History
In the spring of 1989, five of downtown Los Angeles’ faith-based organizations and congregations came together to form a new, nondenominational, community-based church: a church of the homeless community in Skid Row, Central City Community Church of the Nazarene (CCCN).
As the church’s ministries and volunteer programs grew, CCCN elders established Central City Community Outreach (CCCO) as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization designed both to help sustain and extend the work of CCCN, by providing wider opportunities for service and reconciliation among those living on the streets or in transitional housing beyond the doors of CCCN.
First designed as an outreach to build community among homeless adults, CCCO formed a weekly Karaoke night that continues to be held each Wednesday night to this day, as a safe and transformational space for laugher, relationships, and mutual care.
Later, CCCO transitioned into an after-school S.A.Y. Yes! program model for homeless and at-risk children that became the face of CCCO. During this time, CCCO was served by thousands of dedicated volunteers and staff from all over the world.
But in October 2013, after recognizing that a gentrifying downtown/historic core and significant structural changes in policy surrounding family and youth homeless had significantly shifted the demographic composition of Skid Row, the CCCO governing board made the painful decision to close the S.A.Y. Yes! program after 19 wonderful years, in order to reshape our efforts to better serve the Skid Row community.
Presently, CCCO is celebrating the growth of old programs that have long been effective tools for our work towards holistic care of adults in the Skid Row community, as well as cultivating new partnerships and programs that indeed make it an exciting time to be around CCCO!
Consistent throughout all this history are still the same organizational commitments that guide all of our programs: inclusive, community-based, relational, and holistic in nature, that is focuses on hospitality, reconciliation, justice, and renewal for individuals and communities in Los Angeles’ Skid Row.