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From After School to Aftermath: Malibu Boys and Girls Club Filling Gaps in Fire Recovery
What was once solely a youth-focused program now also provides social services, including crisis counseling, disaster aid distribution, and long-term recovery support for entire families. Funding from Direct Relief is supporting those efforts.
Children enjoy time together outside at the Malibu Boys and Girls Club. The organization has expanded to meet the needs of entire families after recent disasters, including the Palisades Fires in Jan. 2025. (Courtesy photo)
Following the Franklin and Palisades fires, the Boys & Girls Club of Malibu has emerged as a leading force for disaster recovery and long-term support in a city often overlooked by traditional government aid systems. Between Jan. 7 and June 3, 2025, the club, known for its youth afterschool programs, recorded more than 3,300 visits to its disaster relief center, distributed approximately $2 million worth of essential goods, and provided case management and mental health services to residents from more than 119 zip codes.
Ethan White, data and development director at the Boys & Girls Club of Malibu, has been instrumental in identifying community needs and guiding the organization’s expanded mission. What was once solely a youth-focused program now also provides social services, including crisis counseling, disaster aid distribution, and long-term recovery support for entire families.
The organization has expanded to provide critical services to families, post-fire. (Courtesy photo)
In this conversation, White, who lost his home in the 2018 Woolsey Fire, explains why the club stepped into this broader role, how it assesses community needs, and what the rebuilding process looks like in one of the most expensive and difficult regions in California to navigate after a disaster.
The challenges are stark. Of those seeking help, roughly half have lost their homes and the other half have lost income, with minimal overlap between the two groups. After cash support, other top stated needs include clothing, furniture, appliances, and food. Many of the most affected are commuting workers and people who live in local unconventional housing who maintain Malibu’s multimillion-dollar homes. These populations are effectively invisible in formal disaster response frameworks. Those who lived in unconventional housing like trailers, converted garages, and informal structures don’t qualify for rebuilding assistance.
Although associated with wealth and opulence, Malibu is classified as rural under many federal guidelines. It has no hospital, limited public transit, and few formal social service offices. In that vacuum, the Boys & Girls Club of Malibu has taken roles normally filled by public agencies, becoming a vital support system for a scattered and underserved population reeling from disaster.
The interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Direct Relief: Why did the Boys and Girls Club expand from youth programming into broader social services like mental health and disaster relief?
Ethan White: It started in 2016 when our wellness center began offering mental health services. Schools weren’t doing a great job at that, and our CEO said someone needed to step in…. In our schools, you have the kids who live in multimillion-dollar houses and also the kids whose parents clean and maintain those houses. We started with one licensed provider, then in 2017 signed an agreement to provide all mental health services for the district schools in Malibu. We now offer 2,500 to 3,000 clinical sessions annually and staff wellness centers on all campuses.
We recognized the need again after the Woolsey Fire in 2018. Over 2,000 homes were lost, but the response didn’t match the need. We raised $2 million and distributed $1.5 million in goods, and provided years of case management. A lot of that support focused on the labor population who maintain $100 million homes, yet remain unseen by society.
Q: What is the long-term impact on families after a disaster like the Woolsey and Palisades Fires?
If we don’t support recovery, we won’t have children in our schools. After Woolsey, school enrollment dropped from 1,700 to 1,100 students. Families are fragile, and with each disaster, there’s more gentrification. Many unconventional and unpermitted housing situations— trailers, garages, sheds— burned down and couldn’t be rebuilt. People scattered, but we kept serving them, offering support and connection.
Children tap into their creative sides at the Malibu Boys and Girls Club during afterschool programming. (Courtesy photo)
Q: How do you identify needs and track your services?
We do intake assessments and long-form emergency relief intakes, about 525 of them so far, totaling around 1,500 people. That gives us a snapshot of need: 50% lost income, 50% lost homes, 377 were displaced. We also track how people’s ability to identify needs evolves over time. We know from experience that six months to two years post-disaster is when the initial shock and trauma start to subside, for the most part, and is the critical time when people work out if they’re able to stay and how their recovery will go.
Q: Do you use this data to decide what to expand next?
Yes, but it’s also intuitive. We interact with people every day and see the need directly. For example, we found we needed to expand into social work after launching mental health services. We now have five licensed social workers and 15 to 17 graduate interns training with us.
Why is rebuilding so hard in this region?
Only 40% of homes lost in Woolsey have been rebuilt after six years. Some homes need $500,000 to $1 million just for a foundation. Insurance rarely covers enough. A 2,200-square-foot house in Sunset Mesa may cost $3 million to rebuild, but insurance might only provide $1.5 million. People often choose to sell their land and move rather than take on debt. I predict only 15% of homes in the Palisades and Malibu will be rebuilt within five years.
What’s the profile of the people you’re helping?
The majority have annual household incomes under $100,000, way lower than you’d expect for this area. Even people earning over $350,000 struggle to rebuild. And most of our services are now provided to people who commute in, many from Ventura County, doing domestic labor in Malibu. Their kids often go to preschool and school in Malibu since the parents spent a lot of time working here and don’t have a way to drop them off and pick them up on time from schools where they live.
Children enjoy time together outside at the Malibu Boys and Girls Club. The organization has expanded to meet the needs of entire families, post-fire. (Courtesy photo)
Do you still see yourselves as a youth organization?
Yes, but we’ve expanded to serve whole families. During Covid, we provided food assistance. We’re still one of the only social service providers in town, and families rely on us not just for kids’ programs but for broader survival.
How has your staffing changed to meet these needs?
For mental health, we became a training facility for schools like UCLA and Boston College. Our staff includes licensed therapists and a cohort of interns. The broader aid mission has definitely shifted how we hire, train, and deploy.
How have your grantmaking plans changed since the fire?
We’ve had high-profile donors who have donated six figures and then wanted to handpick families to support, based on a family’s individual situation. We’re exploring ways to make this transparent and scalable, like a public platform where donors can fund individuals directly and see data on demographics and need.
In your opinion, what’s the most important way your group supports the community you serve after disasters?
Money helps, things help, but ultimately, what people need to recover is a connection to their community and to know they’ll be supported. More touchpoints of caring humans matters a lot.
In response to the L.A. wildfires, Direct Relief has provided $250,000 to the Malibu Boys and Girls Clubs to support integrated clinical mental health counseling and long-term trauma-informed case management to individuals and families affected by the fires.
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