By Alicia Venter
As Angelenos turn to governmental and community-based support in the wake of the wildfires burning their homes and businesses down, a local nonprofit provided an easily forgotten, but crucial, resource to the organizations collecting essential items and donations. The Grace and Wisdom Institute provided drivers and cars, the means of transportation to get the needed items to major distribution centers in Los Angeles.
Last week, the organization partnered with Runway Playa Vista to distribute dozens of boxes containing child and baby necessities, hygiene items and medical supplies to outreach sites, such as the Joliet Café and Bar, the Westchester Family YMCA and other smaller organizations spread across the city. The Grace and Wisdom Institute was joined by Loyola Marymount University, which also helped organize drivers to transport goods.
“It’s important to feel connected, because we are,” said Kesha Hughes, founder and executive director of the Grace and Wisdom Institute. “A lot of times our day-to-day, we’re not able to see it all the time. But as you can see now, we come together. I’m really proud of what I’ve seen, and I’ve been astonished at what people have been able to achieve in the last couple of weeks.”
The Grace and Wisdom Institute is a nonprofit dedicated to the enhancement of a teenager’s personal, social and community awareness, with an emphasis on teenage girls of color. It empowers them to become engaged citizens and leaders in their community through a skills development program that addresses civic responsibility, financial literacy, coping skills and several other life skills.
“It really helps a lot of our teens. That’s one of the best things they like about our program, because they really like that they know that they’re helping, and they’re touching it themselves,” Hughes said. “We just want to make sure that they also get an opportunity with all the payout. There’s a lot of grown-up problems going on, but we wanted to make sure we were able to insert an opportunity for them as well, even though this is during the school hour.
The El Segundo-based organization hosts a service opportunity for its institute students and the greater community every month. Its January service pivoted to serving the Los Angeles wildfire victims soon after the Palisades and Eaton Fires ignited on Jan. 7. Its volunteers helped Runway Playa Vista load personal hygiene products, office and school supplies, cleaning supplies, water and diapers — alongside a slew of other essentials — into cars and vans of all sizes from Jan. 15 to Jan 17.
“That seems to be a problem that we’ve noticed a lot of people are having,” Hughes said. “People are giving them the stuff but (they) are not able to get them to the right place. We really wanted to focus on not only receiving the items that we are hearing are necessary, but also getting them to distribution centers,” she said.
The institute has worked with Runway Playa Vista — a shopping center with a wide range of retail shops, eateries and services — several times, oftentimes providing teen volunteers for its community events. So, when Hughes was exploring how her nonprofit could best serve its struggling community, the shopping center was one of the first places that came to mind. When Runway Playa Vista reached out asking for help, she quickly offered her volunteer network to help with the distribution drive.
“A lot of our service is revolved around underserved communities. We do a lot of things for people who are unhoused in all the capacities, with hygiene supplies… this mass abundance of needs is still the same type of things that we do throughout the year for those who all are unhoused,” she said. “We’re kind of familiar with this type of effort, though this is definitely a much larger scale than we tend to have to do.”
Beatrice Rosu, senior manager of marketing and experience at Prism Places — the management company of Runway Playa Vista — expressed her appreciation for the volunteers. While the drive ended on Jan. 17, Runway Playa Vista may organize additional opportunities to help the wildfire victims.
Several businesses at Runway Playa Vista offered resources to wildfire victims while the drive was underway. LOQUI was offering meals to all first responders through the weekend, Matte Argyle teamed up with Playa Vista Moms Group to accept donated items and Wild Child offered free classes to families impacted by the fires.
Learn more about the Grace and Wisdom Institute at graceandwisdominstitute.org.
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