Protect 25 Days with Paige

Eleven years ago, my story with CityHeART started with the smell of espresso and the hum of conversation in a Downtown Long Beach coffee shop.

Last year, I told you that story.

This year, I need to tell you where the story stands now.

By September 30, we have to decide what CityHeART looks like in 2027.

And I’m not ready to close this book.

I was 22 when a group of friends sat around a coffee shop table and imagined what it might look like to wrap community around neighbors walking through hard chapters alone.

We didn’t have a building, employees, or much of a plan. We had a belief that people deserve to be seen, heard, supported, and connected.

That little idea became CityHeART.

Eleven years later, I have watched groceries arrive in the morning and leave with families that afternoon. I have watched neighbors get help with food, laundry, transportation, documents, household essentials, and systems that felt impossible to navigate alone.

I have watched case managers and social workers walk through our doors because their clients needed something their own programs could not provide. I have watched students, volunteers, artists, veterans, neighbors, and helping professionals sit around the same tables.

And somewhere along the way, I realized that CityHeART fills a critical gap.

Our housing and homeless-service systems are filled with incredible case managers and social workers carrying enormous caseloads with limited time and resources.

CityHeART gets to stand in that gap.

Sometimes what keeps someone moving forward is not another program. Sometimes it is a community that has enough flexibility to say, “Okay. Let’s figure this out together.”

That is what I want to protect.

Help me protect 25 days.

It costs approximately $400 to keep CityHeART operating for one day.

My personal Long Beach Gives goal is $10,000 — enough to put 25 days of CityHeART on the calendar in 2027.

Twenty-five days when our doors can open. Twenty-five days when a case manager can call us. Twenty-five days when groceries can be distributed, laundry can get done, a veteran can connect with another veteran, and someone can walk through our doors and ask for help.

Through donated goods, volunteer time, professional support, partnerships, and shared resources, every $1 invested in CityHeART helps generate approximately $5 in community value.

So when you protect an hour, you protect everything that can happen inside those 60 minutes.

Eleven years later, I’m asking for help.

I have spent a lot of years figuring out how CityHeART can say yes to other people. This year has required me to acknowledge that the helpers need help, too.

I don’t want CityHeART to continue simply because I can figure out how to stretch myself a little further.

I want it to continue because our community believes this kind of place should exist.

$100 protects an hour. $400 protects a day. $2,000 protects a week.

Or give what you can, share this page, volunteer, or simply help another person understand why this little place matters.

Eleven years ago, I wondered what could happen if a community decided to wrap itself around people navigating hard chapters.

Eleven years later, I know the answer.

I’ve seen it.

And I’m not ready to close this book.

Help me write what happens next.

With so much gratitude,

Paige Pelonis
Founder & Executive Director, CityHeART