Illumination Foundation

The illumination foundation addresses the crisis of homelessness in Orange County, which affects 21,000 to 35,000 adults and 17,051 public school students, through integrated services that provide appropriate solutions.

It was founded in 2007 within the UC Irvine Health Care Executive MBA Program as a non-profit public charity organization. Today, IF's governing board consists of community leaders in medicine, nursing, social work, information technology and education.
The illumination foundation offers multiple services that provide multifaceted solutions to homelessness :
Advocacy, in the form of public relations, community outreach and social networking, are used to build awareness that a homeless problem does exist in Orange County and empower the community to work towards alleviating the problem.
Community outreach programs include the Mobile Multi-Service Center (MMSC), which travels throughout Orange County providing free medical care and wraparound services to the homeless, and case management to families living in motels throughout Orange County.

The foundation also uses existing motel rooms as interim housing to bridge the gap between emergency shelters and permanent housing.
A recuperative care program, manages the discharge of homeless patients from hospitals and help them transition back into the community, by providing them with shelter, food, hygiene supplies, bus passes, mental health counseling, and case management.

The goal of the Illumination Foundation is to bridge the gaps in existing services for the most underserved to break or prevent the cycle of homelessness in Orange County.

In 2009, Illumination Foundation, in partnership with OC Health Care Agency, organized 45 MMSC clinics at 19 sites and served 970 clients.
In 2010, 14 MMSC clinics already supplied 1,861 patient services to 1,531 clients.

The Interim Housing Program has served 176 families, consisting of 366 children and 260 adults. 76 families have graduated from the program into stable housing.

Of the adults currently participating in the program, 39% have secured employment and 20% are continuing their education.

The recuperative care program has saved OC hospitals $1.6 million and served 144 clients for a total of 1365 nights. 64% of these homeless recuperative clients were connected with housing.