Los Angeles, CA. With Thanksgiving fast approaching, Los Angeles Mission is working hard to make sure every homeless individual in LA can have a hot meal this year. On November 20th, the nonprofit distributed 1,500 food boxes to citizens in Watts as seen above.
The Los Angeles Mission provides nearly 1,500 hot meals every day at its 303 East 5th Street location.
Staffers believe it will be an extra busy holiday season this year. Statistics on homelessness are up:
53,195 people in Los Angeles County are experiencing homelessness
22% increase in people aged 62 and older who are experiencing homelessness
Three out of four people experiencing homelessness remain unsheltered
6% of people experiencing homelessness are currently fleeing violence
9,322 people over the past year are experiencing homelessness for the first time
We provide both residential and emergency services to the community, including meals, showers, clothing, academic courses, employment workshops, job search assistance and referral services.
Contact us at (213) 629-1227 ext. 347 for information.
Residential Life Recovery Program
The recovery oriented systems of care programs provide a host of services designed to be client driven such as individual, family and conjoint counseling; Life Skill courses such as anger management, domestic violence, parenting and smoking cessation; discipleship and academic classes such as GED preparation, computer literacy, ESL, and tutoring; employment readiness workshops, job search assistance; group sessions; socialization; vocational training; transitional housing; psychiatric referrals and other relevant services to assist students in becoming contributing members of society.
Mommy and Me is a unique Anne Douglas Center program catering to the needs of struggling moms who are experiencing homelessness or living in other shelters and missions in the area. On Saturday mornings, women and their children can receive a hot breakfast while “shopping” for clothing in the Mission’s donated-clothing room. Mommy and Me offers a wonderful opportunity to help, encourage, and connect with these hurting women and children while providing them with food, clothes — and hope.
Urban Training Institute
Life Skills classes such as Anger Management, Domestic Violence, Smoking Cessation and Parenting are taught by certified instructors and are open to the public.
Please contact Ana Ceravolo at (213) 627-1227 ext. 387.
Food Baskets
Los Angeles Mission has a long history of providing emergency food baskets to those in need. However, in the last six years, we have seen a dramatic increase in the number of requests for emergency food. Each week, we prepare about 40-50 baskets, filled with items donated from local markets including Albertsons. Each basket includes nutritious ingredients for preparing a balanced meal.
For more information about our Emergency Food Basket Program, call the Anne Douglas Center at (213) 614-0743.
Outreach Services
Our Outreach Services provide ongoing support for those who have graduated from Mission programs. This keeps our graduates connected to a community where they feel accepted and nurtured in order to encourage and maintain the progress they have achieved. Outreach Services provide housing, referral services and assistance with addressing the various roadblocks and obstacles that often accompany re-entry into society.
For more information contact Antwone Sanford at (213) 629-1227 ext 347.
Los Angeles, CA. The American Red Cross stresses the importance and growing need for blood donations as COVID-19 cases skyrocket across the nation. By partnering with country music star Martina McBride and service company Suburban Propane, the Red Cross hopes to persuade potential donors, and particularly COVID-19 survivors to give blood. McBride reaches out to fans in a video encouraging them to donate blood to the Red Cross in order to help save lives this holiday season. Additionally, for those who donate blood, plasma, or platelet from November 15th to December 16th, Suburban Propane is offering a lucky winner a socially distanced outdoor living experience.
While all blood donations help, COVID-19 survivors are the most important donors because the antibodies in their blood are used by doctors to treat current coronavirus patients. The Red Cross tests every blood donation for COVID-19 antibodies and notifies donors of the result. Using antibodies found in the bloodstream to treat patients with coronavirus is a treatment called convalescent plasma which has been very successful. Red Cross shares a story of a 37-year-old woman who was hospitalized with COVID-19 and whose life was ultimately saved from plasma treatment. Patients respond to treatments in many different ways, and for some, convalescent plasma is the only treatment that helps them recover.
Donor gives blood to American Red Cross at the start of the pandemic (Staff Photo By Nancy Lane/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald)
To ensure donor safety, the Red Cross administers temperature checks, social distancing, and face coverings for both donors and staff members at their blood drives. Donors are required to make an appointment beforehand and wear their facial covering the entirety of the appointment. They also must be at least 17 years old, weigh over 110 pounds, and be in good health. Appointments can be made on the Red Cross app, website, or over the phone at 1-800-RED CROSS.
Los Angeles, CA. All Peoples Community Center Executive Director Saundra Bryant talks about the difficulties young children are facing in a virtual academic setting and how the center has adjusted its programs to fit the state’s current public health guidelines. Annually, All Peoples hosts a “Back to School” night for youth. This year, to help with the adjustment to remote learning, staff distributed Back to School “remote learning” supply bags. 300 youth received school supplies for the upcoming school year, as seen above.
Bryant explains, “It’s trying to adjust to a new learning curve.” All Peoples Community Center primarily focuses on helping the local youth’s education and wellbeings with the center’s events and activities like extended child daycare, after-school programs, and summer camp.
Bryant notes that children between grades 1-4 had an especially difficult time with distant learning in comparison to other age groups. The staff has found over time that this age group is more focused and easier to help within scheduled one-on-one virtual tutoring sessions.
The organization had to make significant adjustments this year to provide opportunities to kids without risking the spread of the coronavirus in large groups. The staff started to understand the issues surrounding distance learning from contacting parents and the youth of the center’s after-school programs in the first months of the pandemic.
Bryant listed a number of issues exemplified by the parents that include a lack of access to reliable internet and not having responsive, functional equipment needed for virtual learning.
Additionally, while some households are able to function within a stay-at-home environment, other larger households aren’t able to afford the same luxuries.
There can often be multiple people in one household who all need to use their one or two computers for meetings and work at the same time. This can create difficulty for everyone in the household in maintaining a regular routine for school and work fairly.
There are a number of virtual tutors that reach out to specific areas of the center’s youth like beginner art lessons led by Teens Youth Coordinator Erick “Sen” Moreno who has a Youtube channel where he posts his art lessons online like the one seen below:
Bryant’s staff has come up with a variety of ways to keep kids of all age groups engaged in a virtual setting by adding in fun activities that emphasize the main lessons and have talked about starting a book club as well.
The community center hasn’t completely shut down as the 20,000-square-foot building allows for the staff and a select few children to practice social distancing effectively.
“In some cases, we’re able to actually have students to come in for the tutoring sessions,” Bryant said, “that’s been more effective for some of our youth.”
The other reason the community center has stayed open is due to the active participation in certain campaigns with other nonprofits like the Angeleno Campaign which provided thousands of prepaid cards for struggling families, assistance in the ERAS application process for those unable to apply at home, and a weekly food distribution program.
All Peoples will continue to make important decisions for events and programs as the holiday season approaches.
“Normally we would do a Thanksgiving dinner where we would feed between 800-1,000 people,” Bryant said, “we are going to cancel that and we talked about doing a major food giveaway instead.”
Bryant listed an additional concern for the community in February 2021 where several unemployed LA residents could become homeless as a result of the expiration of LA County’s Temporary Eviction Moratorium for Residential Tenants.
“The other major concern that we are focused on is really about the education of our young people,” Bryant explained, “we know that our schools aren’t able to open safely, so what we’re looking at is our young people will have lost a year to a year-and-a-half of education.
“We’re already in a community where there is a concern about the education that our young people are receiving and the support that they need to be able to compete and now they’re a year-and-a-half behind.”
All Peoples Community Center will continue to keep the center open under strict social distancing for the youth who prefer a classroom learning environment and assisting individuals in the community for certain social services and programs.
The center launched the All Peoples Senior Food Delivery Service in October and are currently delivering to more than 40 seniors a week.
The center is labeled by the city’s mayor as an essential services provider and has subsequently seen a large increase of families needing assistance with food and other living essentials. Their donation page is here if you have the means to assist the center to continue operations during this unprecedented time.
From All Peoples Community Center:
Our mission is to provide social services and programs that empower individuals and promote community respect and self-determination for all.
All Peoples Community Center has become a comprehensive community center, delivering a myriad of social and educational services and activities. Our services and activities are driven by the purpose of:
Helping Children Succeed at Each Stage in their Development
Strengthening and Supporting Individuals and Families and Building Community
Preventing Violence and Crime, in the Community and in the Home
Addressing the Root Causes of Gang Involvement
Providing Job Training and Creating Job Opportunities
Los Angeles, CA.“Ending the HIV/AIDS Epidemic: Resilience and Impact” is the theme for World Aids Day. This year, there will be no in-person gathering where supporters unite, as seen above, but there will the first-ever nationwide AIDS Memorial Quilt display. Each year, sections of the AIDS Memorial Quilt travel to communities throughout the country for in-person displays. In 2020, that is simply not possible due to Covid-19. Organizers explain, “While nothing can replace the beauty of seeing the Quilt in-person, our hope is that this first-ever, 50-state AIDS Memorial Quilt virtual exhibition, helps use the power and beauty of the Quilt to help our nation heal and remember during these difficult times.”
The National AIDS Memorial has worked together with Quilt partners from across the country to create this exhibition which includes digital images from thousands of hand-sewn Quilt panels, each visually telling the story of loved ones lost to AIDS.
The exhibition is curated by state, allowing visitors to how people came together through one devastating pandemic to create a living memorial as a way to express their love, grief, pain and hope. Each display is hosted by a Quiltmaker, community organization or business and includes touching narratives that connect each display to the lives memorialized and their work around HIV/AIDS. The exhibition is free to the public through March 31, 2021.
On Dec. 1ST, World AIDS, there will be a virtual conversation with leading health voices about health justice, social activism, remembrance, hope and resilience.
Learn more World AIDS Day 2020 – A National Conversation. Click for updates https://bit.ly/35rSllV
Thank you to our Quilt partners for hosting this statewide display. Click on the organization name to visit its display or scroll down to view all the Quilt displays. Each Quilt display has the corresponding block numbers and the thumbnail images can be enlarged by clicking on them for a closer look at the details of the panels. A curated story is provided by each Quilt host, linking to their organization website to learn more about their work in the community. See the full list of displays by state and territory.
Los Angeles, CA. From providing medical care to only 12 patients in a borrowed dental clinic on Lincoln Boulevard to operating 13 different locations and serving nearly 28,000 patients, Venice Family Clinic has come a long way in the past 50 years. To celebrate all the work they’ve accomplished, Venice Family Clinic invited their biggest supporters to a virtual celebration hosted by Billy Crystal and Whoopi Goldberg in October.
Without the work of the Venice Family Clinic, 28,000 people could go without the healthcare and resources they need to live safe and healthy lives.
The clinic provides primary health care along with a number of extensive services including substance abuse treatment programs, domestic violence programs, early head start programs for mothers and their newborn children, and more. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the clinic has pivoted to providing telemedicine services for 50% of their appointments in order to limit the number of people who come into the clinic. Michelle Stuffmann, Communications Director, says how the clinic and its’ team are “trying to make sure that we are doing everything we can to keep both our patients and our workers healthy and safe.”
Venice Family Clinic celebrates 50th anniversary with virtual festivities (Picture by Venice Family Clinic)
The celebration showcased who the clinic is and what the clinic does while also raising donations in honor of the clinic. “The kick-off was tremendously successful, we had a generous donor who put up a million dollars to inspire matching gifts, and I am thrilled to say that we met that match”, Stuffmann shares. In addition to their virtual kick-off party, the clinic also hosted a week of action inspiring volunteers and supporters to perform acts of kindness for their community. Participants gave donations, purchased items off of the clinic’s amazon wishlist, put together care packages for patients experiencing homelessness, and more, all in service of the clinic and its’ patients.
Venice Family Clinic distributing fresh produce at Culver City location (Picture taken from Venice Family Clinic)
Venice Family Clinic recently started doing small distributions of fresh produce, a project which has grown immensely in the face of the pandemic. As a result of the community’s growing need, the clinic has expanded its food distribution to every Tuesday at their location in Santa Monica, and every other Thursday at their health center in Culver City. Stuffmann says there is no need to sign up, “we are in the community, by the community, for the community, so whether or not you are our patient or not, if you need help, just come to the distribution and we will give you food.” The clinic provides produce to 18,000 people a week and just recently made a partnership with UCLA dining services to provide full meals to 10,000 patients a week.
Los Angeles, CA. Valley Socials started in the San Fernando Valley. It is a unique social skills program for the special needs population. Program outings (pictured above before the pandemic) not only teach social skills but consumer skills and how to conduct confident business transactions. Unfortunately, during the pandemic, fundraising has become more challenging; the nonprofit is facing a funding crisis. Leaders fear families may need to pay for the enrichments. Janet Marie, the creator of the organization, says Valley Socials might have to be turned into a business instead of a non-profit, “I won’t stop working with the kids, but if we don’t get any donations soon, I might have to Valley Socials into a business.”
Social Valley friends at the museum before COVID-19
Currently, students are still meeting in parks and malls. They’re using safety measures and enjoying some social life activities. But, since the pandemic started, donations have stopped and it affects how the organization can continue to take the kids into activities. Janet drives kids to the activities and helps with snacks and other needs, but it is hard for her to keep going all by herself, especially because her daughter, Pauline, is a special needs teenager who needs all the support her mom can give.
Pauline was the reason Janet decided to start the Valley Socials. Janet saw all the improvements Pauline was making and wanted to give the same opportunities and hope to parents and kids in the same situation.
A day at the fire station with their community!
In addition to donations, Valley Socials is also looking for volunteers to help with meetings and having a bonding experience with special needs kids, teenagers, and adults.
If you’d like to donate, there’s more information on the Valley Socials website. The organization is also very active on social media.
From Valley Socials:
Our program provides lasting results because we don’t simply work with a participant’s strengths or compensate for a weakness, but we tackle the root cause of the issues by supervising social groups and having them actively participate in social activities.
“The Special Needs population is exploding due to the rise of diagnosed Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and better assessments today. One in 59 children will be diagnosed with ASD. About 20% (or higher) students receive Special Education services in the USA. There are approximately 3.5 million Americans with special needs in America.”
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