FFSC's 5th Annual Gift of Giving

...and the holiday season is among us! While Foundation for Second Chances wishes you and your loved ones a safe and happy Thanksgiving, we're also gearing up for our  5th Annual Gift of Giving event, and would love for you to join our holiday team!

This Christmas, FFSC is inviting 150 underprivileged children and their families to join us for a day of fun, a delicious feast, and free gifts to brighten up the season. While many of us may think of Christmas as a pleasant time to spend with family and friends, to celebrate the birth of Christ, to enjoy good food, and to exchange gifts, Christmas can be a discouraging and strenuous time for many of the families within FFSC's community.

Many of our families cannot afford to give their children Christmas gifts, nor can they afford to share a nice holiday meal together. The Gift of Giving helps brighten the holiday season by hosting this FREE event along with the generosity of people like you.

Ways You Can Help:
 1. Volunteer the day-of at the event
 2. Host a toy drive at your work/school/church/group/holiday party
 3. Personally donate unwrapped gifts for youth, ages 4-14
 4. Make a monetary donation
 5. Make food donations
 6. Inquire about donating cooking or arts and crafts supplies
 7. Have your group create and host a game or craft station for children
 8. Ask your company to consider our sponsorship opportunities
 9. Tell your friends and family to join us for this wonderful event!

Interested in getting involved or making a donation? Contact Volunteer Event Coordinator, Michelle Woo (mwoo17@yahoo.com). For sponsorship opportunities, please contact Associate Director, Fatima Nelson (fatima@ffscinc.org).

View more photos of last year's Gift of Giving.

Happy 1-Year Anniversary to Our Mentoring Couples!

On Sunday, November 21st, Second Chances Mentoring Program held a Closure Celebration for mentoring couples who recently reached the end of their year together. Lots of laughs were shared during our Mentorship Pictionary & Charades, and lots of great food was enjoyed at Acapulco's Sunday brunch! At the heart of the event, mentors and mentees reflected on their year in SCMP by creating and sharing art projects featuring photographs, hand-drawn pictures of their favorite outing, and wishes they have for their new friend.

Kelly shares with her mentee, Erica, her favorite outing together ice skating in Pershing Square, where Erica helped Kelly from falling!

Myesha shares with her mentor, Ana, how she loves how she is always there for her.

While mentors from this round completed their first year, two-thirds are continuing on in their mentoring relationships for a second year with Second Chances. It has been an incredible year for all of our mentors and mentees, and we are so grateful for our mentors' time and talents and so proud of the tremendous growth in our youth! Without our incredible volunteers, SCMP would simply not exist, so to you we are always indebted. Thank you.

Ana Flores & Myesha N.

Anthony McDaniel & Erron W.

Blanca Torres & Eddeshia C.

D'Aundra Hawkins & Chelsea D.

Jeff Shaivitz & William D.

Kelly O'Hara & Erica L.

Nichole Millard & Marielle B.

 

Thank you also to the management and staff at Acapulco, for making this a memorable experience for our mentoring couples and for always being supportive of our program!

SCMP Gears Up for Thanksgiving

On Saturday, November 13, SCMP hosted its group outing at the Japanese American National Museum, participating in the museum's Target Free Saturdays! The second Saturday of every month, Target sponsors a FREE event full of great activities for children and families as well as free admission to the museum's exhibits. This month's theme was Thanksgiving, and our mentoring couples were treated to a full day of crafts to take home and share with their families.

Mentees and mentors constructed origami turkeys, pine cone centerpieces, woven place mats and journals, and turkeys made of plastic cups that could really gobble!

Our deepest thanks go out to the Japanese American National Museum for putting on an incredible event that our mentors and mentees really enjoyed. For more information on the museum's Target Free Family Saturdays, visit their schedule here!

New Non-Profit to Benefit Mentoring Programs

We Get To Give aims to create a program for caring adult volunteers who mentor at-risk and high-risk youth in the Los Angeles area that will allow mentor-mentee pairs to experience events and activities that might otherwise be too expensive for mentors to fund.

We Get To Give is currently in the running for a $5,000 Pepsi Refresh grant that would  incorporate and establish their 501c3 status, solidify the participation of businesses and mentoring organizations, and create ID cards to launch the first year of the program. But in order to receive funding, they need your help! You can vote everyday through November 30 at the link below to help launch this incredible discount program for mentors and their mentees:

http://www.refresheverything.com/wegettogive

Foundation for Second Chances Mentoring and other community-based mentoring programs serving Los Angeles would benefit from the We Get To Give program, helping to ensure that mentors provide opportunities for their mentee to explore Los Angeles outside their usual neighborhoods while still developing and maintaining quality relationships

 FFSC Mentoring is proud to support We Get To Give in their mission, and wish them the best of luck in the competition!

FFSC Mentoring Now Accepting Mentor Applications!

 

Foundation for Second Chances Mentoring is now accepting Mentor Applications! FFSC Mentoring provides a unique opportunity for caring adult volunteers to befriend children with incarcerated parents in the Los Angeles community. Our mentors come from all different backgrounds, professions, and experiences, but all of them have the desire to invest their time and heart into our youth.

Mentors and mentees participate in a special matching process through our group Kick Off events. Mentors and mentees meet for the first time at our Mentor Mash Up, getting to know each other through relay races, icebreakers, and team building activities! Two weeks later, everyone pairs off for each of our 3 rounds of Speed Mentoring at Chuck E. Cheese. Mentors and mentees then fill out individual match surveys, choosing who they feel is their best match!

After finding each other, mentors and mentees commit to their mentoring relationship for 1 year, only 6-8 hours per month. Mentors and mentees embark on one-on-one outings of their choosing and at the times best for them, and mentors may also help mentees keep a connection with their incarcerated parent. FFSC Mentoring also hosts optional but fun monthly group outings to bring the mentoring family together! These outings are a great opportunity for mentees to foster relationships with other youth and adults, as well as a great way for mentors to network with other mentors.

Our next round will be launching in March 2011, with Mentor Orientation & Training Sessions starting in January 2011. Don't wait until the last-minute--get the application process started this month! For more information regarding FFSC Mentoring and the application, please contact Program Manager Laura Petry at laura@ffscinc.org OR by phone at (213) 627-1745. You can also fill out a brief intake survey HERE.