CONNECT LA WINS HONOR.Byline: SUSAN ABRAM Staff Writer They'd connected as volunteers, working in the nonprofit A corporation or an association that conducts business for the benefit of the general public without shareholders and without a profit motive. Nonprofits are also called not-for-profit corporations. Nonprofit corporations are created according to state law. world before becoming friends. For Ellen Linsley and Marjorie Matsushita, the next, natural step was to connect all of Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. . "We did it because we saw a need in the community to connect L.A.-based organizations in the area," said Linsley. "We saw that resources and information were out there, but it wasn't being shared." In 1996, Linsley and Matsushita formed Connect LA, an umbrella organization
An umbrella organization is an association of (often related, industry-specific) institutions, who work together formally to coordinate activities or that brings together various agencies and departments throughout Los Angeles County, all with the goal of bettering their communities. "It's a collaborative organization that has grown from a few people to 1,000 affiliates," Linsley said. "We bring leaders together to try to develop grass-roots solutions to basic problems." Through Connect LA, for instance, 3,000 teenagers came together last October as part of Teenagers Make a Difference Day. Teens from various community centers and programs cleaned up parks, spruced up neighborhoods and fed the homeless. For its efforts in connecting those teens to Make A Difference Day, Connect LA is being honored today by USA Weekend USA WEEKEND Magazine is a national publication distributed through more than 600 newspapers in the United States. It reaches 49 million [1] readers in 23 million households [2] every weekend. , which is carried by the Daily News every Sunday. Known as the nation's largest day of service, USA Weekend's Make A Difference Day is held the fourth Saturday of each October, with more than 3 million volunteers participating. Aided by Connect LA, a group of teens was teamed up with the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks to aid the city's homeless population. "The Parks Department played a huge part, because we had so many sites we could go to," said Francisca Castillo, recreation coordinator for the Exposition Park Exposition Park is the name of more than one place:
adj. Being or occurring between generations: "These social-insurance programs are intergenerational and all Community Center. "My team cooked a full-course meal, and we went to the Downtown Women's Center and ate with the women there." Fourteen-year-old Lashanaye James, who participates in activities at the Exposition Park center, said she found volunteerism vol·un·teer·ism n. Use of or reliance on volunteers, especially to perform social or educational work in communities. volunteerism extremely rewarding. "Volunteering teaches you responsibility, which is good because you need to know that to go into the real world," she said. "When we were (at the Downtown Women's Center), I felt so good. We were part of a national movement, and many people don't think that teens want to volunteer." Lashanaye's team received a cash award and an overall teen project prize from USA Weekend. "It gave the teens a sense of awareness and empowerment that they can actually make a difference in people's lives, and what they say and do does not go unnoticed," Castillo said. "It was a very powerful activity for the teens. Some of them teared up." Teens will meet again in May to discuss other ways they would like to help the city. Homelessness, anti-drug campaigns, graffiti graffiti Form of visual communication, usually illegal, involving the unauthorized marking of public space by an individual or group. Technically the term applies to designs scratched through a layer of paint or plaster, but its meaning has been extended to other markings. cleanup and recycling recycling, the process of recovering and reusing waste products—from household use, manufacturing, agriculture, and business—and thereby reducing their burden on the environment. seem to top the list of ways they would like to contribute, Linsley said. susan.abram(at)dailynews.com (818) 713-3664 CAPTION(S): 2 photos Photo: (1) Teens from Montecito Heights Recreation Center hosted a pumpkin pumpkin, common name for the genus Cucurbita of the family Cucurbitaceae (gourd family), a group that includes the pumpkins and squashes—the names may be used interchangeably and without botanical distinction. C. patch to raise money for children with cancer at City of Hope as part of Teenagers Make a Difference Day. (2) Connect LA is among the volunteer agencies being honored by USA Weekend, in today's newspaper, for its efforts on Make a Difference Day. 
Hello this is Lashanaye. I appericate the article that was done on me. I thnk that more teens should be involved with volunteerism. Thank you Ms Linsley.<br> Sincerely LaShanaye James |
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