Dear Neighbors,

When children are homeless and living on the street, they miss the milestones of childhood, those simple joys like finger painting, blowing bubbles and laughing on the playground with friends.

At St. Vincent de Paul Village, homeless children grow, learn and play under the watchful eye of our professional, compassionate staff while their parents transition out of homelessness through our lifechanging programs. Unfortunately, with the number of homeless families rising every year, we just can’t serve all of those in need at the Joan Kroc Center, a facility where we have helped families break the cycle of homelessness since 1987 and have simply outgrown.

To address the growing need for care for homeless children, we will open the Village Child Development Center in time for Christmas 2011. The Center is part of our new "three buildings in one" at 15th & Commercial on the Village campus. The building has been efficiently designed to address three specific areas of need - children's services, long-term transitional housing and permanent affordable housing.

I invite you to have a hand in changing the lives of our youngest neighbors in need by adding your name to the Village Child Development Honor Wall, or by naming a room or floor in the Center.

The gift of your name - or the name of family, friends, businesses, or community groups - will leave an indelible mark that will help us save, inspire and change children's lives for years to come.

	Thank You and God Bless,
P.S. - We have grown from 50 to 350 children in need each year. Your gift will let these children be children.

at 15 & Commercial in San Diego
The new Child Development Center at St. Vincent de Paul Village will allow us to grow from caring for 50 children a year to 350 children a year and give them the care they need while their parents work to break the cycle of homelessness.

'The three-level, 29,000-square-foot Village Child Development Center at 15th & Commercial will allow us to provide highquality child care services and after-school programming for an expected 350 homeless and impoverished children and families each year, more than triple the number of children we can now serve in our older Joan Kroc Center.

Programs offered at the new Center will include a child development program, afterschool program, on-site therapeutic child care services including sick- and well-child visits and prenatal care. Parents will be able to participate in their children's learning through a family literacy program and by being involved in a parent advisory board.

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