Received a grant for rent/occupancy/utilities, fitness instructor salaries, program staffing and home studio tech including lights, Zoom and cameras for remote classes.  The funds will help F4TC to serve 750 individuals in 2021 free of charge through weekly fitness classes.  Fit 4 The Cause provides diverse exercise and nutrition education programs for low-income communities, many of them with special needs.  They serve thousands of beneficiaries including vulnerable children, at-risk teens and fragile seniors in Ventura, Simi Valley, Conejo Valley and the San Fernando Valley.  They continued to keep their communities together during the pandemic, offering virtual classes daily.  They hope to transition back to on-site classes as the pandemic lessens.

Click here to learn about more 2021 recipients.

A 2021 study published in the National Library of Medicine, revealed that parents underestimate the impact of cancer on their children is both hard to imagine and easy to understand. When you’re burdened with keeping yourself or your children’s parent alive, keeping food on the table and raising children, it’s an impossible task. That’s where we step in. We assess the unique needs of each family and the impacts of cancer and respond accordingly. We stop at nothing to lessen the burden of cancer. You will never walk alone when you Walk With Sally.

Click here to learn more about Walk with Sally. 

Learn more about what UCLA Watts Leadership Institute is all about and what they are accomplishing. 

“Jorja Leap and Karrah Lompa, co-founders of the Watts Leadership Institute (WLI), spoke with us about WLI and its unique collaborative, leader-led training model. They launched WLI in 2016 to support small nonprofits and real community leaders in Watts, a historically under-resourced community in South Los Angeles. Most of the participating nonprofits are small—the kind that work out of the back of their car or the public library—but the difference they’re making every day in their community is tremendous.

Even though Leap and Lompa are honorary residents in Watts, with Leap working for more than 40 years in Watts, they insist on being invisible outside of the community. They want attention to be placed on the true community leaders and their efforts, and not on them as WLI co-founders. “We want to be invisible support, to help from behind. We want this to grow and to always be in Watts, owned by Watts,” Lompa said.

Our conversation with Jorja Leap and Karrah Lompa has been edited and condensed for clarity. “

Click here to read the full article. 

“Poetry is not only dream and vision; it is the skeleton architecture of our lives. It lays the foundation for a future of change, a bridge across our fears of what has never been before.” -Audre Lorde

In 1995, Street Poets founder Chris Henrikson began teaching a poetry workshop in an L.A. County Juvenile Probation Camp as a volunteer through the Writers Guild of America. In 1997, he and the alumni of that workshop, known collectively as Street Poets, joined forces with the NYC-based DreamYard Project to form DreamYard/LA. Street Poets worked under that fiscal umbrella from 1997 to 2005 when they made the decision to reclaim their original name and become Street Poets Inc., an independent CA non-profit corporation 501(c)3.

Click here to learn about more 2021 recipients.

“Kinoshita Elementary Principal Jackie Campbell gets chills when she sees how much her fourth and fifth graders enjoy reading after school with their volunteer tutors — especially when one considers their age differences.

Selected Kinoshita Elementary School students are reading virtually with senior citizen volunteers twice weekly, Campbell says, in a program sponsored by the Parentis Foundation.”

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The Friendship Foundation supports parents and families who have children and young adults with special needs by providing a safe, accepting and inclusive environment where they can enjoy sports, art, music and many other social programs with their peers. Our friendly staff and helpful volunteers create a fun experience for all. It is our belief that every person is precious and capable of love, connection and friendship.

Programs are targeted to specific age groups while some encompass a broad gathering of all ages including parents.At each program, children with special needs are paired with student volunteers for an event full of fun peer interaction. The Friendship Foundation serves to augment our local educational systems and professional therapies by creating a natural setting for individuals with special needs to practice their learned skills amongst their peers.