About Us
About Us
The Lighthouse has been in existence since 2006 and was organized with a mission to meet the diverse needs of low income families struggling to care for medically fragile and foster youth. To this end, The Lighthouse positioned itself as a community resource that provided families informational and tangible resources such as parenting classes, clothing, formula, diapers and temporary housing. In addition to the aforementioned offerings, in 2009 The Lighthouse began its free meal distribution program in Los Angeles County. Since then, we have expanded our reach to include Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura, San Diego and Fresno counties. With over 3 million meals served to date, one of our most clear visions is to see the end of childhood hunger. Currently, we are responding to the urgent need in our community for housing and have expanded our reach and community impact by utilizing our vast community resources and strategic partnerships to make interim and permanent low income housing units available.
Mission
The Lighthouse 4Kids, Inc. is one of many heartbeats in a caring and loving community of givers. Our mission is to do our part to build thriving communities by caring for medically fragile, foster, and low-income children and the families that care for them. We provide health education, community resource information, transitional housing, and referrals to transitional housing resources, as well as free meals to children, with a purposed goal to eliminate child hunger. Our daily prayer is that our current mission will become a past accomplishment.
Our History
The Lighthouse was first established as an independent 501(c) 3 non-profits corporation in 2006 by Derrick and Lisa Amos after the premature birth of their 4th son Devyn in 2005. In spite of the devastation of learning Devyn would need full time care for the rest of his life, Derrick and Lisa considered themselves blessed to have each other and 3 other healthy sons as a support system, but as they entered the world of the parenting a medically fragile child, it became apparent that not all families were so fortunate. In addition to the demands of caring for a medically fragile child also came the financial toll of long term, intensive medical care and other mounting expenses. While the initial spark for the Lighthouse was ignited by the birth of one medically fragile little boy, the mission has expanded to include providing support to other parents and families caring not only for medically fragile children, but foster and at-risk children as well.
Our Partners
The Lighthouse understands the importance of community collaborations. Essential to the balanced development of each child is the synergy established with the school district’s regular day staff at each school site. Teachers and administrators keep leap staff current on grade standards. In turn, the leap staff provides appropriate academic support and strives to create a program that is an integral yet separate enhancement to the school curriculum. In addition, leap collaborates with dozens of community partners to provide diverse and meaningful activities and experiences for our students.
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