BLT Helps

This is BLT’s 11th year sponsoring Midnight Mission's annual Holiday Toy Drive. Thank you for all the support you’ve given to our young Angelinos in need! Each year, toys are collected and distributed at Midnight Mission's Santa's Village in Downtown LA. Parents with financial hardship or graduates of substance recovery programs can personally choose gifts for their children. Midnight Mission will distribute a high-quality, brand name toy to each child along with a stuffed an...imal, book, and stocking stuffers. Due to current circumstances, this year’s toy drive will be held via a handy Target Wish List! Select whichever gift(s) you like (or a gift card!) and those will get sent directly to our own marvelous Brandi Seymour who coordinates these annual drives. She will pass them along en masse. Please make sure gifts arrive by December 21st. Thanks and Happy Holidays! https://tinyurl.com/y32gycpt

Today's the last day for early in-person voting! This year, you can vote at any polling center. Check out these LA landmarks that are open for voting - including Dodger Stadium, The Magic Castle, The Hollywood Bowl, The Pantages (Pro Tip: They're handing out Hamilton "I Voted" stickers!), and more! #vote

PSA: Too Late to Mail Ballots! (Use Dropboxes) If you haven't sent your ballot in yet it's too late to reliably send by mail. Instead, use one of the many official dropboxes you can locate with this handy link!* https://locator.lavote.net/locations/vbm ... Or take it to your polling place on election day. But getting it in early gives you some time in case there's an issue with your ballot. Register for Ballot Tracking so you'll know when your ballot was received and counted!* https://california.ballottrax.net/voter/ Happy Voting! #Vote *The above links are for LA and California, respectively. To get more information for other areas, visit https://www.vote.org/.

BLT Helps was honored to assist Arjuna O'Neal from Share Necessities on updating the signage outside the Next Level CommUNITY Center. They recently underwent a shift in ownership for the project and wanted a new name and fresh look to reflect that. When asked about the change, Arjuna gave us a bit of backstory: Before opening our commUNITY center in the heart of South Central, LA, Share Necessities did some extensive research regarding the services we wanted to offer the loc...al community residents and youth. We learned that the location was surrounded by 5 public schools with very minimal to know resources that supported the youth’s academic endeavors. We also learned that it’s very common for organizations specifically nonprofits to open facilities in under-served but leave shortly after due to financial challenges. Their departure only left a bad taste in the mouths of the community, which created distrust and abandonment concerns. Share Necessities focused on educating and orienting locals with the professional skills and tools in addition to providing everyday living essentials. Our approach allowed us to create leaders and change agents within the community that would eventually be able to carry out the vision Share Necessities initially had. We understood this would be a strategy that would not only empower the community at its core but leave opportunities and exampleship for the youth to eventually follow and participate in as well. Based on our approach mentioned above, we partnered with local leaders that were already working to raise the vibration in the commUNITY. I used my business background to help the group of leaders create their own nonprofit called The F.O.C.U.S Is On You, which provides similar services but now it’s actual residents of the community. This has gained the ultimate trust and increased the hope for those who initially didn’t believe they had a purpose or a way out. Now seeing their community residents operating the center, Share Necessities has given the entire commUNITY a second chance and a new value system to operate from. We’ve abolished the abandonment narrative for so many and that’s priceless! Arjuna O’Neal Share Necessities is still collecting funds for the center and their current mission is to open a pop-up school (K-5 tent) at the local recreation center two blocks away. They plan to partner with a few organizations to provide healthy lunches, school supplies, and reading books, as well as volunteer teachings and facilitators. If you would like to help, please check out their website to donate and learn more about F.O.C.U.S and other Share Necessities projects! https://www.share-necessities.org/

Ten Percent Happier's 7-day Election Sanity Challenge starts today! This meditation challenge is aimed at providing the skills to navigate this political season in a way that allows you to be both engaged and calm. Free on the Ten Percent Happier app!