Changing Lives...

I toured Chrysalis in downtown LA yesterday. As I was waiting for my appointment inside Chrysalis- I was approached by two different individuals as they recognized me from Love LA.
Chrysalis is "dedicated to creating a pathway to self-sufficiency for homeless and low-income individuals by providing the resources and support needed to find and retain employment".

Hope that we could connect the community we reach with this wonderful resource.

LA Times | Not All Welcome Skid Row Charity

Interesting article to pass along.

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Authorities are wary of groups that hand out food and clothing, claiming they may leave a mess behind or fuel drug sales.



By Alexandra Zavis
Los Angeles Times

September 12, 2010

Los Angeles police officer Deon Joseph followed a trail of discarded paper plates and half-eaten macaroni down 6th Street and around the corner into San Pedro Street.

There he found his targets: members of a church group, heads bowed in prayer after serving lunch to a long line of homeless people.

Dozens of groups from across the Southland converge on downtown Los Angeles every week to hand out food and clothing in skid row, which has been called the homeless capital of the nation.

Most draw a crowd, but not everyone is happy to see them. Residents and business owners complain about the trash they leave behind. City officials question the wisdom and safety of street distributions in an area with numerous organizations that help the homeless.

"These folks don't know what happens when they leave," said Joseph, who as senior lead officer is a liaison to the community. "We've had people get stabbed after fighting over clothes. We've had people get sick after eating their food. It's just dangerous and irresponsible."

Read the full article here:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-homeless-feeding-20100912,0,3516010.story

Joe

Something peculiar happened to me today.

This morning as I was about to head to my car with my wife, we saw a guy with a shopping cart. He was in his late 40s with tats on his face. Perhaps to some, the way he looked was menacing. But as I made eye contact, I was drawn to one particular tat above his eyebrow that had the words "f*ck it". He was rummaging through our trash can for recyclable bottles and cans.
Today was trash day for our neighborhood so we had our trash cans out in the street.



He looked up surprised as we caught him looking through our trash can, but then his face suddenly changed as he saw me as though he saw a good friend.

The convo then went something like this...

"Hey, you're the guy that's part of that nic-nac church in downtown..."

"Yea, Love LA..."

"Yea! Love LA! I remember that message you gave awhile back- 'the power of the sun' and 'the world's strongest man'..."

"Cool!"

"I'll be there this Sunday!"

"Great! By the way, what's your name?"

"Joe."

"See you this Sunday, Joe!"

As we got into the car, my wife told me that we ought to give our recycle goods to him. We usually collected our recycled bottles and cans to later collect extra pocket money to buy a little treat for ourselves at the local grocery. We decided to give it to Joe so I ran back into the house, and caught up with Joe as he strolled down the street with his cart. I then handed the goods to him, he returned it with a big smile of gratitude.

I began to wonder what he did with the money that he collected from the recycled goods. Whether he used it for something that may be harmful to him. That I may be contributing to that harm. But then I thought again, what he was attempting to do was worthwhile. At least he was making some effort to earn some extra money even if it meant digging around for it in other peoples trash cans along the street.

I hope to see Joe at Love LA this Sunday. It reminded me of this one thing: we don't have to wait to go to Love LA, but that Love LA can and should come to us in our own everyday.

Project 50

LA Times is currently doing a four part series on taking a closer look at Project 50. Common Ground in NYC paved the way with this program to reach the most vulnerable, and LA has adapted its model a few years ago in hopes to bring solution to the homelessness in LA.

Project 50: Homes for the hardest of the hard-core homeless in Los Angeles - latimes.com

Lost Angels

Been awhile since we've posted an entry.
A lot has happened since then, and we hope to share some of that as we bring back this blog.
I had the opportunity to watch this film at the LA Film Festival a few weeks back.
The film was a result of another film- "The Soloist" featuring the life of Nathan Ayers and LA Times writer Steve Lopez. "Lost Angels" captures the real life world of some of the folks who live in the skid row community. Its quite a moving film.
What made it even more moving was some of the film 'stars' were present for the screening along with its director.

Here's the trailer for that film:

"In-betweets"

Its been awhile since we've posted up an entry, but its become more about "tweeting" than "blogging". Especially this particular season. Hope to blog soon, but 'in-betweets'...follow us on twitter.

More Than Just A Game part 2

by Ryan Vaillancourt
Published: Friday, October 16, 2009 4:30 PM PDT
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - Second of a Three-Part Series. Read Part I here.

They stand hand-in-hand, heads bowed, eyes closed, in a circle at the center of the mint-green basketball court in Gladys Park. They are here to play ball. But first, a prayer.

“Dear Lord, thank you for this day, for this game,” says Sunshine, a 24-year-old cherry blonde and a recovering crack addict. She wears jeans, and a thin purple dress drapes over her swollen belly. She’s seven months pregnant.

“Thank you, Lord, for bringing us together,” she continues, her voice quieting to a whisper. “We need you.”

As Sunshine speaks, life in this normally busy park in the heart of Skid Row is suspended. The old men and women playing dominoes pause to respect the ritual. A stereo pounding rap music dies. Even a few children ambling around seem to recognize something serious is happening, and they stop too.

The prayer circle is made up of about 35 people, mostly men. Among them is Sunshine’s man, who goes by the name of Quik. Their almost 2-year-old son, Boogie, unaware of the little brother on the way, waddles around the court. He stops at Quik’s feet and tugs impatiently at his sagging mesh shorts. Boogie doesn’t know that Quik is not his biological father. Nor do many of Quik’s friends on the court. It doesn’t matter. Quik has raised him as a son. When Boogie looks up at Quik, he smiles and says “Papa.”

Read the full article here.