REACH LA’s annual holiday party will be this Wednesday, December 16 from 6pm-9pm. At 7:30, REACH LA will be honoring community partners CHLA: Connect to Protect, The Legendary Father Taz Ultra Omni and the Legendary Father Nico Chanel for their years of dedicated support of REACH LA programs, staff and youth. Two volunteers of the year will be named, youth leaders promoted and a whole lot of good cheer will be in the air. Please RSVP to reachla@earthlink.net if you are planning to attend.
Through the pouring rain, these dedicated young men made it to the first Ovahness Summit held at Plummer Park last Saturday. The Summit successfully brought together 50 young men of color to attend a series of roundtable discussions aimed at self empowerment, priority setting and health. Under the direction of Greg Wilson, the event was the brain child of the Ovahness Leaders, who in the last 9 months planned, trained and facilitated all of the roundtable discussions. Resources people from Childrens Hospital Division of Adolescent Medicine - Young United Men, HIV Youth Testing Collaborative and 3P Programs, AIDS Project Los Angeles, AmMassi Center and REACH LA were available to provide information not only about their programs, but were resources on spirituality, social service navigation, housing and transitional living and education. In addition to FREE HIV testing, LA County STD Program provided free screening for chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis. To cap off the day the Ovahness Leaders chose Justin Reed Early, author of the autobiographical book “Street Child: An Unpaved Passage” to provide a closing keynote address. The event was sponsored by a grant from the Colin Higgins Foundation. More pictures to come.