Assistance League of North Coast
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Assistance League of North Coast (ALNC), an all-volunteer organization, funds and services programs that help provide a positive starting point for academic success for underserved school-age children in the coastal San Diego North County area. By providing clothes and shoes for transitional and other needy children, books and school supplies, technology for their schools, and health and safety instruction, ALNC is attempting to put these children on an equal footing with those who are less disadvantaged. Education has been shown to be the most powerful weapon in combatting the cycle of poverty, and these programs help empower children to have the confidence to learn. More than 180 volunteers donate their time to run the Thrift Shop, put on the Autumn Fantasy Gala, write grants, and solicit donations to fund these worthwhile programs.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Operation School Bell® Footsteps, new school shoes and socks
Footsteps provides new school shoes and six pairs of socks for children whose shoes have become warn out or do not fit them properly. School staff identify the children who are the most in need. Our volunteers meet the children at their local Payless Shoe Store where they select their new shoes and are given six pairs of socks. The children are also given a health/hygiene kit which is funded as a separate Operation School Bell® Program.
Operation School Bell® I Love to Read
There are two subprograms within Operation School Bell® focusing on literacy: World of Books and I Love to Read. 'I Love to Read' is an incentive reading program based on the belief that all children benefit by having books in their homes. Schools with a high level of poverty are served first. Each school's coordinator works with the teachers to help them determine what each child's reading goal should be before they get their reward. The major reward is selecting a book to keep. Students also receive t-shirts printed with 'I Love to Read and I'm Good at It', along with additional awards solicited from the community by our members.
Operation School Bell® Baby Real Deal (teenage pregnancy prevention)
There are two subprograms within Operation School Bell® focusing on the teen pregnancy problem: Baby Real Deal and Wee Help. Baby Real Deal is designed to give students real-life experience in parenting by using infant simulators. ALNC provides the dolls and related supplies, such as carseats and strollers, and funds maintenance of the dolls. Wee Help is a separate program that provides layettes for young parents. Please refer to that program for more information.
Operation School Bell® : Home Alone, I'm in Charge
Home Alone, focuses on children's personal safety. Volunteers present research based information to fourth grade classes that include videos, discussion, and role playing. This program covers a variety of topics and provides a workbook for children to take home and review with their parents. Our members have been surprised to discover that many fourth grade children are home alone and need this instruction. In the lower income areas, this is more common because of the high cost of child care and the lack of free child care services.
Operation School Bell® Health Kits
Health Kits provides personal hygiene kits to children in need. This kit includes a toothbrush and toothpaste, dental floss, a brush, tissue, soap, washcloth and shampoo.
Operation School Bell®, New Haven Boys, Wards of the Court
New Haven Boys provides clothing for adolescent boys who are Wards of the Court living at New Haven Youth and Family Services, a residential treatment center. Our members meet these young men at the local Penney's store three times a year to select new clothing and to encourage them to work hard in school. Each young man has a personal shopper to help him find the items he needs. If they are graduating, they get an extra shopping trip to purchase new shoes and an outfit for graduation and job interviews.
Operation School Bell® Emergency Clothing: emergency clothing supply kits for school health offices
Emergency Clothing Kits with a variety of sizes of clothing and health/hygiene supplies are sent to all elementary school health offices. The clothing and supplies are used as needed by school staff. The staff can request replacement clothing if the supplies run low.
Operation School Bell® : Community Assistance
Community Assistance funds needed services not covered under our other Operation School Bell Programs. The most common request is for aid to families who are in dire need due to dire need due to disasters or other circumstances. If a family loses all of their clothing in a fire, one of our members will meet them at a local store to purchase clothing and will help with other needs not being met by other entities. $1,000 is budgeted initially every year and is replenished when exhausted. If we have a surplus of funds the last half of the fiscal year, Community Assistance can pay for projects requested by individual schools. Computers, iPads, software and other equipment or supplies have been requested in the past.
Operation School Bell® World of Books
This is the second of two programs that promote literacy. We identify schools which are in need of additional library books. The librarians are given funding for new books that will arrive at their school with Follett barcodes ready to go directly on the shelves.
Operation School Bell® Chapters for Children: clothing children of lowest paid servicemen and women
By sharing our resources, our Assistance League sister chapters surrounding Camp Pendleton provide school clothing and supplies for children of the lowest paid servicemen and women during a weekend prior to school starting in August. These children are identified by the social workers working on the Base.
Operation School Bell® School Clothing
This program provides school clothing for children in need. For children in Oceanside elementary schools with a uniform policy whose parents cannot afford uniforms, we provide a complete uniform kit. For children attending schools without a uniform policy, we provide up to $100 to purchase needed clothing or shoes at Kohl's. Kohl's matches each $100 with a $30 credit.
Where we work
External reviews
Photos
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
ALNC's philanthropic programs are developed to respond to the unmet needs of the children living in our community. It is our goal to ensure that every child has a positive starting point for academic success with adequate school clothing, shoes and health/hygiene supplies and the educational resources to achieve his or her potential.
We realize that our goal of ensuring that over 26,000 children living below the federal poverty have all the resources they need is extremely ambitious. Because the needs far exceed our ability to achieve this goal today, we are working diligently to increase our funding, evaluate and improve our programs, improve our marketing strategy, ensure financial sustainability by expanding the financial support from our donor base, ensure reasonable and prudent management of all financial resources and assets, and attract, engage, and sustain members.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
We will continue to work with school district leaders and staff to identify children in need and deliver appropriate services. Frequent evaluation of our twelve programs will take place. At the present time, we are developing more precise methods to evaluate program effectiveness.
We will continue to increase our income so that we can increase the number of students served each year by writing more grants, securing more corporate sponsorships and donations, and by improving Thrift Store sales and marketing strategies. This is possible because of our growing and diverse membership who have connections to the business community and other service groups.
We will continue to work to attract new members and to actively engage them in our important work. We will also increase opportunities for community members to participate as a volunteer.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Assistance League of North Coast has consistently contributed to the community since its beginning in 1992. Our dedicated membership of 140 volunteers takes pride in its steady growth. During the past fiscal year, more than 19,000 hours of volunteer time made a difference in the lives of our youth. Our members put 'Caring and Commitment' in action by raising the funds for our philanthropic programs and delivering those programs to children in need. As one of 120 chapters, we are part of a national organization known for its conservative financial practices ,national oversight, the creation of an Operation School Bell Program in every community we serve. We actively recruit new members and have a comprehensive orientation program. We enjoy a diverse membership with retired teachers, nurses, business professionals and technically skilled individuals. Every member of our organization is a volunteer. Our external support includes partnerships with three school districts in Carlsbad, Oceanside and Vista, Tri-City Hospital, Park Hyatt Aviara, Barnes and Noble, Union Bank, Datron World Communications, Hoehn Honda and our Advisory Board composed of key community members. We are continuing to work on developing additional partnerships with community groups and businesses.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Assistance League of North Coast began in 1992 as a Guild with members raising money selling poinsettias at Christmas and running garage sales. The first Operation School Bell program for the guild was 'Footsteps' which provided new school shoes for children at two of the highest poverty schools in our area. Today, we have eleven programs under the Operation School Bell umbrella. During the last fiscal year, more than 7,500 children benefitted from one or more of our programs. 1,764 children received new school shoes, socks and a health/hygiene kit, 844 children were completely outfitted for school, 1,223 children received school uniforms, 1,309 fourth graders received instruction on how to stay safe when they are alone, five schools received funds to purchase library books, 544 high school students were instructed in parenting skills by using computerized infant simulators and related equipment, 1,978 children were given a new book when they met their reading goal and eight schools received funds to purchase equipment or supplies for special projects.
We have steadily increased our income from our annual fundraiser as well as from our Thrift Store, which was opened in 2003, so that we have a steady dependable income. We have trained several volunteer grant writers and have developed relationships with several local corporations and businesses.
The success and strength of our efforts to serve children in need, and our ability to impact the youth of our community over the course of time offers us satisfaction. However, we are keenly aware that there is much more to do in order to help our youth in need enjoy a positive starting point for academic success. Our chapter approaches the future with a plan to (1) increase our membership to 200 by 2020 and increase our annual income by at least 5% each year so that we can serve more children, (2) create a formal Planned Giving Program, (3)explore the possibility of owning a Thrift Store property to avoid paying approximately $60,000 in rent each year, (4) develop the skills of additional volunteer grant writers, (5) form additional partnerships with community groups and businesses, (6) refine our ability to evaluate the effectiveness of our programs, (7) improve our communication system with all the key school personnel both in district offices and individual schools (8) develop opportunities for community members to volunteer alongside ALNC members, and (9) continue to search for more avenues to positively impact the children in our community by searching for partnerships with other entities.
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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Assistance League of North Coast
Board of directorsas of 06/12/2023
Cheryl McGlocklin
Community Volunteer
Term: 2023 - 2025
Mona Ackerman
Community Volunteer
Term: 2023 - 2024
Krista Ross
Retired-Community Volunteer
Nancy Schaefer
Retired, Community Volunteer
Kathie Hafner
Retired, Community Volunteer
Beverly Charles
nity Volunteer
Marlene Samocha
retired, Community Volunteer
Noreen Taskalos
Retired, Community Volunteer
Cheryl Guckert
Retired, Community Volunteer
Board leadership practices
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? No -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? No -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? No -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? No
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
The organization's co-leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
No data
Gender identity
No data
Transgender Identity
No data
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data