Los Angeles, CA. Previously known as the Los Angeles Drama Club, the Shakespeare Youth Festival is a community of young people from various backgrounds across LA who come together to tell stories, perform plays, and express themselves. SYF focuses on building communication and literacy skills and improving the self-esteem of these children. This summer, the organization planned various events that helped grow these skills further.
From June 21 to June 25, SYF held the Young Playwrights’ Festival through Zoom. The program involved daily sessions where students of Grade 7 and up were given playwriting and storytelling lessons. Students were encouraged to write plays based on prompts, events from their own lives, and stories they made up together, and at the end of the program the plays were performed by professional actors and Los Angeles Drama Club actors.
SYF students in the Shakespeare in Nature program.
The Shakespeare in Nature program was held from from July 12 to July 16 at the Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area. Participating students were from Grades 2 through 8 and learned about plays that had heavy nature themes, like A Midsummer Night’s Dream and King Lear. The program explored three different concepts: how Shakespeare uses plants as plot devices in his plays, the concern surrounding climate change and environmentalism during Shakespeare’s time, and the various allusions Shakespeare makes to birds in his poems and plays.
The organization’s Summer with SYF 2021 program is currently ongoing, with registration still open for interested students. The program holds sessions every Monday through Friday and serves as an introduction in the world of Shakespeare and his plays for the youth. Additional information on registration and financial aid for those who are keen can be found here: https://shakespeareyouthfestival.com/summer-2021/
More about the Shakespeare Youth Festival:
“We are Shakespeare Youth Festival, the country’s youngest Shakespeare Troupe. In the spirit of cultural generosity and with the goal of creative excellence, we create diverse communities of belonging and self-empowerment with children and youth locally and across the globe through the magic of theater … and we do it all in Iambic Pentameter.” SYF is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
Los Angeles, CA. The Downtown Women’s Center is launching its second Together Housed campaign this year from August 4th onwards till August 25th. The organization’s first campaign in 2020 successfully raised over $700,000 for its cause, prompting the DWC to bring back the campaign for 2021 with renewed vigor.
The campaign will take place in three phases. Week 1 is the fundraising phase, which will be kicked off by a community meeting held on Zoom on August 4th. The virtual meeting will have information on the various ways to support women in LA who are experiencing homelessness. The second phase is an advocacy phase and will be similarly kicked off by a Zoom meeting on August 11th. The advocacy phase will involve completing one action every day that will support homeless women in greater Los Angeles.
The third and final phase begins on August 18th and focuses on celebrating the work done by DWC and its volunteers. The celebration will also take place virtually on August 25th, the last day of the campaign, and will have special guests. The Week 3 phase also includes an auction starting 8am on the 18th that will end after the virtual celebration, marking the end of the entire Together Housed campaign. RSVP information about the Together Housed campaign can be found here: https://downtownwomenscenter.org/together/
More about the Downtown Women’s Center:
The Downtown Women’s Center (DWC) envisions a Los Angeles with every woman housed and on a path to personal stability. Its mission is to end homelessness for women in greater Los Angeles through housing, wellness, employment, and advocacy. DWC is a 501(c)(3) organization.
Los Angeles, CA. Project Ropa continues to address the growing number of homeless people. Its mission is to restore dignity to those experiencing homelessness and empower them through providing clean clothes, hygiene kits, and employment opportunities. The non-profit offers a mobile hygiene service, a closet on wheels, clean clothes to avoid the spread of disease, and help people get jobs. Project Ropa hires individuals transitioning out of homelessness to help break the cycle of homelessness. The organization also helps reduce textile waste through its clothing recycling program and environmentally conscious management.
People line up for Project Ropa’s mobile hygiene service at St. Francis Center.
A report by the Economic Roundtable estimates that the number of people experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles will increase by 86% over the next two years.To combat this, Project Ropa hopes to create new site locations in low-income areas where most people are in danger of becoming homeless. However, as places reopen and more people return to work, Project Ropa has experienced a decline in volunteers and donations.
When COVID-19 first hit, Project Ropa was forced to shut down for six weeks. During this time administrators reassessed how to do business and best serve people with the new safety restrictions put in place. As public facilities shut down, many homeless individuals lost access to showers, meal stations, and clean drinking water. Hygiene, especially given the pandemic, is very important to avoid the spread of disease. To address these health issues, Project Ropa upgraded its hygiene kits to include sanitizer and masks, and they partnered with other nonprofits to offer showers and meal services.
Project Ropa continues its services under COVID restrictions, making sure everyone stays 6 feet apart.
As safety restrictions limit the amount of people Project Ropa can service at once, it has allowed them to offer an even more personalized experience to people. Before the pandemic, Project Ropa emphasized spending time with each person and getting to know them, but the restrictions have allowed staff and volunteers to really interact and bond with those they are helping.
Volunteers distribute clothes and shoes on Veterans Row.
Project Ropa was founded in 2016 to address the challenges that homeless people face in obtaining and keeping clean clothes.
Project Ropa is made possible through volunteers and generous donations. Visit their website to find out how to help Project Ropa in their mission to help the homeless get back on their feet!
From Project Ropa:
Project Ropa is the only nonprofit organization of its kind in Los Angeles: our mission is to restore dignity and empower the lives of people experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles by providing clean clothes, hygiene essentials, and employment opportunities while reducing textile waste and minimizing our carbon footprint. Our retrofitted van, functioning as a mobile walk-in closet, carries hope as well as a full selection of clothes, shoes, accessories and hygiene products. To further our mission and help break the cycle of homelessness, we provide transitional job opportunities to people with barriers to employment, including homeless and previously incarcerated individuals.
Los Angeles, CA. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is up and running after a year of being shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic. The museum also has a new partnership with the popular social media platform Snapchat called Monumental Perspectives. Via Snapchat, people can experience augmented reality monuments at site-specific locations including LACMA’s Wilshire Boulevard campus, MacArthur Park, Earvin “Magic” Johnson Park, and the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Below is a look at how it works:
This new initiative uses augmented reality to explore monuments and murals, representation, and history. Monumental Perspectives brings together artists and technologists to create virtual monuments that explore just some of the histories of Los Angeles communities in an effort to highlight perspectives from across the region. In consultation with community leaders and historians, the first cohort of artists, Mercedes Dorame, I.R. Bach, Glenn Kaino, Ruben Ochoa, and Ada Pinkston, examine key moments, figures, and monumentality in the region’s past and present through augmented reality experiences.
“Monumental Perspectives” is an ongoing virtual experience throughout Los Angeles.
These virtual monuments can also be accessed around the world; visitors do not necessarily need to be in Los Angeles. By downloading Snapchat, visitors can scan Snapchat codes on LACMA’s website, which automatically uploads the digital artwork to the individual’s account.
To learn more about LACMA’s Monumental Perspectives exhibition, find information here.
From LACMA:
Advance Tickets Required for All Visitors, Including Members
All visitors, including LACMA members, must purchase or reserve an advance timed-entry ticket online or by calling the LACMA Ticket Office at 323 857-6010, 10 am–5 pm daily.
Onsite ticket purchase is not available.
Tickets are released monthly on the last Wednesday of the month for LACMA members and the last Thursday of the month for the public. Sign up to receive alerts.
Mandatory Health Screening
All visitors must pass a health screening and temperature check prior to entry.
Face Masks Required Indoors
Visitors are required to wear face masks in all indoor spaces including galleries, restrooms, and the LACMA Store.
Face Masks Not Required Outdoors
Visitors are not required to wear face masks outdoors. Unvaccinated visitors are encouraged to wear face masks outdoors.
Located on the Pacific Rim, LACMA is the largest art museum in the western United States, with a collection of nearly 142,000 objects that illuminate 6,000 years of artistic expression across the globe. Committed to showcasing a multitude of art histories, LACMA exhibits and interprets works of art from new and unexpected points of view that are informed by the region’s rich cultural heritage and diverse population. LACMA’s spirit of experimentation is reflected in its work with artists, technologists, and thought leaders as well as in its regional, national, and global partnerships to share collections and programs, create pioneering initiatives, and engage new audiences
Los Angeles, CA. The Ian Somerhalder Foundation is giving a $1 million donation to the Jane Goodall Institute. Dr. Jane Goodall has been one of the world’s foremost advocates in ape conservation and species conservation at large for the last 6 decades, traveling the world to educate people on the importance of conservation and taking positive action. Ian Somerhalder is an actor known for playing is work in the TV dramas Lost and The Vampire Diaries. He’s also a United Nations Global Goodwill Ambassador who founded the ISF for helping the environment and its living things for the better. This donation, announced in May, is a symbol of both organizations’ shared goal of improving the wellbeing of Earth’s ecosystems.
Here’s a video about the big donation:
The donation will provide the Jane Goodall Institute with resources to expand their Roots and Shoots program, which teaches conservation skills to around 700,000 people across more than 50 countries, and their programs to rehabilitate orphaned chimpanzees and protect chimpanzee environments across the world. JGI will also be able to work on more grassroots projects with local communities interested in conservation. Such projects will focus on sustainable living, agro-forestry, environmental education, and will therefore be able to simultaneously improve their lives and the world around them.
More about the Ian Somerhalder Foundation:
The purpose of the Foundation is to advance science; promote the conservation of natural resources, such as forests, lands, and wildlife, for the benefit of the entire community; provide relief to the poor, distressed, and underprivileged; and support other organizations conducting activities under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
The Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) is a global community conservation organization founded by Dr. Goodall in 1977. By protecting chimpanzees and inspiring action to conserve the natural world we all share, we improve the lives of people, animals, and the environment.
Los Angeles, CA. Big Sunday is a nonprofit organization based in Los Angeles. Founded in 1999, it is responsible for an annual community service event in Los Angeles, also called “Big Sunday”, which has grown from its beginnings as a “Mitzvah Day” at a local Jewish temple to become the largest such community service event in the United States. This summer, Big Sunday is hosting three outdoor shows with live music at its headquarters in Melrose. Guests can get an admission ticket by bringing non-perishable food items, new socks or underwear, new footwear, or hygiene products. Food and drinks will be available for purchase. All of these donations will be received by youth facing housing insecurities or families that have been affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
Backlot Summer Concert on June 25th. Picture provided by Big Sunday.
On June 25th, Big Sunday hosted a live music and drag show in honor of Pride Month. The organization partnered with LA Pride to create Pride Makes A Difference. For the entire month of June, Big Sunday and LA Pride focused on creating events that benefitted the Los Angeles community, through volunteering, donations, and so much more. There are two more Backlot Summer Nights coming up, on July 23rd and August 13th. These events are art shows with live music.
Backlot Summer Concert on June 25th. Picture provided by Big Sunday.
Big Sunday’s Summer List for 2021, titled the “Summer of Love.”
There are also other ways Big Sunday is encouraging people to get involved this summer. “Summer of Love,” their 4th Annual Summer List, includes 250 diverse ways people can help and get involved all summer long. If you cannot attend one of the Backlot Summer Nights — or even if you can — consider one of these projects. The organization includes opportunities for all ages, interests, and talents. The list is being updated weekly throughout the summer.
From Big Sunday:
Big Sunday (www.bigsunday.org) has been connecting people with opportunities to help, volunteer and to do good works together since 1999. Founded in Los Angeles 22 years ago by David Levinson with just 300 volunteers, Big Sunday has touched over a 1 million lives, engaging, empowering and uniting people of every imaginable background all over California, from San Diego to San Francisco, in 10 different states as well as Australia and the UK. Big Sunday has completed in excess of 1.75 million volunteer man-hours and the organization has collected and distributed hundreds of thousands of items of clothing, food, toiletries, and other essentials. Big Sunday has completed over 30,000 volunteer projects worth millions of dollars in donated goods and services. Recognized nationally, Big Sunday, which organizes over 2,000 ways to get involved every year, is one of the USA’s premiere resources for helping year-round. Big Sunday functions as an efficient and impactful clearing-house of volunteerism and community engagement, organizing, facilitating and hosting numerous programs and a range of unique ways for people of every age, background and means to help, volunteer and/or give, making it easy for tens of thousands of diverse people to participate in good works together to support the huge variety of causes that they care about. Big Sunday’s mission is to connect people and build community via helping. The organization is driven by the belief that absolutely everyone has some way that they can help someone else. Big Sunday events and programs have become more popular than ever, as people search for a way to focus on what we share in common and to celebrate Big Sunday’s belief that we are all in it together. Big Sunday was named by the Points of Light Foundation as one of “10 national nonprofits that are making a tremendous impact on our country’s most critical challenges by mobilizing volunteers…These organizations also demonstrate a collaborative spirit through partnerships with other organizations to help strengthen communities across the nation.”
To learn more about the upcoming Backlot Summer Nights, find more information here. To access Big Sunday’s Summer list, visit this website.
Big Sunday connects people through helping. We provide a wide variety of opportunities and projects that bring people together to improve lives, build community, and give people a sense of belonging.
We offer more than 2000 ways for people to help out, every year. And there are all kinds of ways to help. You can:
-Volunteer by working up a sweat doing manual labor.
-Pitch in by offering some special skill you have.
-Help out by spending time with someone who’d enjoy your company.
-Give away gently used stuff like clothes, books, sports equipment or furniture.
-Buy new stuff like food, school supplies, or socks and underwear.
-Donate money to help in all kinds of ways.
-These are all great and important ways to help, and all of them are always needed.
One more thing: We have participants of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities. They come from all kinds of different neighborhoods, and we do work in all kinds of different neighborhoods, too. People take part in Big Sunday projects through schools, faith groups, businesses, clubs, families, and as individuals. Whoever you are, whatever you do, we can use your help.
You see, at Big Sunday, we feel there’s lots of work to be done – but we get so much more accomplished, and have so much more fun when we do it all together.
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