New Long Term Project "All About Me" - Starts June 10 for six sessions (twice a month)

"All About Me" is a 6-session project geared toward pre-teen/teenage girls (junior high school/high school). The project combines, journalism, collages, photographs and drawing all into one.

Teen Girls at LA Family Housing's Sydney M Irmas Transitional Living Center, will be participating in the project. The girls living at the center will work with volunteers to create a book about themselves and illustrate it through various forms of media.

The purpose of the project is to help girls define who they are today and who they want to be in the future. The book will encourage them to reflect on how they came to be the person they are today and inspire them to become the person they want to be. The goal is to get the participants thinking about how they define themselves simplistically (i.e. favorite color) and holistically (i.e. fondest memory, what do you want to be when you grow up) and be able to illustrate that through various media.

The project schedule will look something like this:
June 10 – Introduction, orientation, and documentation of thoughts (Questions for the “All About Me” book will be provided at 1st meeting)
June 24 – Create collages (magazines and construction paper will be provided)
July 8 – Introduction to photography (disposable cameras will be provided – one camera for 2 people)
July 22 – Drawing (girls turn in cameras for photo processing)
Aug 5 - Put it all together (printed photos returned to girls)
Aug 19 - Sharing and Reflection

To provide a mentoring relationship to the girls as they work through this project, we are urging volunteers to sign up for all six sessions. Please sign up for each occurrence separately by going to each date on the website. They project takes place on Saturday afternoons from 2-3:30 every two weeks.

The LA Family Housing, Sydney M. Irma Transitional Living Center strives to provide a safe, caring, and service-rich environment that helps homeless families and individuals rebuild their lives. The agency has 20 facilities serving over 7,300 people annually in eight different regions of Los Angeles.

Volunteers must be at least 18 years of age.

Click here to sign up today. Please try to sign up for all six sessions!

Hot Project of the Week - Painting at Challengers Boys and Girls Club, Saturday, April 22

L.A. Works Day 2006, is on June 3rd! Here's a great opportunity to help with L.A.'s most exciting day of corporate & community service. Join the L.A. Works staff and the Chairs of the Projects Committee for a "run through" project where we will begin to make the magic happen.

On L.A. Works Day, we will be painting the fence around the Challengers Boys and Girls Club to give them a fresh new look. We need your help priming the fench in preparation for the painting! Without your help, this great facelift for the Club will not be possible!

Click here to sign up for this fun, hands-on, project.

Double the Fun with Two New Projects

Saturday mornings we've got two new fun projects available for sign-up on our website. Help us make these two new ones a success by signing up today! Choose which way you want to have fun -- with kids... or nuns!

FUN WITH NUNS
Villa Community - Sisters of Social Service
ENCINO
4th Saturday of each month – 10 am - noon
April 29, May 27, June 24,

If you a magician, love to do tricks, can sing, dance, puppeteer or have special talents, you are exactly what we are looking for. No glue, scissors or paper crafts allowed!!

Come out and have “Fun with Nuns”. Enjoy singing, bingo, card games, music and much more with women of wisdom. They are all retired professionals, bright and full of life. Come out to celebrate, laugh and enjoy an atmosphere with your not so typical senior group of women from the ages of 83-97.

We will create an interactive, entertaining, uplifting, energetic environment. So bring your energy, love for seniors and let's have a fun-filled afternoon with the “fun nuns“.

Click here to Sign up

FUN ARTS & CRAFTS PLUS NUTRITIONAL SNACKS WITH CHILDREN!
CENTER FOR LIFELONG LEARNERS
DOWNTOWN/CENTRAL
9-11 am
4th Saturday of every month.
Upcoming Dates: April 22, May 27

Hello! Hello! These children from Center for Lifelong Learners are all ready to have you come join them on some neat art and craft activities! These art and craft projects are easy, simple, and fun!! Art projects may include lantern-making, paper plate finger puppets, pinwheel, handprint rainbow, origami and much more. In addition to these creative projects, half an hour will be focusing on nutrition! Within a short half hour, you will be assisting these children on how to fix good, nutritional snacks! These two fun-filled hours will definitely go by quickly! The Center for Lifelong Learners’ mission is to provide individuals of all ages the learning tools to achieve their highest potential at home, in school or as proactive community members. Make a difference to a child’s life today! The age group of these children is 8 to 15 years old. Come join us!

Click here to sign up.

15th Birthday of L.A. Works!

A Letter from Ann Burroughs
L.A. Works Executive Director

Dear Friends,

This year marks the 15th birthday of L.A. Works! We’ve been mobilizing L.A.’s volunteer power since 1991! Happy birthday, L.A. Works!

As we move into this special year of service inspired by the 20th anniversary of the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday, and in honor of the life of Mrs. Coretta Scott King, we are reminded that our capacity as individuals and as a nation to be great lies in our willingness to serve others.

L.A. Works is predicated on the fact that engaged citizens such as those galvanized by the hurricanes in the Gulf region, or those who volunteer each week at their local shelter or food bank, are the cornerstone of a vibrant democracy, and that effective volunteer action is a path to broader and deeper civic involvement.

By any measure, we have come a long way. L.A. Works is now our city’s action tank for community and corporate service. We are the “home-base” for over 10,000 volunteers and almost 100 corporate volunteer programs. We are the hub for programs that impact the most pressing social issues in Los Angeles, and a network of service to almost 600 community organizations impact. Our volunteers have refurbished over 300 schools, day-care centers, playgrounds and parks, and our murals have brightened street corners and schools across the city. We have more project leaders than ever before, and our monthly calendar of volunteer projects has reached a record high of 125.

And it is you, our volunteers who we must thank for this. Through your dedicated commitment to service, you have re-imagined volunteerism and energized a new generation of volunteer activist and created a new movement for social change in our city.

But there is a lot more to do – and an ever clearer mandate that we must do it!

Please click here to read about some of the programs and plans we have in place to scale up our potential and to forge a new community and corporate compact for our city.

We will need your help to do this – your volunteer hours as well as your financial support!

We have now launching a 15th Anniversary Campaign to raise $45,000 on-line – $3,000 for every year we’ve been in existence. We are asking you to ask your friends to support your commitment to volunteering and service,.

We now have the tools that will allow you to create your own personal fundraising webpage and tell your friends, family and colleagues the impact volunteering with L.A. Works has had on your life. We know you've been working with L.A. Works to change this city for the better - now help us to help you - by creating even more opportunities to volunteer in the coming year.

Creating this page is fun, easy, and personal. Read more about how to get started at our site at firstgiving.com/laworks. Thanks for your support!

L.A. Works Day Registration Now Open!

Give a Day to LA!
June 3, 2006

Be a part of the largest and most exhilarating day of corporate and community service Los Angeles has ever seen. Register yourself, join an existing team, or create your own team of family, friends, or co-workers.

L.A. Works Day 2006 will send forth a throng of helping hands across this city to renew, refurbish, and restore! With paint brushes, hammers, and garden rakes held high, our volunteers will spread a rainbow of support to area schools, after school programs, and historic landmarks - touching children of all ages, patients in hospice care, & victims of disaster. For full details and to sign up, click here. Don't miss it!