth development and
gang prevention and intervention programs.
Celebrating our 90-year anniversary in 2015, El
Nido was founded on the simple principle that a
child cannot grow up twice, and that profound and
powerful idea is what continues to drive our familyoriented
programs today. Throughout the decades,
El Nido has proven itself as an enduring resource
in the Los Angeles community: a constant guiding
and giving presence responding to and offering
solutions to the pressures and problems of the day.
Much like Los Angeles itself, a city of reinvention,
El Nido has deftly adapted to meet the needs of
different generations and changing demographics.
The success stories and individuals on the
following pages span generations, ethnicities and
backgrounds but all share one thing in common:
they personify the transformative power of El
Nido Family Centers’ work. Their stories tell the
story of El Nido’s dedication to create stronger
families and brighter futures for 90 years in Los
Angeles. As you read their stories, you will find a
consistent theme throughout, which is both simple
and yet exceedingly powerful: El Nido saves lives.
This book is a celebration of our clients’ successes
and accomplishments. Their stories are far more
compelling and illustrative than any description we
could provide of our work, and we will let them tell
the El Nido story. We are so proud to have helped
them on their journeys, and to have helped tens,
even hundreds of thousands of individuals like
them over our nine decades. Today, with 90 years
of providing critical social services under our belt,
El Nido Family Centers has established itself as a
beacon in Los Angeles, inextricably linked to the
fabric of our city. Thank you for reading our story.
“WHAT A CHILD DOESN’T
RECEIVE HE CAN SELDOM
GIVE LATER.”
– P.D. JAMES
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