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ESPN films. Photo courtesy of the Los Angeles Red Shield
The center partners with various organizations and professional athletes.
By Vivian Gatica
The Salvation Army’s Los Angeles Red Shield Youth and Community Center provides a number of resources to surrounding residents from ongoing classes to special activities. Recently, the center created significant partnerships and events to emphasize the importance of community health and safety.
A community favorite, the Red Shield’s soccer program provides intensive training to low-income, at-risk youth in the Pico-Union district, engaging them in a healthy activity that also steers them away from negative influences.
“We really have a great program going,” said Irene Lewis, executive director of the Red Shield. “It’s really just about the joy involved in playing the sport [the children] love.”
The U.S Soccer Foundation (USSF) awarded the Red Shield a $15,800 grant for coaches, referees and training equipment. According to USSF Marketing and Communications Director Krista Washington, the foundation began supporting the Red Shield in 2004 by funding the synthetic turf soccer field.
“Our grants help provide vital support for non-profit organizations, and enable them to both impact their respective communities and engage children in a meaningful way, utilizing soccer,” Washington said.
Los Angeles Lakers basketball player Steve Nash also contributed to the Red Shield by donating $7,500 to fix the swimming pool pump, without which the center would have had to close the pool for the summer. Nash also donated soccer shoes to children participating in that program.
The Red Shield will host the 2013 Steve Nash Foundation Showdown charity soccer game on July 14. Featuring NBA and professional soccer players, Showdown will support the charity work of the foundation. Lewis said that Nash will continue to support the center through his foundation.
The center also promotes health and safety by hosting health fairs and establishing community incentives.
The Red Shield is now the lead agency for the Los Angeles County Community Disaster Resilience Project (LACCDR) in the Pico-Union district. The LACCDR project is a citywide effort to create community resilience in the event of emergencies such as natural disasters and epidemics.
“Pico-Union is a low socioeconomic area, and in the event of a disaster, it will be faced with more challenges,” said Agnes Topacio, Pico-Union liaison for the LACCDR efforts. “We are trying to teach the community to be self-sustaining so that residents can help each other to recover from disasters.”
The center received $15,000 to fund the project, and the community decided to use the money to create efficient disaster preparedness toolkits that will include a guide to community resilience planning and community engagement, first aid, city mapping and emergency response training. In August, the Red Shield will host a Community Emergency Response Team training to prepare residents for potential disaster so that if one strikes, they will be trained to take care of each other.
“Every community should have a resilience plan,” Lewis said. “If there is a united plan of action within the community, people will have some basic understanding so that there is no panic.”
