Pasadena is a city that is known for great wealth and prestige, yet approximately 20% of the people in Pasadena live below the poverty level. Of this percentage, approximately 18.5% are Black and 20% are Hispanic. There is a growing divide within the city between those that are living well and those that are struggling to survive.

The uninsured rate among low income households within the Pasadena area is approximately 12%. About 6% of Blacks within the community and 14% of Hispanics are uninsured. Both of these ethnicities die more from every disease - cancer, heart attacks, diabetes, etc. This is often tied to lack of access to early testing, treatment, information and preventive care.

What We Do

• Strengthen Pasadena/Altadena by providing programs that impact the underserved and disenfranchised members of our Community.
• Promote Education through in-classroom projects, scholarships, mentoring, field trips and workshops to provide skills and access that set positive examples to help build the next generation of leaders.
• Provide Services and resources to residents that help connect and close the equity gap within our community.

How We Do It

The Pasadena/Altadena Ivy Foundation partners with the Pasadena/Altadena Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. to execute programs that make a difference within our community to target critical issues facing many families including lack of food, shelter, educational opportunity and financial means. We collaborate with like-minded organizations within the community to expand our reach to more deeply impact our community that we all serve.

Programs and Descriptions:

Family Strengthening

• Women's Hygiene Needs - The 2nd most requested item in homeless shelters after food is women's hygiene items. This drive raises funds to purchase tampons and sanitary napkins that are donated to Homeless Shelters within the community.
• Diapers - It costs $18 dollars/week to keep an infant/toddler in diapers. In order to extend diaper use, diapers are being rinsed and reused or not being changed as quickly as they should be within our low income and homeless families. PAIF raises funds to purchase diapers that are donated to homeless shelters
• Union Station Homeless Shelter - PAIF and AKA conduct an annual drive for coats, blankets, hats, scarves and gloves that are donated to the shelter. The organizations also donate lunch annually.

Health Promotion

• Health Summit - The event provides FREE tests and screenings along with information on diseases that impact our community and resources that are available to our community.

Educational Enrichment

• Career STEAMposium - This program exposes high school students to professionals that are currently in STEAM careers of Science, Technology, Engineering, The Arts and Math.
• Young Authors - Reading is fundamental in all aspects of life. This program works with students at Washington Elementary that makes it fun to learn to read so they can excel in Language Arts, Science and Math.
• ASCEND - This program focuses on mentoring high school young ladies to help motivate, engage, and assist them to reach their maximum potential.
• Scholars Chat - This monthly program at John Muir High School helps students learn how to find and complete successful scholarship applications so they can offset the cost of achieving their college education.
• Saving Our Young Black Men (and Women) - Connecting You to Jobs - The purpose of this program is to provide Job Skills Training and Job opportunities to young black men and women to improve their probability of being hired and retaining gainful employment.

Scholarships

- Award scholarships that help to close financial gaps for college bound students to launch them forward to achieve their higher level education to help them be successful in their life endeavors.