Volunteer Center South Bay Harbor Long Beach

Other program servicesoperation teddy bearoperation teddy bear is the volunteer centers volunteer-powered literacy program that provides an educational boost through a kind gift approximately 4,000 literacy bags filled with books, educational materials and wellness tools, along with a lesson in kindness, compassion, volunteering and identifying emotions to the most underserved first-graders in the south bay, harbor and long beach areas each year. The program also provides volunteers with an opportunity to help the children first-hand by preparing stem kits and items to be placed in the bags, and then interacting with students in 146 classrooms. During school visits, volunteers read an original story about kindness, facilitating a lesson about helping others, and they use the experience of receiving the schoolbag and the teddy bear to help the students identify, process and work through their emotions.durfee family scholarships scholarships are provided for up to eight college-bound students graduating from high schools in the south bay, harbor and long beach areas of los angeles. Recipients are selected based on their ability to overcome challenging circumstances while still finding time to make a positive contribution in the community. Applicants learn about the scholarship through their high schools, and awardees can use the scholarship toward the college of their choice. Funding for the program is generated through the interest from the durfee family scholarship fund. Most recently, seven scholarships at $2,000 each were provided to resilient and deserving students.

Food for kids food for kids is the volunteer centers volunteer and donation-driven food pantry that provides bags of non-perishable food and health-related inserts to low-income elementary school students at partner schools each week. Volunteers sort, pack and deliver bags of food filled with enough items to make two breakfasts, two lunches and two dinners for a family of four to the schools every friday. The schools identify families with the greatest need, and those students take the bags home to share over the weekend.

Impact makers building skills for life is a program to help youth gain a deeperunderstanding of themselves and the world around them. In this 12-week program(8-weeks for summer), participants learn about the issues facing our local communityand the support resources that are in place to help address them. Through animmersive service-learning experience, youth have the opportunity to serve thecommunity and empathize with the experiences of others. Together with the caringimpact makers team and fellow peers, they uncover the tools needed to support boththemselves and others. Impact makers served 60 high school aged youth during the2023/2024 school year.