Lamp Community Blog

Support Lamp this Holiday Season

For Lamp Community, the holiday season is a time to reflect on another year of service to the homeless and formerly homeless men and women in Los Angeles who live with challenges ranging from mental illness and physical disabilities to drug and alcohol addiction and chronic disease. Lamp has made a difference in many of their lives. 

You can make a real difference too. This season, we ask that you make a remarkable, lasting difference in the lives of homeless and formerly homeless men and women by making a contribution to Lamp Community and its members. 

In 2012, Lamp will look to expand upon the 1,200 to 1,500 men and women we serve each year, and to develop a stronger continuum of efficient, effective housing and services. New service expansions include the Winter Shelter at FRAC; expansion of the Peer Advocate Pilot Project (PAPP); increased community outreach; and more partnership and collaboration with Skid Row agencies.

If you’d like to donate to Lamp in the holiday season, please click the button in the column at left, or contact Christopher Wieland, Director of Development, at 213-488-0879 or chrisw@lampcommunity.org.

‘Tis the Season! Work From the Lamp Art Project Work is Available on ImageKind.com

Looking for a truly unique holiday gift? This season, give something that’s beautiful and supports Lamp Community’s Art Project. The works of Lamp artists and the Lamp Art Project are available for sale online at Imagekind!

(Flower, by Eiko Yoshii)

Log in at Lamp_ArtProject.imagekind.com to browse galleries representing nine Lamp artists — Gary Brown, Carl Bunker, Vickey Cookson, Darlene Altemeier Dobbs, Maria Mencilla, Vytautas Pliura, Jerome Robertson, Mariana Valles and Eiko Yoshii — all of whose work is available as prints, posters, framed prints and canvas prints.

(L.A. Dodgers, by Darlene Altemeier Dobbs)

Lamp invites you to join us in celebrating the Art Project for the holidays — ple ase log on to buy a piece of Lamp artists’ work to give as a gift, or to keep for your own!

Proceeds from all Lamp art sales benefit Lamp Art Project and the artists.

Fall Affair Honors Steve Lopez, Celebrates Lamp’s Work to End Homelessness

Lamp’s commitment to permanently ending homelessness for men and women living with severe mental illness is as strong today as it was when the organization first opened as a day center, and we remain as devoted as ever to improving health and building self-sufficiency for those we serve.

Thank you for your support.  

Save the Date! Thanks to everyone who made this year’s Fall Affair a success. We are happy to announce that Lamp Community’s 2012 Fall Affair will take place on Wednesday, October 24th, 2012, at Kesspro Studios in the Downtown Arts District. 

Lamp’s Winter Shelter Program Opens Dec. 1st

The winter months — even in Southern California — are an especially difficult and dangerous time of year for those living on the streets. Wet and cold weather not only increase the chances of illness, but also increase the odds of making existing health conditions worse. Starting in December, Lamp is pleased to be among the organizations offering temporary housing to the men and women of Skid Row through its Winter Shelter Program.

Lamp’s program officially opens on December 1st at the Frank Rice Access Center (FRAC) on San Julian Street, extending 105 days through the most severe of the winter weather. Lamp will offer a total of 35 winter shelter beds, all located at the FRAC.Lamp’s outreach team will be working in Skid Row to locate and bring in the community’s most vulnerable individuals.

In addition to emergency housing, the Winter Shelter Program also will offer meals, showers, access to health care, counseling and mental health services. For more information, please contact Jose Manriquez, Associate Director of Emergency Services and Outreach, at (213) 488-9559 x203, or josem@lampcommunity.org.  

First Class of Peer Supporters Graduates from the Peer Advocate Pilot Project

The process of recovery — from addiction, from mental illness, from homelessness — is long and complicated, and it involves an enormous amount of hard work, patience and determination. It also requires the best possible support, which is the goal of Lamp Community’s Peer Advocate Pilot Project.  

Monica Potts, who has been Lamp’s Mental Health Peer Advocate for two and a half years, launched the project in October, designed to train Lamp member volunteers to offer guidance and counsel to other members. Potts brought 10 aspiring peer supporters together with managers and staff to go through the training, and earlier this month the program’s first class graduated, ready to take on their new roles. 

Having peer support helps the therapy and recovery process to be more effective, Potts says, “because we can show hope by the results we get — not by what we say, but by what we do.”  

These peer supporters will offer newer Lamp members a different kind of relationship — a perspective that comes from having been there themselves.

In their training, supporters learned how to work with staff both so they can act in partnership with managers and so they get the assistance they need to help others, Potts says. And that consistent level of care enables peer supporters to “encourage peers to make their own choices about what works best for them,” she notes. 

Lamp Community is proud to congratulate these 10 new supporters, and with Potts’ guidance, looks forward to more graduates to come.   

Browse a gallery of more photos from the PAPP graduation  

Lamp Peer Advocate Pilot Project Inaugural Class: 

• Levonna Lacey
• Greg Mikens
• Gwen White
• Terry Detroit Hughes
• Amanda Ruiz
• Joanne Van Buren
• Wes D Coast
• Taunyett Thompson
• Tracy Kennedy
• Robert Curriston