By Lookout Staff

July 28,2015 -- The beleaguered Pico Youth and Family Center (PYFC), stripped of funding by the City of Santa Monica, is trying just about everything to raise cash so it can keep its doors open.

PYFC is going online to crowd source as a way of fundraising, its web site and staff steadily beat the drum for more donations and when PYFC managed to upgrade its headquarters at 715 Pico Boulevard earlier this year, it was with donated money and services from the community.

Now, PYFC is banking heavily on a major fundraising event Saturday to shore up its badly ailing operation.

PYFC’s 8th Annual Hope and Unity Awards Gala on Saturday comes at a crucial time for the program, started in 1998.  Long on rocky footing with the City of Santa Monica, PYFC in June was formally denied its request to the City for $160,000 in funding – or 40 percent of its budget.

Oscar de la Torre, the organization’s founder and executive director, said he has heard nothing from City Hall and is operating on the premise that no emergency financing is coming.

Instead, the organization is trying to come up with the money on its own, he said.

Saturday’s gala is a big step in that direction.  “It is our major fundraiser,” he said.

Despite last-minute pleas, the Council rejected all funding for the center, instead voting to use about $50,000 in discretionary funding to provide transitional programs for students who may be currently served by the center.

The center has begun to lay off staff and is imposing pay cuts to help cope with its financial situation. 

The event is from 6:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Le Meridian Delfina Hotel, 530 Pico Blvd. in Santa Monica. Tickets are $100 each and include a live and silent auction, dinner and live entertainment. Tickets can be purchased online at http://picoyouth.org/8th-annual-hope-unity-awards-gala-aug-29th-2015/.