About the Nonprofit
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Established in 1972, SPIRITT Family Services’ (SPIRITT) mission is to empower families, improve health and wellbeing, and strengthen communities. To achieve this mission, SPIRITT provides a critical range of trauma-informed, educational life skills, basic needs support, and mental health programs that advance the emotional wellbeing and healthy development of over 13,000 individuals residing in low-come communities throughout southeastern Los Angeles County, including San Gabriel/Pomona Valley. Child safety and family well-being are the core goals of SPIRITT’s services and activities. Some family-centered programs include Fatherhood, Domestic Violence Support Group, Life Skills for youth, and mental health treatment for children and their families.
Originally founded as Project INFO, SPIRITT was launched after developing the innovative prevention and early intervention program, WINDOWS/VENTANAS Family Communication Skills Program (WINDOWS), which has since been acknowledged at both the state and national level for its effectiveness in improving family bonding and communication and preventing substance abuse and mental health disorders in youth.
Building on the success of this flagship program and the trust established within the community, SPIRITT has grown steadily over the past 50 years, responding to the growing and evolving needs of families living in the surrounding communities. In 2000, SPIRITT changed its name to better reflect the key tenants of its programming: Skills for Prevention, Intervention, Recovery, Individual Treatment and Training – which are provided in the areas of mental health, substance abuse, child abuse prevention, and domestic and community violence. Today, comprehensive targeted services are delivered to economically, educationally, and socially vulnerable families through SPIRITT at its four Family Centers in South El Monte, Pomona, Whittier, and Bell Gardens, as well as at schools and in families’ homes. By providing an array of evidence-based practices grounded in a strength-based, family-centered program model, SPIRITT is advancing its primary goal of building stronger, more resilient, inclusive communities.
The Strengthening Families Framework that SPIRITT utilizes has proven that building protective factors in parents results in decrease incidents of child abuse and neglect and increases child/youth’s mental well-being. SPIRITT works with stressed families from vulnerable communities in enhancing protective factors. These services help prevent children/youth form entering the child welfare system (foster placement) and overcome social and emotional challenges.
The families served by SPIRITT struggle with a number of factors linked to increased risk for mental health illness, including substance use disorder, domestic violence, food insecurity, poverty, lack of financial resources, and high poverty rates. Funds will help overall sustainability of the organization to continue providing quality services to vulnerable children and their families. This year, in celebration of SPIRITT’s “golden anniversary,” the organization seeks support to continue addressing disparities in communities that experience high levels of adversities, while celebrating a significant milestone: 50 years of service and of blossoming hope.
Each year, SPIRITT provides outreach, prevention, and direct services to more than 13,000 individuals living in southeastern Los Angeles County, more than half of whom are children and youth (53%). Data from the 2020 United States Census reveal that this geographic region has the largest proportion of Latinx residents in any census-designated place (CDP) within the United States (excluding Puerto Rico) and a higher poverty rate that the County as a whole. 78% of SPIRITT’s participants are Latinx, 81% report earning less than $30,000 per household annually, and 40% receive SPIRITT services in Spanish. Safely, these racial and socioeconomic standings exacerbate the longstanding health, economic, and education disparities facing our participants. SPIRITT is uniquely qualified to provide effective resources and services to this population, having a long track record of effectively reaching and engaging traditionally marginalized, vulnerable populations who commonly experience disparities in health and social equity.
SPIRITT administers an empirically validated Protective Factor Survey (PFS) and Family Assessment Form (FAF) to evaluate the impact of its core programs on building protective factors and reducing risk factors for abuse and neglect among program participants. By collecting both client-reported outcomes as well as staff-reported outcomes and observations, SPIRITT can get a better indication of the effectiveness of its services in reaching intended outcomes.
Data collected and analyzed from recent FAF surveys revealed the following outcomes among PFF program participants: (1) 91% demonstrated an improvement in caregiver and child interaction; (2) 71% of showed an improvement in interactions between caregivers; and (3) 85% exhibited increased maternal and mental health. Similarly, recent PFS data shows the following average improvements among participants in SPIRITT’s P&A program: (1) family functioning increased by 12.3%; (2) social support increased by 10.8%, (3) concrete support increased by 14%; and (4) nurturing and attachment increased by 2.4%. These outcomes underscore SPIRITT’s ability and expertise in providing a broad range of child abuse/DV prevention and intervention services that transform and strengthen our communities.
SPIRITT also collects data by administering the Standards of Quality for Family Strengthening & Support Participant Survey at least annually. The set of questions for participants indicates how well the SPIRITT program is meeting standards from their perspective. The standards include 1) family centeredness, 2) family strengthening, 3) diversity, equity, and inclusion, 4) community strengthening, and 5) evaluation.
