Service Days a Success — Thanks to Volunteers and Members
Thanks to all of the hard work of Lamp Community volunteers and members who came to participate in the days of service at the Frank Rice Access Center at 627 San Julian Street on Saturday, April 2 and Sunday, April 3. Together we cleaned, painted, and got the Frank Rice Access Center ready for expanded services that Lamp is now offering.
Lamp is grateful for your energy, your spirit, and your commitment, all of which helped make this possible. We’ll have photos of the weekend posted on the blog soon.
This location has special meaning to Lamp; it’s where it all began. In 1985, longtime homeless advocate and service provider Mollie Lowery teamed up with local philanthropist Frank Rice to open the Los Angeles Men’s Place on San Julian Street. What was then known as the Day Center provided support for basic needs such as food and clothing, showers, health screenings, case management and benefits advocacy.
Before LAMP, a homeless person living with mental illness and other co-occurring disorders had almost no place to turn in Skid Row or anywhere in greater Los Angeles. Rice started the Center as a place for those individuals to come and engage in services without feeling as though they were in an institutional setting that they distrusted.
LAMP began serving both men and women in 1987, and throughout its history the agency has focused on providing supportive housing for the hardest-to-reach homeless adults who have been rejected by mainstream providers due to behaviors, addictions, and severity of symptoms. The Center offers intensive staff outreach aimed at lessening or eliminating the debilitating symptoms of mental illness, to meet basic needs, enhance quality of life, and improve an individual’s ability to live independently in his or her own community.
