L.A. Works Expands
Volunteer Opportunities
 L.A. Works is expanding its calendar of volunteer opportunities each month to make it even easier for volunteers to become engaged in the issues that affect Los Angeles.
We're growing the number of managed, L.A. Works projects (led by our volunteer Project Leaders), and adding more referrals to outside agencies (these opportunities are not managed by L.A. Works and are often for longer terms than our traditional "episodic" calendar projects.)
Here's a few of the new projects coming up:
Coastal Cleanup Day - Sept 17
Marina Kayak Cleanup
Be a part of the largest volunteer day on the planet! This year, for the 21st Annual California Coastal Cleanup Day, L.A. Works is teaming up with Santa Monica Baykeepers and Heal the Bay for a marina kayak cleanup in Marina del Rey!
Coastal Cleanup Day (CCD) started in 1985 and has grown into a huge annual event. Every state with a coastline participates, including the Great Lakes states, and even some inland states. The one-day cleanup is international (at last count, over 90 nations participated) and may be the largest volunteer day on the planet.
Heal the Bay and the L.A. County Department of Beaches and Harbors are the coordinators for California's Coastal Cleanup Day. Over 10,000 volunteers join together each year in L.A. County to cleanup over 50 sites along Santa Monica Bay and along inland creeks and waterways.
Breakfast and lunch will be provided and there will also be a FREE raffle with great prizes. SM Baykeepers plan to provide the kayaks for everyone, but feel free to bring your own kayak, row boat, canoe or dingy if you like. The Baykeepers will also supply the gloves, bags and nets.
Since the program started in 1985, over 650,000 Californians have removed more than 10 million pounds of debris from our state's shorelines and coast. In 2004, more than 10,000 volunteers joined together to remove 77,132 pounds of trash from the Los Angeles County's coastal and inland waterways. Please join us in making this year's Coastal Cleanup Day the best ever!
Volunteers for this project must be at least 12 years of age. A parent must accompany pre-teens. Click here to sign-up.
Nothin' But Sand - Beach Cleanups
Starting in October, L.A. Works will offer monthly beach cleanups on the 3rd Saturday of every month working with Heal the Bay. Click here for details.
 Bike Repairing (No Skills Necessary)
Each month Bike Out gathers volunteers to repair, fix, and tune-up donated bikes. No experience is necessary, but experienced mechanics are more than welcome! Here's a chance to help others while learning bike maintenance yourself! Wear grubby clothes. Pizza will be served!
Bike Out's mission is to promote health and foster self-confidence in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth and their straight supporters through mountain bike expeditions. Teenagers have a hard time growing up. LGBT teens have the added pressure of growing up without social approval.
Some LGBT youth are harassed so severely they are forced out of their schools and sometimes their homes. .Bike Out provides a safe place for young people to be themselves.
The bikes repaired by volunteers will help raise funds for Bike Out’s youth programming through the Recyclery.
Volunteers must be at least 14 years of age. Click here to sign up!
Animal Conservation (Apes)
 Come see some of the world's great acrobats -- the loudest land mammals that Mother Nature ever created.
The Gibbon Conservation Center is located in Santa Clarita on 5 acres of land and houses one of the largest groups of gibbons (small apes) outside their countries of origin. All of the gibbons are housed outdoors in semi naturalistic enclosures. For fire reasons it is important that brush be cleared within 100 feet of each of the 17 enclosures. Trees need to be trimmed, and garden furniture and structures need to be painted. Dirt needs to be moved to new locations on the property.
The Gibbon Conservation Center was established to ensure the preservation, propagation and survival of all gibbons in the wild and in captivity. Most of the gibbons at the Center are on the highly endangered list.
Volunteers for this project must be at least 13 years of age. Click here to sign up for the next occurrence on October 9.
Adopt a Highway - Protect a Bay
Santa Monica Baykeeper needs your help with their monthly adopt-a-highway clean-up in Marina Del Rey. Once a month, they pick up trash along Lincoln Blvd to keep it out of the storm drains and out of the Santa Monica Bay.
Come join other volunteers for a few hours of rewarding volunteer work that will have a lasting effect on the health of the bay. Volunteers must be at least 18 years of age.
This project takes place on a Saturday each month from 9 a.m. till noon. Click here to sign up for September 24th.
Community Garden Project (Hollywood)
Located two blocks from Covenant House California, the community garden serves as a work, play and relaxation area for CHC residents, staff, and the neighboring convalescent home. Until now, the Serrano Convalescent Home sat next to a depressed, barren plot of land where its residents sat and spent part of their day. With a lot of hard work, this land is becoming a site for Serrano and CHC to cultivate food, as well as comfort. Volunteers will help us nurture our community garden by helping to assist with planting and landscaping. Make sure to dress to get dirty.
Covenant House California (CHC) is a multi-service non-profit agency offering critically needed programs designed to meet the various and complex needs of runaway and homeless youth. The agency provides outreach, shelter, transitional living and a comprehensive range of support services, including crisis intervention counseling, primary medical care, substance abuse prevention and intervention, job skills development and employment assistance, designed to promote stability and self-sufficiency for the future. Covenant House California has provided service to tens of thousands of homeless youth since it was founded in December 1988.
Volunteers for this project must be at least 13 years of age. This project takes place
on the third Sunday of every month. Click here to sign up for September 18th.
We're looking for personable, fun, creative, sparkling leaders like yourself!
How do we add new Projects to our calendar? By recruiting more Project Leaders! If you've got the desire to take the next step in volunteerism, please attend this informative, fun session on how to join the ranks of our Project Leaders. You'll learn good leadership skills, and find out how easy it is to take a leadership role in our community. Join us at the L.A. Works office near Dodger Stadium on Wednesday evening, Sept 14.
Click here to sign up!
New Session of Let's Read to start
Let's Read is one of L.A. Works' most valuable volunteer programs. Volunteers make a weekly commitment to provide kids with the tools that will enable them to reach their dreams. We work individually and as a group with neighborhood kids to help them with school-related materials as well as to expose them to topics that they may not otherwise be familiar with. This mentoring relationship can change the lives of these kids.
Volunteers for Let's Read commit to come each Saturday morning during the Fall Term from Sept 17 - Nov 19.
Click here to sign up for Pueblo Del Rio. Pueblo Del Rio's Let's Read is located in Southeast Los Angeles. (First time Let's Read volunteers should also sign-up for the Let's Read Orientation for Pueblo Del Rio on Sept 17th from 8 am - 9:45).
Click here to sign up for Mar Vista Gardens. This session of Let's Read takes place in Mar Vista Gardens on the West side of Los Angeles.
Ongoing Volunteer Opportunities
The L.A. Works web site also lists ongoing volunteering opportunities for non-profit agencies that have long-term volunteer needs. These referrals are not L.A. Works managed projects but we think these opportunities may be of interest to our volunteers. The link to the list of ongoing opportunities appears at the bottom of the calendar page on the web site. Click here to see the ongoing opportunities section of the web site.
Want a Million dollars? Go to College!
Join over 13,000 Los Angeles students and their families discover how education can be accessible and affordable. College graduates earn $1 million more over a lifetime, on average, than students with only a high school diploma.
The City of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Community College District, the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, Los Angeles Unified School District, UNITE-LA, Los Angeles Community College District and the Los Angeles City Workforce Investment Board are pleased to be leading this year’s efforts to help Los Angeles families and their children access higher education and career opportunities. The 4th Annual Cash for College: College and Career Convention will be held on Wednesday and Thursday, October 26-27, 2005, at the Los Angeles Convention Center, South Hall. The Convention will be open to the public on both days between 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Admission is free for all. The event will feature colleges and universities throughout California, special speakers, scholarship opportunities, interactive career demonstrations, financial aid information, “Passport to College Knowledge” game, and other information to help today’s high school students understand the importance of college.
Volunteers are needed to serve as greeters, workshop facilitators, and assist with event organization and flow.
For more information or to get involved as a volunteer, click here or visit
www.lacashforcollege.org
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