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$90,000 Goal
Last year, the Yolo Crisis Nursery provided 2,894 safe stays for children at risk and distributed 5,601 care packages to families across our community. A total of 1,369 children were served, and this year the need is greater than ever. With the move into our new home, the Nursery is now serving three times the number of children compared to our previous location, allowing us to reach more families across Yolo County.
Since 2001, the Nursery has supported more than 11,500 children and their families. We are proud to share that ninety nine percent of families who received respite care remained together. As our reach grows, so does the need to increase staff and expand programs to meet families where they are and provide consistent, high quality support.
The numbers show the scale of this work, but the heart of the Nursery lives in the stories behind them. Tonight, you will hear one parent’s story that brings this impact to life.
This year marks the Yolo Crisis Nursery’s twenty five year anniversary. What began as a small community response has grown into a trusted place families turn during their most difficult moments. With our new home, we are better equipped to respond to growing need while staying focused on what has always mattered most. Keeping young children safe and supporting parents so families stay together.
MATCHING GIFTS
Big Day of Giving offers a powerful opportunity to extend your support. Every dollar donated will be matched, doubling the impact for children and families in crisis.
The first $27,000 raised will be matched dollar for dollar thanks to the generosity of three anonymous supporters. Giving early helps ensure your contribution is matched and reaches twice as many families when support matters most.
The mission of the Yolo Crisis Nursery is to provide early intervention services in a safe environment to nurture healthy and resilient children, strengthen parents, and preserve families.
NEED: Programmatic Support
The need for programmatic support continues to grow as the Yolo Crisis Nursery operates from its new facility and serves three times as many children as before. Expanded capacity requires additional staff, supplies, and services to respond to increasing demand. At the same time, public funding remains uncertain, making private donor support essential to sustain programs, support staff, and maintain long term stability.
WHAT: Overnight Care and Early Childhood Education
The Yolo Crisis Nursery is the only provider of overnight respite care for children under five in Yolo County. Services are available twenty four hours a day, every day of the year, to provide emergency childcare when children face risk of abuse or neglect. Overnight care is paired with trauma informed early childhood education focused on safety, stability, and healthy development.
WHY: Children thrive in safe, consistent, and nurturing environments. The Nursery’s early childhood education programs provide developmentally appropriate and emotionally supportive care. This early support strengthens social and emotional development, improves school readiness, and supports healthier outcomes for children and families over time.
NEED: Unrestricted Funds
WHAT: Support for Families’ Individual Needs
Every family served by the Yolo Crisis Nursery faces unique challenges. These include domestic violence, grief, mental or physical health emergencies, substance use, housing instability, food insecurity, or sudden job loss.
Unrestricted funds allow the Nursery to respond quickly and flexibly. Support includes transportation to help parents remain employed, clothing, diapers, formula, temporary hotel stays for safe housing, and additional on call staffing during periods of increased need.
WHY: Families need safety, food, clothing, and stable housing to begin healing. Meaningful change is not possible until these basic needs are met. By helping stabilize families during moments of crisis, the Nursery supports parents as they work toward independence and helps interrupt cycles of instability that affect children across generations.
At Yolo Crisis Nursery, we strive to ensure that all children are free from child abuse, are thriving, and in a safe, nurturing environment. We recognize that child abuse and neglect occur when families and communities experience challenging life circumstances, and we acknowledge that challenging life circumstances more often impact families and communities of color and those with limited resources. We are committed to improving our services, programs, and resources to ensure greater equity for all we serve, especially communities of color and communities without resources, by taking the following actions: we will intentionally recruit board members that share our commitment to DEAI and that represent the communities we serve; we will include DEAI principles as part of our recruiting, hiring, and onboarding and ongoing training of all staff, especially staff who directly support our community; we will annually review and update our program and service materials to ensure full accessibility by the community members who use them; and we will intentionally and consistently engage in conversations with our partners and communities on topics of DEAI. (Draft statement under final board review.)
Organization name
Yolo Crisis Nursery
other names
YCN, Crisis Nursery
2001
Mission Category
Human Services
Operating Budget
$50,001 - $100,000
Organization Need
Funding: Program, Funding: Unrestricted
Demographics Served
Youth & Children
Local Counties Served
Yolo
Equity Statement
Equity Statement
Address
PO Box 1227Yolo, CA, US