With your help, nonprofits are still fulfilling needs
Wilmington: A Needy Wilmington
https://tinyurl.com/A-Needy-Wilmington
A Needy Wilmington is a small growing niche nonprofit, non-governmental agency put together by two co-founders from Wilmington, Tony A. Fernandez and Catherine Rodriguez, to address a need to fulfill and assist those “who can’t get out of their status quo.”
Mission
A Needy Wilmington. What does it mean?
On its website, you will see this query to the organization’s curious name.
Its response: “A one designated, especially as the first in order or class.
Needy being in want, marked by want of affection, attention, or emotional support.
Wilmington in a geographical area.”
A Needy Wilmington serves the Wilmington community and its adjacent neighborhoods both “near and far.” It seeks support, whether word of mouth, social media, monetary, tangible donation or in donating services or time to its grass-roots crusade to address and bring awareness to those living below the poverty line.
A Needy Wilmington’s message is that your support is essential to address those living below the poverty line. A need for simple, essential, everyday items: food, clothing, toiletries, school uniforms, a cheer uniform for a student’s extracurricular activity, or sending them to a cooking or wrestling competition. Through support, the nonprofit also provides tickets, formal wear and accessories so students can attend prom, pay senior dues, purchase cap and gowns and sashes so they may participate and attend their graduation. The nonprofit has also bought recent graduates a laptop or printer so they may continue their studies in college. This work includes buying families groceries for the month, assisting with utilities to avoid shut off, special need items and much more.
Programs
In May 2023, A Needy Wilmington achieved its Prom Pilot goal in assisting seniors at Banning High School. It took in monetary donations for both regular and special education students’ prom tickets and/or accessories.
A Needy Wilmington’s position is that helping others improves the lives of both the giver and the person in need, their self esteem and sense of purpose.
“People who volunteer their time, donate to a cause they care about, or aid someone in need of assistance, have higher self-esteem and overall well being.” — A Needy Wilmington
To help others and improve your own life, A Needy Wilmington invites you to join its crusade. It works in creative, “out of the box put into action ways.” It is always searching for and nurturing collaborators to bring awareness that there are many in its community that need a hand up, not a handout.
The organization explains, “A Needy Wilmington is not a name to degrade, label a person or where they live but to address an importance of a situation that isn’t obvious at the first glance.”
How to Help
A Needy Wilmington encourages people to adopt “pilot families” by Dec. 15. Many people’s needs will not be met this holiday season, such as extra food for students’ school break week at home. The nonprofit is accepting monetary donations for families that don’t get adopted. To fund this event you can donate a food box or make a monetary donation to “Operation Pilot Wheel.”
Additionally, A Needy Wilmington has adopted Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs, also known as the Global Goals, which the United Nations adopted in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity.
Population served
Adults; economically disadvantaged people. Monetary donations will go for regular and special education students.
Lomita: Kenneth Walker Dance Project
https://kennethwalkerdanceproject.org
Mission
Kenneth Walker Dance Project or KWDP is a contemporary ballet company dedicated to the expression of the modern condition through the lens of classical vocabulary.
To achieve its mission the company:
Provides a breadth of dance experience; creates original dance works; engages with the audience through the work and dance literacy; and builds upon the ballet tradition to create a more expansive form of expression.
The vision of KWDP is to contribute to the dance landscape of its community and to broaden the audience by routinely performing in underserved communities and by making tickets accessible.
KWDP brings the artist and audience to experience the poetics of the human condition. Inherent in this vision are several tensions: taking artistic risks without leaving its audience behind, managing financial stability while allowing for artistic experimentation, being sensitive to the community while recognizing that ballet is not a mass art form.
Cultural equity: KWDP believes that ballet belongs to everyone.
Classical ballet is rooted in the differences between male and female bodies, in a hierarchical structure for performers, and was birthed through a system that valued the singular vision and demands of a choreographer or artistic director. KWDP recognizes the history of this artform, but as a contemporary ballet company serving the South Bay, it seeks to redefine the relationships between all who are part of KWDP.
KWDP provides opportunities for diverse artists to practice their craft. With the roots of ballet in Europe and Russia, the company seeks to add diversity to that legacy in order to serve the audience and artists of its community. KWDP asserts it is the most diverse body-type contemporary ballet company; it takes the position that artistry is expressed through talent, effort and commitment, not body-type.
Long Beach: Long Beach Forward
Long Beach Forward is an independent nonprofit organization, rooted in more than a decade of community organizing. It tackles institutional issues of racial and income inequities, in partnership with Long Beach residents and coalition partners.
Mission
To create a healthy Long Beach with low-income communities of color by building community knowledge, leadership and power.
Programs
Best Start Central Long Beach: An initiative of First 5 LA, Best Start Central Long Beach brings together parents, community organizations, institutions and others to improve local policies and resources to better support parents and create a community for children and families. Best Start also provides the skills-building and leadership training to help the group achieve its goals and ensure that children are safe, healthy and ready to learn.
Long Beach Forward is engaged in numerous collaboratives and initiatives that support its mission. It also facilitates developing community knowledge, leadership and power to ensure race and income no longer determine one’s future in Long Beach.
Campaigns
Defend Black History School Board Training: Join in participating in a family/community training by Color Of Change, in partnership with the National Education Association. Gather to watch a national Zoom presentation together, in-person, at Long Beach Forward.
Time: 4 to 6 p.m., Dec. 5
Details: https://tinyurl.com/Defend-Black-History
Venue: Long Beach Forward, 425 Atlantic Ave., Long Beach
Anti-Surveillance Coalition: a coalition of Long Beach residents & organizations fighting to see a surveillance-free Long Beach, where we are free to live, love, and express ourselves without the danger of incarceration or deportation.
Healthy Long Beach: Help to fight the spread of COVID-19 and build community knowledge with these resources.
The People’s Budget Long Beach: the campaign conversations and action for equity and justice in the Long Beach city budget.
Population(s) Served
Children and youth
Caregivers
Parents
Carson: Changing Ourselves Actively & Productively
https://www.coap-resources.org
Mission
The nonprofit is committed to the awareness of and support for mental health, acknowledging the effects of mental illness within families, and providing skills, resources and support for mental wellbeing.
Programs
The approach of Changing Ourselves Actively & Productively is to build strategic networks and promote programs that will help advance its work.
Support Group: Small group sessions to manage stressors in order to remain employed and employable.
Other programs include; Peer Support Mental Health Groups; Promoting Wellness; Future Ready Job Training; Peer Support Mental Health Groups; Getting (back) to Work; Housing Assistance Program; Doing What’s Needed.
Population(s) Served
Family relationships
Social and economic status
Age groups, ethnic and racial groups, health