Adopt-a-Family Program

Bringing the magic of Christmas to families living in DTLA..
For over 32 years, the Adopt-A-Family Program at the Cathedral has made it possible for struggling families with children to have a magical Christmas and experience the Light of Christ. The program has assisted families in one of the poorest areas of our city, the Los Angeles Skid Row and downtown area.

This year, the program will adopt 500 families from the Skid Row, which face unimaginable obstacles and challenges on a daily basis. For this reason, we are personally seeking out these families to assist through the Cathedral's Adopt-A-Family for the Holidays program.

The lives of children living on Skid Row can be most bleak. They live in hotels and apartments, often crowded in one room units with brothers, sisters, parents, grandparents, and other family members. Surrounded by drug dealing, prostitution, violent crime and poverty, there are very few comforts and often little joy. Very few have refrigerators; fewer have stoves; and bathroom and kitchen facilities are often down the hall and shared with neighbors. Despite such dire circumstances, many of these families are outside of the help of government and other charitable programs. It is for these struggling families that the Adopt-A-Family Program was created.

We visit numerous households every year in the hope that somehow we can improve the quality of life for families and children. We find cupboards that are empty, clothing that is worn, rooms that are cold...none of the comforts that so many of us take for granted. But we can make a difference.