Happy Valentine's Day!

“Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.” – Lao Tzu Today, Valentine’s Day, we give our heartfelt thanks to our board and committee members, donors, school partners and volunteers for the kindness you have shown South Central LAMP this school year. We are incredibly grateful for your generosity, and we are thriving because of your compassion, kinship, and love.

The Kindness Store - Rewarding Kindness and Healing Our Community

Dear South Central LAMP Community,  I’m so thrilled to share with you how South Central LAMP is doing in the new year! We officially began our After School STEAM enrichment program in January. It has been such a unique and rewarding journey to finally be able to offer this program to the children in our community. The program provides homework assistance, math and reading support, STEAM and coding activities, and a Kindness Store.  What’s a Kindness Store you might ask? It’s a store where kids can purchase items with the “kindness money” they earn when a teacher observes them carrying out acts of kindness. The child doesn’t know their kindness is being observed, until they are surprised to see “money” in their basket! The Kindness Store helps children learn about money, savings (if they want to save to buy a “bigger” ticket item) math and of course kindness. I learned about the concept of a Kindness Store from my sister, who has been doing this for years, at a nonprofit that serves youth in Las Vegas. She believes, as do I, that showing up for a community has to be more than providing basic support, it’s about helping a community heal. It means helping to facilitate the healing of traumas that often afflict those we serve. The Kindness Store teaches children that our actions affect those around us. It impacts our neighbors, our community, and our society. It teaches them that we are all connected – that as one person heals their own trauma, they pave the way for another person to heal. The Kindness Store isn’t just about rewarding kindness, it’s recognizing how kindness is part of the communal medicine we all need to heal, and a healed world benefits us all. Thank you to all who contribute to South Central LAMP and continue to help us be agents of education, empowerment, and healing. Your donations and support go beyond the basic needs of our community, as it enables us to be the change we wish to see in the world.   Diana Z. Pinto Executive Director P.S. Pictured centered above is Ilce Moreno, our Expanded Learning STEAM Coordinator, practicing what she teaches!

Ways to Support South Central LAMP!

The LA Big 5K is almost a month away! The LA Big 5K SCLAMP Team will be at Dodger Stadium on Saturday, March 18th for a fun, three-mile run/walk through Elysian Park and we'd love your support! Our goal is to raise $15,000, and all contributions, big or small, help us offer free, essential services to the families in our programs in South Central Los Angeles. Click the medal to support the SCLAMP team today!

Books Needed for our New After-School Program As you heard above, we're so very excited about our new After-School Program! Since its inception, we have recognized that many of the children do not know how to read (at least not at their grade level). We can really use sight word books to help them get ahead. Click the books to your right to help us support these students in learning to read!

Beautifying Days - April 21 & 22! Join South Central LAMP's families, board and partners to spruce up our campus on Friday & Saturday, April 21st & 22nd! We're looking for supporters to clean and prep on Friday afternoon from 1pm to 4pm, and paint, garden and make our outdoor spaces beautiful on Saturday from 9am to 2pm! We'll also need a few babysitters to help with our children too! Click the gardening image to sign-up and help brighten our spaces!

Stay Connected with South Central LAMP! For more information on the ways to support South Central LAMP above, please contact our Development Director, Nicole Burcham, at nburcham@southcentrallamp.org, visit our website, or follow us on social media to learn more about our programs.