How a Los Angeles nonprofit is boosting Latino volunteerism with the help of social media and advocacy
L.A. Works, a nonprofit that mobilizes volunteers to address critical issues in Los Angeles says they deploy more than 20,000 volunteers every year. More than 52,000 hours have already been served this year.
L.A. Works staff members speaking to Latino community members about Listos California, a statewide disaster preparedness initiative. Courtesy of L.A. Works.
When Elisa Rodriguez was a college student she learned about volunteering in her community through members of her sorority Hermandad de Sigma Iota Alpha, Inc., at California State University, Dominguez Hills.
“Someone brought it up to me and I was like, ‘Okay, I’ve never done this before,’ and I think it was just the adrenaline of wanting to try something new,” Rodriguez, 25, said. “I’m just very empathetic. I’m someone that if I can serve my time, I’m gonna do it.”
The exposure would lead her to volunteer for the very first time by helping support beautification projects at sites that needed trees planted, gardens curated and schools painted for low-income Los Angeles communities.
“It was like a culture shock for me. I was like, “Wow, there’s actual individuals coming out and doing this,’” said Rodriguez, who’s Salvadoran American.
She was motivated to continue volunteering and it eventually turned into a job opportunity by becoming a social media coordinator for L.A. Works, a nonprofit founded to address the city’s overall racial and economic divides.
Elisa Rodriguez volunteering with L.A. Works. Courtesy of L.A. Works.
L.A. Works mobilizes volunteers to address critical issues in Los Angeles. Their organization helps deploy over 20,000 volunteers every year; this year they have already served about 52,000 hours.
L.A. Works is like the “Google” for other nonprofits to get volunteers from, according to Jessica Carrera, 36, the nonprofit's program director of AmeriCorps RSVP, a place that provides volunteer opportunities for adults over 55 years old.
AmeriCorps is one of the many organizations that are registered with L.A. Works. L.A. Works has thousands of volunteer opportunities, both remote and in-person, and postings are available daily and year-long.
“We 100% need all people of all stages, of all ages,” Carrera, who is Mexican American, said. “There’s everything that needs to be needed, specifically in schools,” Carrera said, referring to the lack of translators for kids, especially during the pandemic. “Immigrants, they especially need help and [in] all kinds of languages. L.A. is super diverse,” she added.
More Latino volunteers needed
Though almost half of all L.A. residents are Latino, Carrera said her organization needs more Latino volunteers, a challenge she’s been working on since becoming director. While many Latinos often help and support in times of need, she said there’s a lack of outreach and exposure in the Latino community about volunteering.
“L.A. is predominantly Hispanic,” she said. “And so I really see a disconnect between the people who are being served and who is serving them.”
One of the major barriers is trust. “We are a very close-knit culture. It really relies on who you know and who you trust. So getting that trust and those connections is key,” Carrera said.
L.A. Works volunteers helping plant trees and curating gardens. Courtesy of L.A. Works.
One of the group’s more successful campaigns in recent years targeting Latinos has been their special project where volunteers can make their very own no-sew blanket and donate one for someone in need. Another successful campaign has been in collaboration with Listos California, a statewide network of community-based organizations to boost resiliency, provide accessible in-language information and advance a new culture of disaster preparedness. They’ve allowed people to create their own emergency preparedness kit and create extras that go out into the community.
Other campaigns have included the Summer of Service, where volunteers dedicated their summer to giving back, to campaigns around Black History Month, Hispanic Heritage Month and a Latinx Roundtable where staff members spoke about their experiences growing up as Latino.
While Carrera focuses on one grant, AmeriCorps RSVP, the organization’s biggest volunteer base are millennials. What she and L.A. Works try to do is advise millennials to bring their parent or grandparents to volunteering opportunities; talk with them about volunteering and foster and encourage intergenerational volunteering.
L.A. Works has several volunteer opportunities around Indigenous Peoples Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, Dia De Los Muertos and more. They also have volunteer opportunities around critical issues like disaster preparedness, food insecurity, education equity, housing insecurity, environmental justice and health justice, among others.
Spreading the word
L.A. Works received support from NBCUniversal last year through its Creative Impact Lab 2022 initiative. NBCUniversal provided funding to SpyHop, a Utah-based nonprofit that offers free film, music, audio and design classes for students aged 12 to 20. SpyHop collaborated with L.A. Works to help spread their message of volunteerism through the creation of social media videos.
“Those videos have helped us so much for our TikTok, for [Instagram] Reels because they were able to perfectly grab what our story is, and translate it into a creative video,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez said they see a lot of young volunteers like college students, who they mainly reach through social media campaigns.
“Through video, we’re able to recruit and retain volunteers,” she said. “You see a lot of the younger generation coming out sometimes bringing their parents with them, bringing their friends with them.”
L.A. Works volunteers at the L.A. Regional Food Bank. Courtesy of L.A. Works.
Rodriguez said she’s learned many lessons from L.A. Works.
“I've learned that I can be a leader — I've learned that I can network and not be shy to talk to volunteers,” she said.
Most importantly, she’s learned how giving one’s time can be so valuable.
“I've learned that I can make a difference,” she said, “even if it's just two hours.”
