Human Options Inc. is like a cherished family heirloom for the Churms.
Three generations of Churms have helped shape Human Options, an Irvine domestic abuse shelter that offers transitional housing, counseling and prevention services.
Steve Churm, president of Newport Beach-based Churm Media, which puts out OC Metro and other magazines, serves on the board of Human Options and is helping to get more men involved.
Churm grew up watching his mother, Carolyn Churm, do charitable work. Carolyn Churm, who died about eight years ago, helped start Human Options.
“It’s the family philanthropy,” Steve Churm said. “There’s a lot of family pride.”
Katie Churm, Churm’s daughter, is the latest to be involved. She and friend Katie Mcleish, along with others, founded yHope last year.
The group’s young professionals spend time with kids at the Human Options shelter and help raise awareness about the program. It also holds an annual shopping fundraiser with Bloomingdale’s at South Coast Plaza.
The 20-somethings aren’t in a position to make large donations yet. But they want to give back, said Katie Churm, who works in marketing for Irvine technology consultant Neudesic LLC.
Katie Churm and Mcleish both are following in their grandmothers’ footsteps.
Mcleish’s grandmother Anne Wright also was a founder of Human Options.
Twenty-eight years later, the group still has its founding president, Vivian Clecak, who opened the shelter with Carolyn Churm, Wright and Margaret Thoreau.
The Appeal
Longevity and continuity attract people to Human Options, said board member Victoria Collins, senior managing director for Irvine-based First Foundation Advisors.
Most of Human Options’ $3.2 million yearly budget goes toward programs, including temporary housing that gives women and their kids an affordable place to live while they get their lives in order.
The group’s budget is down 20% from 2008 amid less giving during the recession and state budget cuts. Rather than cut programs, Human Options made them smaller.
If October’s fundraiser is any measure, giving is picking up.
The group raised $154,000 at its annual lunch. The 2008 lunch raised $50,000.
Clecak said she hopes to increase private donations, which currently make up about half of the group’s revenue.
Boosting revenue is a top priority for Brian Goodman, who joined the board this month.
“I definitely want to be hands-on,” he said.
Goodman, a lawyer with Irvine-based professional services company Resources Connection Inc., volunteered for Human Options for a few years before being nominated to the board.
Kate Duchene, chief legal officer and executive vice president of human resources for Resources Connection, is set to take over for Collins as board president this year.
“Some of our board members bring specific expertise,” Clecak said. “What we try to do is match board skills and interest to our needs.”
Board members point to Clecak as the group’s driving force.
“She’s absolutely a dynamo,” Collins said.
Not many groups retain founding directors for so long. Clecak said her passion for her work has kept her going.
“I’ve been fortunate to find passion,” she said.
Prior to starting Human Options, Clecak was a psychotherapist who ran a clinic in Laguna Beach. Carolyn Churm and Thoreau served on the clinic’s board.
“A fourth woman joined us,” Clecak said. That was Anne Wright.
The four wanted to help women who were victims of domestic abuse.
In 1982, the women opened a shelter in Laguna Beach with grants from the James Irvine Foundation and United Way Orange County.
It also got a Presley grant, named after former state Sen. Robert Presley, who sponsored a law that funds domestic abuse shelters.
Youth
In 1985, Human Options took to schools, figuring that prevention needed to be a part of the effort.
Now it reaches 25,000 kids and young people annually, in kindergarten through college. For the youngsters, it has a “hands are not for hitting” program that uses puppets to teach how to handle anger.
Around 1993, the Irvine City Council invited Human Options to the city.
The $4.2 million Irvine shelter was the work of the city; Dick Sim, who was then senior vice president at Irvine Company and now is retired; Chuck Haggerty, retired chief executive of Lake Forest-based Western Digital Corp.; and Irvine-based HomeAid Orange County, a nonprofit made up of real estate executives that builds shelters and housing for other nonprofits.
It opened in 1996.
A few years ago, former Human Options board president Gary Van Arnam came up with a men’s program.
Van Arnam, a senior vice president at the Newport Beach office of Chicago-based Northern Trust Corp., started the Men’s Task Force, made up of about 10 men, including Steve Churm and Goodman.
The men serve as role models and fundraisers, tapping their networks to get other men to donate $250 to $5,000 as part of its annual “100 Men, 1 Voice, 1 Campaign.”
This year, the task force enlisted its first spokesman, Hugh McCutcheon, brought on by Churm.
McCutcheon coached the men’s Olympic volleyball team and now coaches the U.S. women’s team at American Sports Center in Anaheim.
The message, according to McCutcheon: “It’s OK to be a strong male or to be a masculine person and not give into this weakness of asserting your physical power over people who you love.”
The money raised helps fund Human Options’ Jason’s Story program, a role playing program that teaches teen male athletes about how to have healthy relationships.
Often, high school athletes’ behavior toward women is watched by the rest of the campus, Steve Churm said.
The campaign raised $80,000 in 2009.
In 2008, when the downturn struck, it raised $35,000. The year before, $50,000.
New York-based Verizon Communications Inc.’s Verizon Wireless division, which has taken on domestic abuse as its national cause, contributed $25,000.
“Men are the perpetrators of this behavior,” Steve Churm said. “Ultimately men are a very big part of the solution to this.”
