Pictured is Manuel J. Lamm. Caulder Lamm Alliance was created in memory of Manuel (aka "Leaf" to his friends) and also to help children and teens in need. Caulder Lamm provides an annual scholarship in Manuel's name which assists high school graduates pursuing the arts.
As the end of 2023 approaches, Random Lengths News looks once again at organizations which are largely doing the work of social service in America, nonprofits.
Amy Fass is the author of The Business of Non Profit-Ing: My Why, the Journey and Perspective on Non Profiting. Fass submits, as a nation, we have removed government from many “social service” areas, replacing many safety-net service agencies with entities in the private sector. Some of these organizations are for-profit but, Fass said, many more are nonprofit.
The United States is home to about 1.8 million nonprofits and 1.5 million 501(c)(3) organizations. These organizations employ about 11.9 million people, making them the third-largest employment industry in the country with revenue that accounts for about 6% of the country’s gross domestic product or GDP. A significant part of the U.S. economy, nonprofits play a large and crucial role in American society, and on a smaller but important scale, within communities. Tax Exempt World, a database of nonprofit organizations, reports there are about 540 nonprofits in San Pedro. However, nonprofits are facing trouble in 2023.
President and CEO of NCN, Tim Delaney, said the workforce shortages that continue to weaken nonprofits create consequences that harm people in local communities throughout the country.
“It’s basic economics: when the costs for a nonprofit to meet the public’s increasing needs for services are greater than a nonprofit’s revenues, because governments hiring nonprofits to deliver services won’t pay the full costs that nonprofits incur and government policies undercut charitable contributions, which have been plummeting, then nonprofits simply can’t keep up … Policymakers need to pay attention and improve policies before nonprofits collapse.”
The Tax Cuts & Jobs Act, signed into law in 2017, included numerous provisions that affect the work of nonprofits and the people and communities they serve, harming these organizations’ ability to address needs in communities and advance their missions.
In August, the National Council for Nonprofits or NCN, a resource and advocate for America’s charitable nonprofits, released a report detailing ongoing challenges nonprofits face in hiring and retaining staff to serve their communities.If you are considering organizations to donate to as 2023 ends, RLN has compiled a list of nonprofits in the Harbor area which you may find worthy of your charity.
San Pedro: Caulder Lamm Alliance For Children Inc.
aka CLA, San Pedro, www.CLAforChildren.org
The mission of Caulder Lamm Alliance for Children is to provide assistance to children and teens from impoverished families in the United States and worldwide. Assistance may include clothing, nourishing meals, school supplies, sports related activities, higher learning scholarships for the arts, and other emergency needs.
Caulder Lamm Alliance for Children was created in memory of Mary Gimenez-Caulder’s son Manuel Lamm who died in a hiking accident. Manuel was a student who planned to teach literature and art until his passing. He was also a poet and an artist.
Programs
Manuel Jackson Lamm Scholarship for the Arts Award
Annually, CLA provides this award to one or more graduating high school students pursuing higher learning in the arts.
Beyond Bounds
This program provides funds to children in grades K–12 who are interested in or who already participate in an extra-curricular activity and whose families have financial difficulty paying the fees or costs associated with the activity.
Mission Fund
Helping children and youth locally and worldwide, CLA assists children in need with books, school supplies and other emergency needs. Locally, it also conducts food drives and provides grocery gift cards to assist parents that are unable to afford the basics such as a nutritious meal to feed their children.
Caulder Lamm Alliance also provides free lessons in the arts, dance, photography, singing, theater and recently, karate, at the children’s request, to youth who reside in local homeless and domestic violence shelters, as well as children in need in the community. CLA also had yoga lessons with a licensed yoga instructor and a fire safety lesson with an L.A. Fire department inspector.
Extra-Curricular activities include, but are not limited to:
Art; dance; theater, poetry; literature; cheerleading; gymnastics; Martial Arts; academic tutoring; sports related activities; after school clubs
About her nonprofit, Mary Gimenez-Caulder said via email, “I could share countless stories of children who were withdrawn and through our lessons become joyful and laugh again, but I will only share one story with you:
“At one of our singing lessons, an eleven-year-old girl, who came from a domestic violence situation, was very shy and withdrawn. She would not speak and when she did, she whispered in your ear. As our singing lessons progressed she became more open and started to speak up. At one point, she came to me and asked if she could sing a solo which she did in all her glory. She was no longer shy and withdrawn which is a true testament to the success of the program.”
Population(s) Served
Adolescents
Wilmington: Harbor Area Gang Alternatives
aka Gang Alternatives Program or GAP, Los Angeles, www.gangfree.org
GAP’s vision is to prevent youth from joining gangs, and to eliminate a base of gang membership by having a generation of young people say “no” to gangs, and “yes” to positive lifestyle choices.
Programs
My Gangfree Life® Program for 2nd, 4th and 6th Graders
GAP’s gang prevention program, a State of California Principles of Learning approved gang prevention program, is targeted to 2nd, 4th and 6th grade students. The program is based on the City of Paramount’s Gang Resistance or G.R.I.P model. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile and Delinquency Prevention, the program model is touted as a “Best Practices” program, which is a nationwide comprehensive gang strategy to address community gang problems.
Programs include: Parent Project®, Loving Solutions® and Teen Education Programs;
Graffiti Abatement & Community Beautification Programs; STEP UP! After School Program; Summer Youth Employment Program or SYEP.
The program’s objectives are to serve students, who pledge to be gangfree and graduate in a commencement ceremony at the culmination of an eight-week program. The program also identifies students’ current knowledge of gangs and gang violence before and after the program through pre and post surveys. The program measures its success through teacher evaluations at the end of the program, through a follow up survey.
“There is no silver bullet, gang prevention is an ongoing process, which requires a generational commitment. It is the only approach that attempts to pre-empt the negative behaviors associated with gang culture.” — Harbor Area Gang Alternatives
Population(s) Served
Children and youth
Families
Carson: Just Jazz Foundation
It’s Just Jazz aka Just Jazz, https://www.justjazz.tv
The mission of the Just Jazz Foundation is to present live jazz music and to educate people about this Black American music, called jazz, and to support the artists and musicians who make it. The public’s support helps the nonprofit present live jazz music and educational opportunities for aspiring young musicians.
Executive director, Frederick Francis Smith J.r: five-time Emmy winner with 45 years television, music, sports and entertainment business experience. Co-founder, LeRoy Downs: 30 year jazz radio and television host, producer and on air personality.
Programs
Just Jazz Music Academy is a partnership with Sound Dhaba and Art Bug Gallery. It is a performance gallery located in downtown, the Los Angeles art district created specifically as a safe space for young musicians from across Los Angeles to perform with their peers and to learn from the pros with masterclasses.
Population(s) Served
Ethnic and racial groups; women and girls; heterosexuals; LGBTQ people; men and boys
Long Beach: Mental Health America of Los Angeles
Mental Health America of Los Angeles or MHALA is among the largest and most comprehensive nonprofit mental health agencies in Los Angeles County. MHALA works to ensure that people with mental health needs achieve meaningful, healthy lives in their communities.
Programs
MHALA has been a pioneer in mental health service advocacy, innovation, and training for nearly a century. Last year it was able to help more people than ever and provided integrated services to nearly 16,000 individuals with mental health needs and limited financial resources.
Integrated services include:
• Mental and medical healthcare; employment; homeless outreach; housing
• Education and financial programs; linkages to substance abuse services; wellness, resilience, and life skills programs; veterans and transition-age youth services
Population(s) served:
People with psychosocial disabilities; at-risk youth; economically disadvantaged people; veterans; unemployed people.
About MHALA, Leslie Bloom, JD vice president of communications said:
“The population of people served by Mental Health America of Los Angeles has increased by 50% in the past several years. MHALA provides full wraparound services that meet people where they’re at in their recovery because it’s not just the mental health component that needs to be addressed. Many of the individuals we serve also struggle with issues relating to physical health, employment, and housing, so it’s important to take a full-picture view of what an individual is struggling with. In the future, we hope that this becomes the norm when providing mental health service.”
People MHALA has assisted:
Troy spent two decades of his life battling severe depression. At some points, his depression left him unable to leave his house for months.
“I suffered in silence until I came to a point where I sought help,” Troy said.
Troy sought that help through MHALA six years ago. During that time, he’s been connected to housing and mental health services through MHALA’s housing and wellness programs.
“How to not suffer in silence is one of the greatest gifts because it gives you the opportunity to start the process of healing,” said Troy. “That’s what we all need when we’re suffering with mental health issues — a chance to heal.”
For Troy, healing often comes in the form of writing. Writing poetry, short stories and books is what helped Troy regain control of his thoughts.
“Writing was the key for me taking back my mental health,” Troy said. “I put anything in my mind down on paper and that gives me the power, the confidence to strive for a better, healthier me.”
MHALA has advocated for systems changes for decades and has provided training to thousands of individuals locally, nationally, and internationally. It provides services at multiple sites in Los Angeles County, including Long Beach, the Antelope Valley and the Santa Clarita Valley.
Long Beach: Foodbank of Southern California
The Good Provider aka The Foodbank, https://www.foodbankofsocal.org
The Foodbank’s mission is to provide basic sustenance and proper nutrition to the community’s hungry citizens and to ensure that no individual goes hungry, not even for a single day. As long as there are hungry children, families and seniors in the community, The Foodbank of Southern California intends to be a major force in the fight against hunger.
Programs and Results
What The Foodbank aims to solve
One in four people in Los Angeles County are food-insecure, and many are literally unsure where their next meal is coming from. Even before COVID-19, Los Angeles County had the highest number of food-insecure people in the nation. The Foodbank is committed to creating access to healthy food choices in the poorest areas of Los Angeles County, where working poor families, the indigent and low-income individuals and families experience high levels of food insecurity.
Programs
Humanitarian Food Distribution Program
Key programs include:
Emergency food assistance: provides highly nutritious USDA commodities to supplement the diets of food-insecure children, adults, families and seniors.
Supplemental food assistance: offers donated and purchased food assistance beyond USDA commodities — with a focus on fresh produce and other perishable items — to hundreds of charitable organizations to assure that dietary needs are met.
Brown bag network for seniors: provides free nutritious food bi-weekly to low-income seniors at volunteer-staffed distribution sites, and weekly to homebound/shut-in seniors.
Mobile food pantries: distributes food, with a focus on fresh produce, to food-insecure individuals in the most underserved neighborhoods of Los Angeles County.
Population(s) Served
Economically disadvantaged people
Unemployed people
Carson: GA United Services
The mission of GA United Services is to lessen hunger in Los Angeles County by soliciting, collecting and packaging food for distribution through a network of agencies and programs, as well as offer opportunities for self sufficiency. GA United Services will improve the health and well being of residents in need by providing access to food, nutrition education and related resources.
as their mentors by bridging wisdom and experience with responsibility and accountability to their mentees.
Population/s Served
Families in need, Seniors, Homeless and Economically disadvantaged people
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