Hope Harbor   

Laurel House, now Hope Harbor, began as a dream of two women who loved teenagers. Nadene Holub and Elinor Tompkins worked in the nursery of their church for several years before their commitment to serve the community and their concern for homeless teens led them to establish Laurel House, Inc. Nadene, a school nurse in the Tustin Unified School District, was deeply trouble by the number of teens who were living on the streets in her community. She continually sought shelter for these teens in private homes. Unfortunately, the supply of suitable families with which to house these teens was very limited. After being asked several times to house homeless teens, Elinor suggested they create a place where theses teens could stay on a temporary basis. In 1985, Laurel House, now Hope Harbor, was founded and provided an emergency crisis shelter to runaway and homeless teens. Through the years, Hope Harbor evolved into California's only, long-term, privately funded preventive care transitional housing programs for runaway, homeless and at-risk teen girls and boys ages 12-17.  Our goal is to prevent homelessness for at-risk teens by reunifying them with their families or moving them into a positive living situation. While parents tend to focus on and react to the outer destructive behavioral actions of their teens such as breaking curfew, skipping school, experimenting with drugs and alcohol, or being sexually promiscuous, Hope Harbor peels away those outer layers of their behavior to find the root cause of their choices. In addition to providing long-term housing and care, Hope Harbor provides access to healthcare, chronic disease health care, mental health care, obesity prevention, preventative care, substance use prevention, and educational attainment. 100% of these families come from low- to moderate-income households and have limited resources for counseling and mental health care. Hope Harbor is filling in a gap of services in California by stabilizing these teen girls and boys and transforming their lives before they end up on the streets or become wards of the court system. Through our crisis intervention program, it is our goal to keep the family unit intact without requiring the involvement of a public agency such as social services. Our mission is providing a home for teens in crisis, transforming lives, and strengthening families.