BusinessWorks: L.A.’s Corporate Action Tank

L.A. Works is now L.A.’s leader in corporate service and volunteering, setting a new trend in corporate philanthropy that focuses on action, innovation and impact.  In 2005, corporate support accounted for almost 75% of our revenue – up from 37% in 2002. 

Corporate participation in L.A. Works Day has grown to the point where it is now the largest day of corporate service in the city. In addition, we already have 16 BusinessWorks projects in the pipeline for 2006, and the year has barely begun. (BusinessWorks projects are custom-designed days of volunteer service for corporate partners.) For more information on our corporate partners, please take a look at our website which is festooned with their logos and follow the “Corporate and Group Opportunities” link.

Our corporate partners share our vision for transforming people and communities through service and civic engagement, and they value the power and potential of hands-on, high-impact volunteerism. They appreciate the real dollar impact of combining volunteer labor with cash and in-kind donations. There is no question that they understand how to maximize the impact of their charitable giving - that a single gift to L.A. Works translates directly into support for over two hundred community organizations and schools each year.  They also recognize that employee service opportunities promote team-building, boost morale, and cultivate leadership, and they see the value of corporate citizenship as a strategy for recruitment and retention.

Corporate Advisory Council

2006 will see the launch of L.A. Works’ first Corporate Advisory Council. The Advisory Council will be spearheaded by notable corporate leaders who will galvanize the corporate community with a new approach to volunteerism and corporate engagement.  and at the same time, enlivening our democracy. The Council will use its collective power as leverage to communicate the difference that corporate Los Angeles is making in the lives of individuals and communities through volunteering. It will also make a distinctive call to action for other companies to join.

The Council has two goals:

• Raising the bar on corporate service by increasing employee volunteerism by 10% in the next 5 years and enlisting the commitment of 20 new companies to service each year.
• Supporting the sustainability and growth of L.A. Works by generating e new funding to seed organizational growth of 15 - 25% each year.
  

YouthWorks: Engaging Youth through Skills Development

Our Youth Leadership Development Program is a new program aimed at equipping 90 at-risk youth each year with the skills to assess the issues they see as most pressing in their community, and how to address and remedy them through leadership, planned service action, teamwork and reflective learning.

Our experience has shown that young people benefit greatly from understanding that ordinary people can make extraordinary social change when they are individually guided and bound together by common values and a common vision. Our program enables them to understand that what unites them is greater than what divides them. They are able to appreciate that the real goals of organizing extend beyond the immediate issues they face, and center rather on building the unity and power of all who seek control over their lives.

DreamSaver is an after-school financial literacy program designed to instill goal setting and financial basics in 8 – 13 year olds. Forty of our project leaders will train 500 – 650 children from across the city this year.  DreamSaver is a program of Ameriquest in partnership with FranklinCovey that will be implemented in four other cities.

Dream Saver offers us many advantages including an innovative model for teaching financial literacy to children and another level of professionalism to add to our services, and a new skill-set to offer our volunteers.

TeamWorks: Generating New Leaders

TeamWorks integrates volunteers from diverse backgrounds and cultures, and fuses volunteer service, community issues education, and teambuilding activities to produce a unique, team-based service learning program. These teams build strong relationships amongst themselves as they learn about community issues and how together they can address the underlying problems of pressing social issues. TeamWorks can be implemented in three different ways:

• Neighborhood teams examine the history and issues of a specific neighborhood and create community action plans to affect change in their neighborhood;
• Issue-focus teams examine a specific social issue in depth, such as homelessness and hunger, by participating in service projects and issues education at several organizations who serve this particular community;
• Organization-focus teams engage a single community organization and examine the related social issues by volunteering on a variety of projects at the organization.
  

California Service Inclusion Initiative

We will focus on recruiting and training individuals with disabilities as volunteers and as projects leaders. We have partnered with the UCLA Tarjan Center for Development Disabilities Education, Research and Services in a state-wide initiative to increase the number of disabled youth, adults and veterans engaged in service. This is part of a three state collaborative funded by the Corporation for National and Community Service.

Commonly, youth with disabilities are perceived as recipients of service, rather than as participants. As they transition from high school to adulthood, they generally lose the services and support provided in an educational setting, making it even more difficult to participate in employment and community activities. This program aims to ensure that community service experiences and skills are an integral part of these transition years.

Similarly for adults, who experience isolation and often lack appropriate job skills, participation in community service will provide the  personal satisfaction of being engaged in service, and may serve as a stepping stone to employment.  Also, adults with disabilities are seldom asked to serve. Veterans with disabilities face similar challenges as do other adults, but this is compounded by a loss of former roles or identities. Volunteering can be a way to develop new job skills and allow veterans to continue to serve their country and become reintegrated into their communities.