About Us
Step Up’s caring staff work to help individuals reintegrate their daily lives as productive members of their community.
Our Vision
Our Mission
Step Up’s Core Values
Hope • Wellness • Voice & Choice • Respect • Collaborative Relationships
- HOPE – We believe all people have the capacity for positive growth and change. We use hope to inspire and motivate ourselves, our members, our colleagues, and our community.
- WELLNESS – We believe in promoting a culture that supports healthy and fulfilling lives. We use a supportive environment to foster wellbeing for ourselves, our members, our colleagues, and our community.
- VOICE AND CHOICE – We believe in the right to choose and be heard. We use voice and choice to create meaningful outcomes and empowerment for ourselves, our members, our colleagues, and our community.
- RESPECT – We believe in promoting interactions that are non-judgmental, transparent, and authentic. We use respect to guide all of our words and actions with ourselves, our members, our colleagues, and our community.
- COLLABORATIVE RELATIONSHIPS – We believe in forming partnerships to share resources, knowledge, and experiences. We use collaborative relationships to strengthen accomplishments for ourselves, our members, our colleagues, and our community.
Three Pillars of Service
Step Up’s vision and mission are delivered to individuals, including adults, Transition-Age Youth (TAY) between the ages of 16-28 years, and Veterans, through the design of its three pillars of service:
Permanent Supportive Housing
Step Up uses the Housing First model to connect individuals experiencing chronic homelessness to housing. Housing First is a proven approach in which all individuals experiencing homelessness are believed to be housing-ready.
Workforce Development
Step Up’s vocational mission is that everyone who wants to work should work. Services include: Pre-vocational training, resume building, community job seeking and placement, in-the-field job coaching, work experience, focused training, and peer support training.
Supportive Services
Step Up creates opportunities for social connectedness through member-driven support groups, movie nights, cooking, community dinners, and gardening. In addition, there are classes offered such as art, yoga, computer basics, and money management.
Overview of Step Up
Her vision included a supportive environment with productive activities, including art therapies, supported employment training, coping skills, service coordination, and social connectedness. Family members accessed help through support groups that met every month. Initially, Step Up served approximately 10 individuals a day and offered a limited number of services.
Staff began observing that many Step Up members were experiencing homelessness, complicating and exacerbating their already complex needs. In 1994, Step Up’s first permanent supportive housing community with 36 units was built. Some of the original tenants are still living in their units today.
What started humbly in a warehouse shell in Santa Monica is now a thriving community agency with a staff of nearly 300 serving thousands of individuals annually — all free of charge.
Annual Reports
Step Up Annual Report
Step Up Annual Report
FY2017–2018
Step Up Annual Report
FY2016–2017
Step Up Annual Report
FY2015–2016
Donate Today
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Imagine a world where everyone has a home, a job, and a supportive community. 100% of your donation will go towards connecting people to the help they need and deserve.
Provides one hour of work force development training to a Step Up member.
Provides one home visit from a psychiatrist or nurse for medication support.
Provides a Welcome Home Kit to furnish and outfit an apartment for a member.