{"id":2081,"date":"2022-02-15T04:45:00","date_gmt":"2022-02-15T04:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/disciplestoday.org\/clone\/clone\/2022\/02\/15\/community-partnerships-in-los-angeles\/"},"modified":"2023-06-02T06:58:10","modified_gmt":"2023-06-02T04:58:10","slug":"community-partnerships-in-los-angeles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/disciplestoday.org\/clone\/community-partnerships-in-los-angeles\/","title":{"rendered":"Community Partnerships in Los Angeles"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Located in the heart of Los Angeles, the <\/span><\/span>Lifeway Church <\/a> is surrounded by many vibrant and diverse communities. Over the past several years, Lifeway Church and their HOPE <\/span><\/span> worldwide <\/span> chapter have sought to consistently partner with local community organizations to serve their neighbors. One of these partnerships is with the La Casa de San Gabriel Community Center in the San Gabriel Valley of Southern California. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

La Casa de San Gabriel was founded in 1946, by the Liz\u00e1rraga family, pastors at a local presbyterian church. Its mission is to enhance the well-being of the families it serves by providing educational and social services that promote self-sufficiency and motivation for lifelong learning. The Lifeway Church was introduced to La Casa de San Gabriel in 2014 through Alexis Salamanca, and partnered to host a beautification project on the campus as their first project. Over the years, members became more engaged with La Casa, either as a contributor or as a beneficiary of their various programs (i.e. pre-school, food pantry, clothing donations, etc). In 2015, Lifeway partnered with La Casa for its annual MLK HOPE Day of Service event and completed a large mural on their campus. Over the years, Lifeway members have continued to serve at La Casa including organizing a toy drive for families of the pre-school in 2019. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

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As the devastation of the pandemic progressed into 2020, much of the Lifeway HOPEww chapter\u2019s efforts shifted to meeting the immediate needs of families impacted. At the end of 2020, the chapter formed a new committee with a renewed focus on building and strengthening partnerships with value-aligned organizations. Despite limitations posed by the pandemic, Lifeway started to actively serve La Casa again in 2021. Drive-thru food drives were implemented to collect donations for a bimonthly food pantry \u2013 one of the signature programs serving around 300 families in-need each month. Due to the pandemic, food insecurity nearly doubled in Los Angeles. The food drives were hosted in multiple locations, and the Lifeway college students began to serve frequently at La Casa, organizing donated food as well as distributing items at the food pantry. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

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In December, Lifeway disciples partnered with La Casa to host the first ever pop-up Christmas Store. Parents were able to select and purchase brand new toys at significantly discounted rates. This was a creative way to meet the needs of the community neighbors while honoring their dignity. La Casa promoted the event to the community and opened its facilities to host the event, while Lifeway organized and stocked the store using toy donations collected at the annual drive. The store was a success with over 100 toys sold! All of the revenue was donated to La Casa. Many parents and grandparents shared how grateful they were to be able to buy toys for their children that they could not afford at retail prices. Since it was such a great success, Lifeway and La Casa will host the store again in 2022. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n