A summer of Opportunities

Support for foster and systems-impacted youth

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

Growing in poverty in the city of East Los Angeles our executive director and founder Maria Ramblaz saw the immense potential many of her peers demonstrated. However at her young age she saw the cruelty of seeing those same peers who demonstrated immense promise lose hope of a higher education due to the lack of resources available to the low income community. This gave her the hope of one day creating an organization that creates opportunity for all especially for members of low income communities. Furthermore, as a resident of East Los Angeles she has seen how the youth continue to suffer due to the various amounts of drug use and homelessness they see everyday creating a cage of which they believe they cannot escape. This is why we The Urban Warehouse want to break the cycle and ensure more children not only graduate but also grow with new experiences ensuring that like a bird they fly free to the horizon.

The Urban Warehouse which for almost a decade has generated scholarship opportunities as well as helping the children of the community with tutoring, field trips to widen their horizons, meals in the form of food banks, the importance of physical activity in the form of skateboarding and so much more. “The Summer Smart Camp” which provides the children of our community the opportunity to travel to various museums, parks and other forms of activities to ensure they not only have fun this summer but learn as much as possible to demonstrate to them that their dreams are not limited to where they come from or how they look. However funding is always needed to ensure the success and expansion of the program to ensure no youth is limited to the opportunities offered due to lack of experience or lack of education for being a part of a low income community.

Throughout our program we have seen a wide variety of success from our students who attend our year young program and our Summer Smart Camp in the form of students graduating with high GPAs and attending various Universities around the United States. Furthermore we have children who were in danger of failing no being at the top of their class and learning with ease various subject. However in order to continue our work and further change Los Angeles County or the better we need funding so that more youth are helped by our program giving every child the opportunity to grow academically creating more professionals who come from our county.

Our project which has been around for over a decade has always seen the importance of education not only in school but also having the common living skills they will need to further advance. Our evidence to demonstrate this program works is the testimonies of the families we help. Furthermore the grades the children present before and after the program show just how drastically they have changed with the help of our program.
On top of all this many pillars of the community have show their support of the program by promoting it to others because they also believe our children that come from Los Angeles County are the future.