Nov. 8, 2007

L.A. SPLASH Magazines Worldwide

“1^st Annual Christmas With a Conscience Fashion Charity Extravaganza – Hosted by Actress and Philanthropic Designer Christina Fulton & Weston Coppola-Cage”

By Quang Bui

Christina Fulton and Weston Coppola-Cage will be presenting FULCAGE’s winter collection on December 5th at Boulevard 3 from 7pm to 12am. They will be supporting the Fulton-Cage’s Single Mom Foundation. The two designers served as ambassadors for single mothers and now unite their expressive and luxurious designs with their obligations to help single mothers.

The FULCAGE fashion charity extravaganza will be a one-stop Christmas shop. There will be the FULCAGE designs, hors d’oeuvres, comedy, dancing and a gifting room inside Boulevard 3. Starbucks is also generously sponsoring the event.

The objective of FULCAGE is to support and raise awareness of single parenthood, a dormant issue that affects over ten million families in the US. Christina Fulton, a single mom, actress and designer, established this clothing line and charity to support single parents across the country. The clothing line features headwear and apparel for men, women, and children. They also feature a collection of dog apparel. Some of the clothing lines include "Single Mom," "Mom Squad," "Dad Squad" and "Rock on Single Mom." These collections are available online for purchase and in Los Angeles boutiques and will be available for purchase at the Christmas with a Conscience Fashion Charity Extravaganza.

A portion of all sales from this line are donated to the Single Mom Foundation. Their goal is to establish funding, opportunities and resources to improve the status and living conditions of single mothers in need. Christina, who founded the foundation, is also working on an upcoming reality show about single moms and fund raising within the community with Tijuana Productions.

The FULCAGE mission statement is: “ Save America’s Single Moms and We’ll Save Our Children!”

Expected guests to cross the red carpet include Nicolas Cage, Patricia Arquette, Thomas Jayne, Marla Maples, Tiffany Trump, Cedric the Entertainer, Rex Lee and many others.

Actor comedian Pauly Shore will be hosting the event and Brittney Powell, the honored single mom, will be presenting. Dr. Michael Niccole will also be helping the Single Mom Actress Britney Powell. It is a touching story and Fox News has agreed to follow the story of a struggling single Mom’s dream coming true during Christmas.

Christina Fulton was also recently crowned the celebrity ambassador by Casa Teresa, a non-profit organization that provides temporary homes and on-going support for pregnant women 18 years and older. In the past year she has done humanitarian work for The Single Mom Foundation, Haven Hills, Hats Off to Cancer, Driving Donors and her community outreach within inner city kids. With Sheriff Lee Baca on her advisory board her outreach expands beyond single parents. She also is continuing her movie career along side her philanthropic work.

Attend the 1st Annual Christmas with a Conscience Fashion Charity Extravaganza at Boulevard 3 and get your Christmas gifts while supporting single mothers. The event will start at 7pm and go till 12am.

$100 donations grants general admission including food, drinks and entro to the raffle. $500 donation grants you access to the VIP celebrity lounge, a VIP gift bag valued over $2500, and auto entry to the VIP raffle. All Donations are Tax Exempt and go to the Charities.

For Donations or Tickets call 323.655.5300 or visit www.FULCAGE.com

L.A. SPLASH Magazines Worldwide

Nov. 6, 2007

The Orange County Register

“The Gift of Giving; How Charity Works”

By Peter Larsen

CASA TERESA - The mission: "We are a home for pregnant women who have nowhere to go," said spokeswoman Pamela Sailor. In addition to providing a place to live during their pregnancies, Casa Teresa has expanded over the years to offer educational programs aimed at helping the women learn to live on their own and provide stable homes for their families.

The process: The mothers at Casa Teresa are offered everything from nutrition and health classes to job training to counseling to help them break the cycle of poverty, addiction or other poor life choices. If accepted into the program during their pregnancies, they can stay for up to two years.

The people: The organization has 21 full- or part-time employees, and about 225 volunteers donate their effort each year.

The jobs: Volunteers do everything from baby-sitting while the new mothers attend classes to cooking meals as part of nutrition training. Some offer their own special skills – a photographer shot Christmas portraits, a poet taught poetry classes. Donations are important, too, Sailor said. To support one woman in the program costs $17,775 yearly.  For more: www.casateresa.com

Photos - CINDY YAMANAKA, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

NAPTIME: Single mom Brandy Ford, 31, rocks her four-month-old son Michael Anthony after giving him his bottle.  The Casa Teresa resident's day consisted of two parenting classes, work and a Narcotics Anonymous meeting.

SPARKLING PERSONALITY: Brandy Ford's eye shadow matches her personality. Taken at the Casa Teresa home in Orange where she lives. Ford kisses her four-month-old son Michael Anthony good night. The single mom says she "runs with God" now.

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/life/features/article_1917389.php

Oct. 29, 2007

Excelsior

“Otra Opción Para las Madres Solteras;
Casa Teresa Ofrece Ahora Cuidados Infantiles con la Apertura de un Nuevo Centro”

Por Laura Bucio

Casa Teresa, un centro que ofrece cuidados a mujeres embarazadas, ahora también puede ofrecerles un lugar de cuidado infantil. Todas aquellas mujeres que han recibido ayuda previamente pueden dejar a sus niños en Casa Teresa durante el día.  En Centro de Cuidado Infantil Dorothy Von der Ahe, de Casa Teresa, abrió sus puertas la semana pasada y ya hay varios niños que están recibiendo cuidados.  El centro fue abierto con la colaboración de la Iglesia presbiteriana, que se ha comprometido a pagar a los empleados que trabajan en el centro.

“No creo que haya nadie que haya recibido esta clase de cuidados cuando era pequeño”, dijo Pamela Sailor, gerente de ventas y eventos especiales en Casa Teresa. Sailor asegura que la iglesia ha contratado a personas que han estudiado específicamente acerca de los cuidados infantiles. Las madres que dejan ahí a sus pequeños pueden estar seguras de que sus niños están recibiendo el cuidado apropiado.

En el nuevo centro los niños pueden participar en varias actividades que los ayudan a crecer y a desarrollar sus sentidos, afirmó Sailor.

Casa Teresa comenzó como un lugar donde las mujeres embarazadas de pocos recursos podían acudir para obtener ayuda. Después de un tiempo la casa añadió dos programas a sus servicios.

Es lo que ellos llaman transiciones uno y dos. En estos programas las mujeres que ya han dado a luz a sus bebés tienen la oportunidad de asistir a la escuela. Casa Teresa también les da asesoría acerca de cuidados para sus bebés, cuidados del hogar y administración del dinero, dijo Sailor.

Ahora, con la apertura del Centro de Cuidado Infantil, Casa Teresa puede ofrecerles a las madres ayuda para el cuidado de sus niños. Según Sailor muchas veces estas mujeres llegan a pagar hasta la mitad de su sueldo completo en el cuidado de sus niños.

Las mujeres que acuden a Casa Teresa tienen la oportunidad de recibir ayuda a lo largo de su embarazo y hasta que logran una estabilidad económica y mental, afirmó Sailor.

“Muchas de estas mujeres nunca han tenido la oportunidad de llevar una vida normal”, dijo Sailor. “Y hasta ahora este es el único lugar que puede dársela”.

http://www.ocexcelsior.com/noticias/locales/2007/oct/1019/1019_noti_local_casateresa.shtml

Oct. 25, 2007

ELISABETH DEFFNER
ORANGE PEOPLE

The Orange City News

“Senior House Mother Keeps Things Running at Casa Teresa”

By Elisabeth Deffner

As the senior house mother at Orange’s Casa Teresa—a shelter for single pregnant women—Frances Carrillo does everything from checking the residents’ chore chart, to organizing donations that flow into the shelter, to meeting with the residents one-on-one when they have a problem or a question—or they just need someone to talk to.  “The girls are always coming to me, which I love,” Carrillo said. “It means they trust me.  They’re going through a lot. They depend on us for shelter, depend on us to be kind to them—I never forget that.”

Since she started in the newly-created position last year, Carrillo and her colleagues have initiated some new programs, like “Casa Bucks.” Residents can earn the bucks and then use them to “go shopping” for baby supplies and maternity clothes that have been donated to the shelter. “This way they really feel like they’ve earned something,” Carrillo explained. “Can you imagine having to ask every time you need something?”

The reality is that these are women in difficult situations—some of them fleeing abusive homes, some of them trying to leave homelessness. Sometimes they arrive at Casa Teresa with nothing but the clothes they’re wearing. If they need to make an emergency purchase—like medication—Carrillo gives them a gift card to a store like Target or Food 4 Less (residents have to return the gift cards and give Carrillo their receipts, so the shelter can maintain an accounting of expenditures).

Gift cards are among Carrillo’s favorite donations, though she notes that Casa Teresa also needs new baby car seats, new twin mattresses, and small loveseats to replace the old ones in the shelter’s bedrooms.

The dignity and safety of each resident—Casa Teresa has the capacity for 16 women—have been at the forefront of staff’s and volunteers’ minds since the shelter was established 30 years ago. The mission is to help residents achieve self-sufficiency and independence—and to have a chance at a space in Transition I or Transition II, which can extend the Casa Teresa stay till a resident’s baby is 20 months old. Program requirements are simple: residents have to attend school or have a job, save their money, and comply with any court-ordered programs.  Residents are also provided with computer training, job skill assessment, and career development classes.

Casa Teresa has grown extensively since Carrillo first encountered it as a scared, pregnant 18-year-old. The staff was much smaller and so was the shelter. (Most recently, Casa Teresa celebrated the opening of the Dorothy Von der Ahe Infant Care Center, based at the downtown Orange First Presbyterian Church.) But one thing has remained the same over the intervening years: the support residents gain not only from staff and volunteers, but from each other.   “It’s amazing what happens to them while they’re here,” Carrillo said. “They all become better people while they’re here. They feel like they’re really loved here.”

Carrillo is open with residents about her firsthand experience as a Casa Teresa resident, and she laughs when she says that one of the best things about being a past resident is that the women staying at Casa Teresa now can never snap at her, “You don’t know what it’s like.”

Now a mother of three, Carrillo had worked as a police records clerk, a parking control officer, and a dispatcher for the Santa Ana Police Department. She took some time off to be home with her youngest son when he was just starting school, but missed the camaraderie of the workplace.  With her husband, she often discussed what her ideal job would be. “I wish I could be at Casa Teresa and be a housemom or something,” she told him more than once.

She started volunteering her photography skills at the shelter, and told executive director Lissa Callaghan to keep her in mind if there was a part-time opening. A few months later, Callaghan phoned to offer her a newly-developed fulltime position.

 “It was just from God,” Carrillo said. “How many people get to do what they’ve always dreamed of?  I feel like I really have a purpose in my life.”

You can learn more about Casa Teresa at www.casateresa.com or by calling 714-538-4860.

Oct. 18, 2007

The Orange City News

“Child Berth; New Infant Care Center in Orange Provides Vital Service for Low-Income Mothers on the Edge”

By Gwendolyn Driscoll

ORANGE – Brandy Ford knows what a bad childhood means.  When she was 5, her parents divorced.  When she was 12, her alcoholic mother offered her a beer.  When she was 15, she gave birth to her first child, a baby girl she gave up for adoption.  “I couldn't cope,” she says. “It was too hard.”  A drug addiction, bad choices and jail – she was arrested 14 times for drug dealing in one year alone – followed. So did another child, a now-11-year-old boy named Anthony Michael who lives with his father's parents.

Today, the 34-year-old Ford is a mother again to a five-month-old boy named Michael Anthony – the mirror-image name chosen so that Ford feels “I have both my boys together.”  She says she is determined, she says, to both fight her addiction and provide her newborn with a childhood far different than her own.  It is why, each morning, she walks her baby to a brightly painted building filled with the offspring of women just like her – new mothers on the edge of homelessness, addiction and poverty.

Center opening

The building is the latest brainchild of Casa Teresa, the Orange-based charity that provides shelter and intensive parenting classes to women like Brandy.  The organization's support includes helping homeless mothers to find jobs. Until now, however, it has not included in-house childcare, a crippling obstacle for many low-income women trying to hold down those jobs.  On Thursday, Casa Teresa and a coalition of partners and supporters opened an infant care center for its high-risk, low-income clientele. The goal: give mothers a safe place to leave their children so that they can find jobs.

Unsubsidized childcare can cost from $3,000 to $9,000 a year or more and low-income families, overwhelmingly headed by single mothers, may spend up to 56 percent of their income on child care, according to the Center for Law and Social Policy. Because of the high labor involved, infant care is typically more expensive than other kinds of care – about $12,000 a year, according to Callaghan.  “The cost of living is very difficult in Orange County ,” said Lissa Callaghan, executive director of Casa Teresa. “For single moms childcare is a big chunk of their income and housing is the other chunk and then what do they eat?”

The 800-square-foot, $200,000 Dorothy Von der Ahe Infant Care Center at the First Presbyterian Church of Orange can house up to 12 children between the ages of 2 months and 2 years.  Callaghan said that low-income mothers are often referred to “bottom of the barrel” child care providers, with occasionally unpleasant results.  “Our women would come home and say (about their child care provider) ‘'I think (all she did was) sit in a swing all day.’ Or, ‘she came home with a bruise,’” says Callaghan. “You don't know what's happening … and when you're a working mom at poverty level you don't have any control.”

The new infant center has cribs and toys but does not use rockers or swings – “we want people always interacting with the infants, not just sitting them in front of a TV” says Pamela Sailor, a Casa Teresa spokesperson.  Inside the Center, a portion of the wall is devoted to photographs of each child.  “It's beautiful,” says Ford. “I just feel welcome. I feel safe. And they have a schedule going on – that's something I wish I had with when I was young.”

Big obstacles

Casa Teresa's about 35 residents struggle with the additional psychological burdens of homelessness, addiction and, as in Ford's case, past felonies.  Many employers won't hire felons, Callaghan said. Felons are also not eligible for some social service benefits, such as the “CalWORKS” state welfare programs.  The Casa Teresa infant center charges $1,000 a month per child but much of that money is reimbursed through state programs and grants.

Callaghan said the Orange County charity the Children's Home Society might subsidize some or all of Ford's childcare costs.  If not, Ford will pay a nominal fee for child care, yet to be determined, based on her income level.  “They understand you're in a tight squeeze,” Ford said.

Ford currently works a minimum wage job at a Togo 's restaurant near the Orange Mall and takes home a monthly salary of about $900.  She must also attend three addiction programs a week, as well as be tested twice a week for drugs.  She must accomplish both work and rehab within the 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. hours of the infant care center.

How would Ford pay for childcare without help?  “I wouldn't know,” she says. “I couldn't tell you that.”  Two hundred dollars of her salary goes to Casa Teresa as “rent” – a mostly symbolic contribution to her own rehabilitation, according to Sailor.

Ford is also saving to buy a car. She has other ambitions as well: a high school diploma, a college degree in business administration, her own Togo 's franchise one day.  She has less than two years to make a start. Casa Teresa residents may house their children at the center up to the age of two. After that, they are expected to complete their own rehabilitation program, secure stable work, and move out.

Despite her low pay and the addiction that perpetually gnaws at her – she is only ten months sober – Ford says she is confident she will succeed, in large part because of a renewed faith in God.

“I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for him,” she says. “I'm starting to run his way. Because every time I go my way I end up in hand cuffs.”

Infant care
    What: Dorothy Von der Ahe Infant Care Center
    Where: First Presbyterian Church, 191 N. Olive, Orange
    Who: The center, which houses as many as 1 2 children up to 2 years old, is open to residents of Casa Teresa, an Orange-based charity that helps low-income single mothers recovering from homelessness and substance abuse.
    Cost: The center charges $250 a week; much of that money is reimbursed through state child care programs or grants.
    Call: 714-538-4860

NAPTIME: Single mom Brandy Ford, 31, rocks her four-month old son Michael Anthony after giving him his bottle. The Casa Teresa resident’s day consisted of two parenting classes, work and a Narcotics Anonymous meeting.

MUCH IN COMMON: From left: Brandy Ford, left, picks up her son Michael Anthony, 4 months, and jokes with her best friend Nicole Skipper holding her daughter Destiny, 2 months. The Casa Teresa residents picked up their babies at the Dorothy Von der Ahe Infant Care Center in Orange .

Click here for the Orange City News Article

Oct. 11, 2007

The Orange County Register

“New Infant Center Opening This Afternoon; Center in Orange Will Serve Single Mothers”

By Gwendolyn Driscoll

ORANGE –  Casa Teresa will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony today for its new infant care center, created to serve high-risk, low-income single mothers enrolled in the Orange-based charity's rehabilitation programs.

The 800-square-foot, $200,000 Dorothy Von der Ahe Infant Care Center, housed at the nearby First Presbyterian Church of Orange, will care for up to 12 children between the ages of 2 months and 2 years.

Orange Mayor Carolyn Cavecche and actress Christina Fulton will attend the 4 p.m. opening of the center, which was constructed with a $159,000 grant from the Weingart Foundation and individual donations.

Casa Teresa officials said the center would support low-income single mothers with affordable childcare so that they could concentrate on job training and employment.

“Not only are we helping the moms give birth to a healthy baby we're helping them to raise that baby in a safe and stimulating environment,” says Lissa Callaghan, Casa Teresa's executive director.

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/news/local/orange_villapark/article_1885642.php

Oct. 11, 2007

The Orange County Register

“New Infant Center Opening This Afternoon; Center in Orange Will Serve Single Mothers”

By Gwendolyn Driscoll

ORANGE –  Casa Teresa will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony today for its new infant care center, created to serve high-risk, low-income single mothers enrolled in the Orange-based charity's rehabilitation programs.

The 800-square-foot, $200,000 Dorothy Von der Ahe Infant Care Center, housed at the nearby First Presbyterian Church of Orange, will care for up to 12 children between the ages of 2 months and 2 years.

Orange Mayor Carolyn Cavecche and actress Christina Fulton will attend the 4 p.m. opening of the center, which was constructed with a $159,000 grant from the Weingart Foundation and individual donations.

Casa Teresa officials said the center would support low-income single mothers with affordable childcare so that they could concentrate on job training and employment.

“Not only are we helping the moms give birth to a healthy baby we're helping them to raise that baby in a safe and stimulating environment,” says Lissa Callaghan, Casa Teresa's executive director.

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/news/local/orange_villapark/article_1885642.php

Oct. 11, 2007

KDOC-TV – DayBreakOC Morning News

Oct. 11, 2007

(Click here for video clip)

Oct. 9, 2007

Foothills Sentry

“Casa Teresa benefits from creative fundraising”

Oct. 9, 2007

Casa Teresa, a long-term shelter for homeless pregnant women in Orange , announced that one of its benefactors, Paragon Global Resources of Rancho Santa Margarita, has pledged to raise $17,775, which is the cost to support one woman at Casa Teresa for one year. The company will match employee donations from some unusual sources. For example, an employee can donate $10 to the fund and as a reward can wear jeans for a week. A car wash will be held behind the offices, and the company’s service providers will provide a luncheon for the office, which employees can ‘purchase’ for another donation.  For information about Casa Teresa, contact (714) 538-4860.

http://foothillssentry.com/October%2007%20Sentry.pdf