Hope Street Margolis Family Center is dedicated to improving the  health and well-being of children and families in downtown Los Angeles. Hope Street’s unique relational approach, combined with its philosophy of compassion and service have reached thousands of families and made it a cornerstone of the community. 

Hope Street’s approach puts families at the center of their work by addressing a family’s needs with compassion and care. Hope Street provides whole-child, family-centered care through education, home visiting, recreation and other services for children 0-18. By addressing many of the social determinants of health, Hope Street’s work is helping to make downtown Los Angeles a place for children and families to thrive.

Hope Street’s mission is to educate children, strengthen families, and transform the community.

Our history

Hope Street Margolis Family Center is a family-centered community health and wellness program of Dignity Health - California Hospital Medical Center (CHMC), a non-profit hospital that has served Los Angeles since 1887.  California Hospital Medical Center is committed to improving the health and wellness of its communities in downtown Los Angeles.  In keeping with this vision, in 1992 CHMC collaborated with the University of California Los Angeles to expand prevention and early intervention services for low-income young families by establishing Hope Street Margolis Family Center. 

Over the last 30 years, Hope Street has branched out into the local community, building four child care centers within the CHMC area. These centers have become community institutions and places where families can come and feel that they belong. In addition to these centers, Hope Street’s highly skilled team of home visitors visits hundreds of families each month, providing care, education, and access to resources. 

In 2013, the Hope Street Margolis Family Center was opened, a 4-story energy efficient community wellness center. Located adjacent to CHMC's main campus, the center includes an outdoor play area, multipurpose sports court, and a pocket park designed for young children and families. 

This state-of-the-art facility allows us to bring an array of much-needed prevention and recreational activities to the neighborhood, as well as outreach to new families and provide centralized early care and education, mental health, and social services to a wider population of children, youth, and parents. 

All programs are provided at no cost and are primarily supported through public grants and contracts and private philanthropy.

Hope Street Margolis Family Center Programs

HSMFC offers a variety of programs that fall into three major categories: (1) early childhood education, (2) family support/home visiting, and (3) mental health. Many programs include more than one of these elements.

• Early Head Start Program -- The EHS program provides low-income pregnant women and their families with children, 0-3 years of age, with family-centered services to facilitate child development, support parental roles, and promote self-sufficiency. Priority for EHS enrollment is given to children with special needs, families experiencing homelessness, women with high-risk pregnancies; parents interested in ESL or high school diploma/GED studies; and teen parents.
• Child Development Center -- Hope Street operates three licensed early care and education centers for children 0-5 in the Los Angeles neighborhoods of South Park and Pico-Union. The centers are open from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday.
• Family Childcare Network -- includes 12 licensed childcare providers who provide childcare in their homes. HSMFC helped these providers start their own childcare businesses and continues to provide technical assistance, support, training and guidance. They now provide high quality, culturally responsive, developmentally focused childcare for children 0-5 years of age. Moreover, they offer childcare during nontraditional hours such as evenings and weekends.
• Early Childhood Center -- is another licensed, center-based childcare facility, co-located at Angelica Evangelical Lutheran Church in the middle of CHMC's service area. It accommodates 8 infants, 24 toddlers, and 24 preschool aged children, Monday through Friday, from 6:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and it meets EHS/HS performance standards.
• Hope Street Youth Center -- offers year-round educational support, academic enrichment, cultural and recreational opportunities to help school-aged youth reach their full potential. The Center also provides a computer lab, supervised recreational and social activities including soccer, arts and crafts, circus arts, field trips, and other outings.
• Family Literacy Program -- In collaboration with Los Angeles Unified School District and Los Angeles City College, this program targets low-income parents and their children (0-5 years), through services that include early childhood education, adult basic education and literacy, parenting education and parent /child interactive literacy activities. Parents and children participate in simultaneous on-site services 5 days per week, with parents receiving ESL and parenting education instruction while their children receive high quality early care and education services.
• Family Preservation Program -- This program, funded by the LA County Department of Children and Family Services, offers an integrated, comprehensive approach to strengthen and preserve families impacted by child abuse and neglect. Its goal is to assure the physical, emotional, educational, cultural, and spiritual development of children in a safe and nurturing environment.
• California Behavioral Health Clinic -- provides clinic-based, school-based, and in-home mental health services for children 0-21 and their families. The Clinic’s multi-cultural, multi-lingual professional team is specially trained to address the mental health needs of children exposed to trauma. Clinicians provide individual, family and group therapy with a goal of increasing the resiliency and healthy coping skills.

This website is supported by Grant Number 09CH012423, 09HP000548 and 09CH012865 from the Office of Head Start within the Administration for Children and Families, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Neither the Administration for Children and Families nor any of its components operate, control, are responsible for, or necessarily endorse this website (including, without limitation, its content, technical infrastructure, and policies, and any services or tools provided). The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed are those of Dignity Community Care and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Administration for Children and Families and the Office of Head Start.