Colette's Children's Home

Colette’s Children’s Home a nonprofit organization based in Huntington Beach, CA that has provided housing and supportive services to over 6,200 homeless women and children over the past 27 years. Colette’s Children’s Home’s (CCH) mission is to provide homeless single women and homeless mothers with children a safe home and nurturing environment where they obtain compassionate support and services needed to achieve self-sufficiency.

CCH began renting a two-bedroom apartment in the city of Huntington Beach in 1998, housing up to 6 homeless women and children each night. The agency now owns and operates 21 Homeless Shelter Program and permanent housing sites. We have the capacity to serve over 400 homeless single women, homeless mothers and children, and low-income individuals at any given point in time. Our shelters are located in the cities of Huntington Beach, Fountain Valley, Anaheim, Placentia, and Garden Grove

Our target population is homeless single women and homeless mothers with children throughout Orange County. CCH has always focused on limited requirements for program entry; we require an individual to be experiencing homelessness and provide a negative drug test at time of interview and that the client is able to work full time. 100% of the clients we serve are below the low to moderate income range most of the falling into the extremely low-income range. We prioritize clients who are literally homeless living on the streets, in their vehicles or coming from emergency shelters.  Clients often have no source of income or only minimal income coming from entitlement programs at program entry.

Upon intake to our Homeless Shelter Program (HSP), each client is assigned a case manager who works with her to identify the issues that led to them being homeless. An individual recovery or work plan is then developed with clearly defined goals and objectives to overcome the challenges that caused our client to become homeless. In addition to shelter, CCH also provides a total support system such as housing, utilities, food vouchers, bus passes, clothing, and hygiene products.            

In order to achieve the agency’s goal of self-sufficiency for each client, our program provides help for clients to reunify with their children, resolve legal and financial problems, maintain sobriety, secure gainful employment, and establish a budget and savings plan whereby 80% of their discretionary income is placed in a savings account to ensure the financial means to continued stability upon program graduation. We also support increased self-determination and self-sufficiency through Life Skills class meetings held once a week in the evenings. These classes address topics such as parenting, job skills, securing employment, financial budgeting and management, reunification with children, and substance abuse relapse prevention. In addition, we seek to encourage the healing of damaged family relationships, the building of trust and support among friends, and achieving the transition to affordable, permanent housing.