New National One Heart for Kids Campaign to Educate Public About Needs of Youth, While Raising Money, Volunteers for Underfunded Programs.

One Heart for Kids, a new national campaign by Oakland/San Francisco-based Streetcats Foundation to educate the public about unmet youth needs and raise funds, garner volunteers for important but underfunded childrens organizations across the U.S.

ONE HEART FOR KIDS NATIONAL CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED TO HELP THE NATION'S YOUTH AND GRASSROOTS YOUTH ORGANIZATIONS

         Oakland/Berkeley, CA, April 20, 2003, 2003....Decrieing the 'appalling lack' of youth services throughout California and the rest of the nation and the inadequate funding of grassroots youth groups that are daily in the trenches helping children, youth and families, a new national initiative, called ONE HEART FOR KIDS", has been launched by Streetcats Foundation for Youth, Bay-Area based National Childrens Coalition and Teen-Anon.

         One Heart for Kids will garner volunteers and donations for a number of small to medium-sized non-profit organizations working with youth and their families, while educating the public about the real and unmet needs of young people, particularly those falling through the cracks. It will build coalitions among secular youth organizations and faith-based youth ministries of all faiths. A web site has been launched lat www.oneheartforkids.com. (active again on April 22). But Streetcats must somehow raise $29,000 in three months to keep going. Its been desemmated the past year by lack of grants and by an almost total drop-off of ad revenue on its award-winning national web sites.

     For a number of years,' even in good times and even since Columbine, smaller but vital youth services have been underfunded or curtailed or taken a back seat to other kinds of programs,' according to Streetcats Executive Director Don Fass and several San Francisco Bay-Area social activists. 'It is getting worse and worse in the
recession and sure to get more dire still as a prolonged war goes on with Iraq, with'a down payment of $80 Billion is and massive additional amounts on the War on Terrorism." Funders keep funding big programs, many of which are ineffective or bloated and 'top-down and not very responsive. Even large churches and synagogues that preach getting out of the comfort zone and increasing urban and youth ministry continue to do almost nothing except fund a few other organizations outside their congregation are contributing to the problem, as is government 'Our children and generations to come are suffering and 'true security lies with our youth. Instead, a false sense of security is being propped up byHomeland Security, and by the war on Iraq. Children are again being frightened as well. If America's children are left in the trenches, the consequences will be devastating,
again. Where is our true priority? A much more vibrant national concern has to be rooted in future generations, namely our forgotten youth. What ever happens to them always determines the future of any Nation."

            Fass points to what he calls 'the lack of knowledge and/or true concern among many funders giving out millions of dollars annually and by faith congregations that are dealing with a tiny and often uninformed portion of the problem and not convicting their members enough.. 'One of the country's biggest funders (in the SF Area) turned down funding our national 12-step fellowship for addicted teens, Teen-Anon, saying 'this year we're funding teen violence programs', totally unaware of how substance abuse impacts violence' Another nationally known foundation with a major substance abuse treatment initiative offered $5,900 in emergency money but then told us to build infrastructure prior to more funding, expecting us to survive, much less build a bigger organization on under $6,000.'

And this comes at a time when just about every former Clinton and Bush health official and Surgeon General says we are shamefully neglecting treatment and recovery for teenage substance abuse and that it is a national health crisis.'.

         "Still another, a giant corporate foundation, has been so inept' says Fass, that they kept writing back 'you must be in Oakland and you must deal with kids,' even though clearly we've been in Oakland since 1995." Counties
are just as uninterested and it was happening long before the economy and dot.com bomb and long before 9/11."

         Fass himself became virtually destitute last July 1 for the first time in his life and needs help as well (still fighting to survive) as grants and his small salary dried up the past 10 months and after, over the years, he
had put in nearly $150,000 of his own money to help youth, much of it successfully working with street kids and runaways throughout much of the 90's on both coasts. Fass lost his apartment and his office last July When under $10,000 in grants came in for the year, dot.com advertising dropped to nearly zero revenue and even
clergy he knew procrastinated until the bottom dropped out."...Although an upcoming benefit concert by old friend Noel Paul Stookey of Peter, Paul and Mary is now planned for the summer, Fass and Streetcats need to raise about $29,000 additional to rebound and continue existing national programs like its Teen-Anon and
National Childrens Coalition and all its web sites for 18 months.

         What keeps him going, even without personal resources for the first time? Fass says ''2.5 million teenagers and children, parents and youth counselors access our web sites each year and hundreds attend our Teen-Anon groups weekly, desperately looking for help of all kinds throughout the country, being helped away from violence or abuse or to stay off alcohol and other drugs, build new lives and
futures and repair all the hurt in their families. People in dozens of cities write them to start the groups yet there is still no operating money to achieve them.

         Thousands more we hear from are being physically, emotionally or sexually abused at home or in schools and can't find help. Now, the Bush administration has announced a 40 per cent cutback in funding after-school programs, proven to greatly help kids. And school districts are cutting back the number of school counselors, already insufficient before the recession.

         New Columbines are waiting to happen everywhere. Kids are being traumatized by the economy and now by the War. Those of us who care, who have a passion to help kids have to survive somehow." Fass says, we all need to do something or many future generations are going to be lost to violence, alcohol, child abuse, gangs or any of a dozen other threats to our youth.'

         Streetcats Foundation / One Heart for Kids may be reached at or donations sent to
P.O.Box 72174, Oakland, Ca 94612, by emailing helpingyouth@yahoo.com or accessing
www.streetcats.org. or www.child.net or www.oneheartforkids.com.