(…And how you can become a big-time philanthropist for just a dollar a month!)
The Ebell Rest Cottage Association is thrilled to report that we have awarded grants to 15 local nonprofits serving women in need to help them provide assistance in a variety of ways that are all more critically important this year than ever before. The following organizations received funding ranging from $5,000 to $13,000, for a grand total of $160,000:
Alexandria House
Critical Mass Dance Company
Families & Criminal Justice
Good Shepherd Center for Homeless Women & Children
Jenesse Center Inc.
Jewish Family Services of LA/Hope Transitional
Journey Out
LA Family Housing Corporation
New Directions for Veterans Oasis Program
Safe Passages dba Women Crowned in Glory
St. Barnabas Senior Services Women’s Emergency Fund
The Teen Project
Treasures Ministries
Union Rescue Mission/Hope Gardens Family Center
WeSPARK Cancer Support Center
While more than half of them focus on helping women experiencing or in danger of homelessness or domestic violence (or both), this year’s grantees offer services to their clients ranging from therapeutic dance classes, job training, and therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder to help escaping the effects of sex trafficking and maintaining ties with young children while incarcerated. All of their services align with RCA’s motto—“Relief, Compassion, and Action”—and its original mission “to benefit females, who, for whatever reason, are in need of loving care and helpful assistance of a charitable nature.”
A little history: In December 1917, Ebell member Miss Lillian B. Flanders deeded a small home she owned on West 95th Street to the Club to serve as an actual “Rest Cottage” dedicated to providing care and a quiet place to rest for women needing help to recuperate from surgery, serious illness, and other health problems. One year later, the Ebell Rest Cottage Association was established to raise operating funds for the Cottage, which was supported by Ebell volunteers, and in 1922, a second, larger Rest Cottage was built on North Park View Street. Now flash forward a few decades to the ‘60s, when Medicare and Medicaid came into being, while increased opportunities for women to get an education and a job made women’s club membership—including membership in our beloved Ebell—less feasible for many. Faced with the resulting decline in the pool of volunteers, as well as less urgent need for the services they had provided, the Ebell Board decided to sell the Park View house. The proceeds of the sale were used to endow a fund to further the Rest Cottage’s mission to help provide care and necessities of life for women in need and their children throughout Los Angeles County.
Today’s Ebell Rest Cottage Association continues to operate as it always has, as a separate non-profit corporation with its own board and membership under the auspices of the Ebell Board. It remains devoted to the same three principles on which it was founded: Relief, Compassion, and Action. R-C-A. These are what our volunteers have provided for more than a hundred years, and these are what we continue to provide as we continue our activities for a second century.
The future of RCA depends on Ebell members’ involvement in the good work that we do. Membership in RCA no longer costs a dollar, as it once did, but at $12 per year, it’s still a terrifically cost-effective way to participate in the Club’s longest-running philanthropic venture. No work is required to be part of RCA, but we meet once a month on the second Monday at 1:00 p.m., and we invite all members to join us in helping to protect our endowment and choose next year’s grant recipients. We also work together with the Social Service Committee to provide hands-on help to our grantees and their clients.
Please contact Randi Jones, RCA Director, at restcottage@ebelloflosangeles.com for more information about how you can become a big-time philanthropist for just a dollar a month!
