Issue No. 4 | March 2026

Editor’s Note: This month’s TGR is shorter than usual, as I am working on something exciting which I hope to be able to share soon. Happy Spring! - Simone Joy Friedman

Simone Joy Friedman: Take me through the story of how you got involved with Safe Place for Youth, including how you helped fund the purchase of their first building.

Judy Friedman: The way we got started was I had a kindergartner and a toddler and I wanted them to volunteer. I was looking for an opportunity where they could actively engage. I first called a place where I had volunteered when I was in elementary school, where we’d pack lunches and then go to Venice Beach and hand them out on the boardwalk.

They said, no, you cannot come with children. It is not safe, so many more people are dealing with mental health issues [now].

And then I said, where could I go? They gave me a number which ended up being a woman named Alison Hurst. She had moved to LA from the UK and  was just appalled at the situation of all these unhoused youth on the Venice boardwalk. She also had young teens herself, and the fact that the [unhoused youth] were the same age as her kids, it was gut-wrenching [for her].

So she started going around, and she was a mom, and she was British, and she would walk around and say to the kids, would you just use my telly and call your mom and tell her you're okay? This was before everyone had their own phone.

She didn't know anything about mental health, she didn't know about the causes of homelessness, she was just a mom who cared. She would hug them.

She had this loving touch and she ended up getting very involved, but she soon realized the need was much more than what she could fill.

I called her and said “What do you need right now?” And she said, [the kids] need hotel travel-sized toiletries, and they need Vienna sausages, because everybody loves the little cans of Vienna sausages. She was very specific. Unbeknownst to her, she did what you're supposed to do, which is go to the ultimate recipient and say, you tell me what you need [and not force recipients to take what a donor thinks they need].

So, I got engaged and involved my kids’ school. We had people come in and donate stuff. Kids are very good at sorting.

One of the things she needed was socks. So we took little index cards and crayons, and we had the kids decorate things and write, “stay safe”, and stuff like that.

And then I went and brought [everything] to her house, and when I met her and I listened to her, I knew some of the things that she was doing were super thoughtful and helpful, but there was more that could be done.

And I said, I'm a lawyer, I can help you. And by the way, as a community resident, you are entitled to a certain number of hours of community center time. Do you think if you set up at a community center and had a formal schedule, 2 days a week for 3 hours that volunteers could show up, you could start to create a hub?

So, I helped her navigate that, including ultimately getting a proper fiscal sponsor. We started to professionalize things a little bit.  We still took [in] very little cash, as it was all volunteer and all of the meals were donated by restaurants in the local Venice community.

I started learning more about the homeless youth services industry, and what the challenges were, and applying the business legal lens to what she was doing just by intuition.

At the time, we were using this community space, and we started getting more and more volunteers. But we realized we needed more hours, more space, more everything. But nobody would rent to us.

There was an article in the local paper about a church where the Sunday school had shut down. We asked them if we could rent their building, and they agreed, [which meant] we then had a place to store our stuff and have daily hours. Every meal [that] was served each night was donated by a local organization. It was really a community initiative.

It got to be so much that we had to start doing some real fundraising. We  got some volunteers to start applying for grants, and it just grew very organically, very thoughtfully, very strategically, but it was always led by what do the youth tell us that they need?

All of the youth got compensated for their time. It's like, if you'll sit down with me for 30 minutes and talk about what your needs are, I will give you this $15 gift card to Ralph's [grocery store].

It was built from the ground up, and then we got to a point where it was so big, and it was overshadowing the church, and we needed to rent space again.

Simone Joy Friedman: Were you still using the fiscal sponsor at that point? When did you set up your own C3 and establish a board?

Judy Friedman: We were using the fiscal sponsor and we had a really strong operating advisory board. A lot of folks were donating professional services and skills.

When the church said, you need to get out, and nobody would rent to us again, one of the people that we had on the board was a realtor, and so she volunteered to help.

Through her network, she found a property that had a gym and showers, but it was just a big shell. It had exposed pipes but nothing really built. It's just this humongous space but it had a gorgeous outdoor area. And showers, which we really needed, because the only available showers in the area were outdoors at the beach.

So we realized it would be perfect for us. We also thought that over time, if we raised money, we could build housing above.

We even had people who had said that they'd put up money for a down payment, but [because] we were with a fiscal sponsor, they would not let us own the property.

And the guys who were selling the building needed to sell it fast.

So I got on the phone with some friends and said, I know that you're not in a position to write a check right now to donate $100,000 or $200,000 or $300,000 to buy this building, but would you agree to park the money?

We created an LLC to buy the building which then leased to the organization at a very below-market rate, essentially just the cost of servicing.

And because of our connections, I knew that we'd be able to find support to do the build-out. There was so much community support, I knew we would significantly increase the value of property.

We got the people together over the course of a week. I mean, it was really, really quick. We agreed that in 10 years, if the organization had gotten to a point where they could afford to purchase the property, we would sell it to the organization at the original price we paid.

But if at any point the organization moved or they didn't want the property, then we would just sell it. The property was in Venice Beach, which is a great location.

Simone Joy Friedman: So you didn’t need financing at all?

Judy Friedman: One of the people we approached had just sold a property and needed to do a 1031 exchange, so she agreed to purchase the property, invest a portion along with the rest of us, and take an interest-only note for whatever we couldn’t raise, at a rate well-below market.

And one of the people who came in, who was the last person who came in to help, had zero connection to the org at all.

We were introduced, and I got on the phone with her, and I said, look, here's what we're doing. I said, you're not going to make any interest or profit. 

And she quickly responded, “well, I get a place in heaven, though, don't I?” And she wrote a check for the same share as the rest of us.

Let me say this, it was all women. Some were married, some weren't, but when we formed the LLC, all of the managers were women.

Simone Joy Friedman: What happened after the property was purchased, the build-out was complete, and the organization had moved in?

Judy Friedman: With our own building, we were able to access significant government funding, hire staff and expand our operations exponentially.  

The model kept growing and growing. We started a youth ambassador program, where we were really engaging the members, and giving them skin in the game. They started doing public speaking and advocacy work [to counter] the NIMBYS who were opposed when we wanted to expand. Our ambassadors could speak to their personal experiences and the value of the services SPY provides to the community: I had a baby when I was 16, I’m in the SPY Pregnant and Parenting program right now, I have a job, I’m getting my GED, and after that I am planning to enroll in junior college. This is my story, this is who I am.

This was great for the cause, but more importantly, very empowering for the youth members [of SPY who served as our ambassadors].

At that point, we started the process of migrating away from the fiscal sponsor and becoming our own organization, which meant we needed a real governing board. So we started transitioning some of the board members.

During this time, Venice Community Housing approached us with an opportunity to merge our property with a property next door, expand our access center and build housing above the center.

And that's when I got to be a lawyer again and jump back into probably among the more complex business transactions I ever structured. And we had an amazing pro bono legal team who made it all work.

And so, right now, what we have is just a spectacular location. I mean, it's amazing. And it runs beautifully, and we have half of the rooms upstairs for housing. 

And we now have a budget of around $12 million with roughly 120 employees.

Simone Joy Friedman: I don’t think that the SPY would be where it is today without your involvement, in every way.

Judy Friedman: You know, my kids, they grew up there, they grew up volunteering. They each found their place to plug in what they enjoyed doing. My husband did too, helping on the financial stuff, but also showing up and just serving a meal.

Many of my friends have volunteered doing meal pickups and services. My kids' schools, but also my friends' kids’ schools have also been involved.

It's a very good place to volunteer. It's very safe.

We are very good operators. There’s mutual respect with the kids we serve.

Simone Joy Friedman: I saw on your website that you call the youth you serve “members” of SPY. I think that's very empowering.

Judy Friedman: If you walked into the building and you didn't know what it was, you'd think it looks like it could be a teen community center.

And you can't tell the difference in a lot of the cases between the staff and the kids. That's the other thing. The board and the staff reflect the community that we serve.

They are pretty close in age, but also racially, gender orientation, sexuality, and also lived experience. [The reason is that] we've got a whole program. We need social workers, we need case managers. So, a lot of the youth, once they've come through SPY, especially the ones who do the Youth Ambassador Program/SPY Squad, where they're learning how to advocate for themselves, we'll help them enroll in classes to become caseworkers. Once they're aged out of SPY, they actually will work with us. We have internships for them where they're doing street outreach and saying, hey, I get it, this was me 5 years ago.

But to do that, we need to have support services for our staff.

We also have this pregnant and parenting program that grew into a housing program, called the Nest. Last year, 100% of Nest residents exited to permanent housing.

Simone Joy Friedman: That's extraordinary.

Judy Friedman: We also have programs that are reconciliation-based. [For example], the kid came in from Utah, and we'll do counseling with them, and then give them the money to get back home. It’s very LA. Kids come out, they're promised they'll get a job acting or recording, but when they get here [it’s not what they thought it was]. Now they just feel lost, and they're on the street, and they just need, like, a judgment-free way to get back home. That's a good conclusion.

Simone Joy Friedman: What other ways have you personally been involved?

Judy Friedman: I connected SPY with a filmmaker who was working on a film about a group of unhoused young adults in Venice, California.

I’m also friends with folks at the Univision Foundation. They were running a program where kids were competing from everywhere, including the Ivies, to present ideas about positive ways to change the world. They worked with us to have a cohort from SPY enter the competition, and one of the winners overall was a SPY member. She won a fellowship and a trip to South Africa.

Simone Joy Friedman: Amazing.

Judy Friedman: For me, I get so much more out of it than I put in. I didn't have to do any of these things. I didn't have to be a lawyer negotiating the deal. I didn't have to be the one to put together the financing. I didn’t have to connect to a filmmaker or connect to Univision for fellowship program.

But I have been able to bring so many different elements of what I love and do there. I've gotten to bring every part of myself. There were times when I went and just did art projects with the members.

My daughter even taught everyone how to make duct tape wallets. When she was in second and third grade, we bought 100 rolls of duct tape, and we had 20 kids just making duct tape wallets.

There are so many ways to engage. When you walk in and you volunteer, you feel so much better walking out than you did walking in.

Or if you are there when we open a new building, and you see kids go into their house for the first time, and they know they’re going to be living there. They're like, that's my room! And, there's no better feeling than when somebody walks into their room for the first time. 

Simone Joy Friedman: You are really the perfect example of the Participant Donor Archetype. You don’t just give your money, but you provide your time, your connections, and your professional experience. Your family and friends get involved as well. It shows real commitment and passion.

Judy Friedman:  For fifteen years, I worked with a family who had a significant foundation and the principal would say, “Any schmuck can write a check for a million dollars. I want it to matter that it's coming from me.” That really resonated with me and definitely has shaped my personal philanthropic outlook.

At the end of the day, I am so grateful for the opportunity that I've been given to show up.

Simone Joy Friedman: Thank you for speaking with me!

Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.