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UCLA Bruin Leaders Project

Working With Youth (Tutorial and Mentorship Programs)

The Community Service Commission (CSC) offers community service opportunities throughout Los Angeles with a variety of different areas of focus and client populations. The community service projects below are categorized by the type of service and program. Where possible, information about specific requirements for volunteers has been provided. For more detailed information about any project, please see the CSC website.

Amigos de UCLA

Amigos de UCLA is an after-school enrichment program in which volunteers tutor and mentor elementary and middle school children who are subjected to academic challenges as a result of their low socioeconomic status. The first hour at site focuses on one-on-one homework assistance and improving fundamental math, reading and writing skills. The second portion engages students in an art or science activity, allowing them to use their creativity, curiosity, and cultural awareness skills. Amigos goes to Carson-Gore Academy on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 1:30-5:30, and to Pio Pico Middle School on Fridays from 2:15-5:45. We tutor during 2nd week through 9th week each quarter. Volunteers choose ONE day per week to tutor. Transportation is provided. For more information, please email amigosdeucla@gmail.com.

Asian American Tutorial Project (AATP)

For over thirty years, AATP has tutored immigrant children in math and English at Castelar Elementary School in Chinatown, providing them with the skills and guidance necessary to gain access to higher education. As one of the oldest volunteer programs, AATP has been at the forefront to meet the educational needs of the immigrant youth population in the Chinatown community. (In order to become an AATP tutor, you must attend one mandatory training session, held at the beginning of the quarter. The training session will introduce you to AATP and provide information about how we work. This is only required for new tutors. Site is at Castelar Elementary in Chinatown, Los Angeles. Transportation is provided. For more information, email aatp.fun@gmail.com ).

Bruin Initiative

Bruin Initiative functions on the theme of taking initiative to create positive change. Whether you are interested in tutoring and mentoring or helping to clean local beaches, Bruin Initiative hopes to inspire you to get involved in the community through our various projects, including a SAT and college prep program, beach clean-ups, and school supplies drive. If you are interested in taking the initiative and becoming a leader, please contact bruinintiative@gmail.com.

Bruin Partners

The unique structure of Bruin Partners provides the opportunity for a UCLA student to build a strong and lasting one-on-one bond with a middle school student. Each UCLA volunteer is paired up with an individual sixth grade mentee at the beginning of the school year, and the pair continues to meet each week to discuss schoolwork, family matters, and other important issues. (The project works with 6th graders at Marina del Rey elementary school. Volunteers participate in site visits one day each week, Mondays-Thursdays in the afternoon. Transportation is provided. Volunteers are asked to commit for at least the entire quarter. Email joinbp@ucla.edu for more information.)

Casa Heiwa and Angelina Mentorship Program (CHAMPs)

CHAMPs provides mentoring and tutorial support for children (grades K-12) of two low-income housing complexes (Casa Heiwa and Angelina) in Little Tokyo and Echo Park. The program strives to provide the necessary attention and support needed to make children more successful in achieving their aspirations. (Site visits are on Saturdays. No formal training, no “deadlines" for starting with the program. At least a one-quarter commitment is preferred because of the tutor/tutee relationship. For more information contact casah@ucla.edu.)

Glendale Learning Program

GLP is a one-on-one tutoring program aimed at providing middle school students in the Glendale area with the support and guidance that will inspire them to further their education. The primary goal of GLP is to target students who are falling behind academically and provide them with an opportunity to "catch up," meanwhile equipping them with the confidence and learning skills needed to be better learners in the future. (Site visits are Saturdays from 10 am-1 pm (leaving UCLA around 9 am) and transportation from UCLA is provided. Contact GlendaleLearningProgram@gmail.com.)

Kids Korner

Kids Korner / Teen Korner is dedicated to enhancing the opportunities for underprivileged children and teens living in two North Hollywood housing complexes. By supplementing their education, providing enriching projects, and being supportive friends for these amazing kids and teens, we seek to develop their social and intellectual skills and broaden their prospects for the future. (Volunteers attend site weekly to tutor and mentor the residents of the apartment complexes. New volunteers must come to our info meetings during Week 1 and 2 of each quarter. Specific dates can be found on our Calendar page. If you can't make it, email us to get the orientation manual and volunteer form, fill it out and bring it to site on your first visit. Meet us on Sundays at 11:45 am at Ackerman Turnaround. Transportation will be provided and we will return to campus by 3:15pm. Contact thekorner@gmail.com.)

MAPS (Mentors for Academic Peer Support)

MAPS focuses on tutoring and mentoring youth at Jordan High School in Watts and Al-Hibah (charter school) in Crenshaw, and we go to site Monday through Friday in the mornings and afternoons. We ask that volunteers attend site once a week (2-3hrs), and become a tutor as well as a peer mentor for the students that we work with. Please let me know if you would like more information or know of anyone who would be interested. Thank you! MAPS Site Coordinator maps.ucla@gmail.com.

Pilipino Recruitment and Enrichment Program (PREP)

Pilipino Recruitment and Enrichment Program (PREP) is a peer mentorship program that outreaches to underpriviledged youth throughout the LA area. Our main goals are to encourage students to pursue higher education, promote community consciousness, increase cultural awareness and foster leadership skills. In order to achieve these goals as well as engage students and staff in active participation we focus on artistic activities to motivate and inspire. Together as we explore the elements of music, photography, paint, film and more we hope to develop stronger youth whom are eager and prepared to further their educations. Contact prep@ucla.edu.

Project BRITE

Project BRITE (Bruins Reforming Incarceration Through Education) provides tutorial services to incarcerated youths and aims to reach young offenders at an age where they still have a chance to turn their lives around. Through weekly visits, tutors provide motivation and friendship to these youths. Come tutor someone who really appreciates your time, for 2 hours each week. Orientation sessions are held during Week 2. Contact projectbrite@gmail.com.

Project Literacy

ProLit's mission is not only to enrich the education of children and adults through reading comprehension and writing, but also to provide mentorship, establishing meaningful ties with the families in our surrounding communities. Project Literacy has two primary components. The larger of the two components is dedicated to children age five through eighteen. We sponsor six total visits to our children’s sites per week. The second component of Project Literacy is the Program for Adult Literacy (PAL), which conducts two site visits per week at the Baldwin Hills Public Library. Adult service recipients range from parents who wish to read to their kids and help them with their homework to immigrants trying to pass their citizenship test. (Applications are on our website. Site visits occur on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. This will be a 3-4 hour weekly commitment. All of our information is on our website at http://www.usac.ucla.edu/projectlit/ )

Project MAC

Project MAC tutors at-risk children in the greater Los Angeles Area, at our current site, Free Arts. We also aim to continually educate the UCLA community and the Los Angeles community about child abuse and neglect. Project MAC seeks to educate society about the causes and effects of child abuse and how to combat it. Contact projectmacucla@gmail.com.

Project WILD

Project W.I.L.D, Working for Immigrant Literacy Development, serves students from the age of 8 to 14 years old in the Monterey Park/Rosemead area as a free English tutorial and mentorship program. Our main focus is to reinforce reading, writing, and speech in the English language. Every Saturday from 9am to 12pm, our tutors go to Temple Intermediate, which is an intermediate school located in Rosemead, CA. (Site visits are on Saturdays. No formal training is required. A time commitment of at least one full quarter is requested because of the tutor/tutee relationship. For more information, contact projectwild@gmail.com.)

Vietnamese Language and Cultures (VNLC)

Founded in 1994 to preserve and promote Vietnamese culture, VietNamese Language and Culture (VNLC) has grown to encompass serving the greater community in our mission statement. To realize our goal of community outreach, we run several tutorial and cultural projects. One of VNLC’s projects, REACHE, involves tutoring high school students in Canoga Park High School. (Sites are held every Saturday morning. No formal training needed. Transportation is provided. For more information, contact vnlcstaff2010-2011@gmail.com.)

Watts Tutorial Program

The Watts Tutorial Program strives to deter the gang violence, poverty, and illiteracy encompassing the communities by focusing our efforts on the children. The Watts Tutorial Program meets every Wednesday from 5-7:30pm on the UCLA campus. The children are bused to UCLA every week to receive one-on-one tutoring from their very own personal tutor. Each UCLA student will be paired off for the whole year to their very own tutee. In doing so, the tutor will personally be able to target and improve upon the child’s weaknesses in the subjects of math, reading, and writing. Contact wattstutorialprogram@gmail.com.

Women and Youth Supporting Each other (WYSE)

Women and Youth Supporting Each other (WYSE) is a national mentorship organization that has chapters at several universities across the nation. Each chapter has a year long program where a college mentor is paired with a middle school girl. Discussions, activities and life-skill games are part of the weekly meetings. The goal of these meetings is to first build a trustful bond between the mentors and the mentees. Eventually, WYSE aims to become a positive influence in the lives of the mentees in order to empower them to become leaders in society. The mission of WYSE is to empower young girls from all walks of life and aid in their development into strong and self confident women. UCLA WYSE is one of several WYSE chapters that are present across the United States. WYSE itself is a national mentorship organization. WYSE has its own curriculum, specific to each chapter as well as a one-on-one mentorship program. For more information, contact external.wise@gmail.com.

Working With People With Disabilities

Best Buddies

Best Buddies provides UCLA students an opportunity to develop a one-on-one friendship with people with intellectual disabilities ranging from high school students to adults. It offers people with intellectual disabilities an opportunity to interact with non-disabled people in a non-classroom setting while developing their leadership potential, improving social skills, and boosting self-confidence. Volunteers must apply and commit to a schedule. For more information, please email bestbuddiesucla@gmail.com.

Special Olympics

The Special Olympics at UCLA is an entirely student-run year round athletic program for sunder-served communities in South Los Angeles. Our athletes are primarily African-American and Latino and we target developmentally disabled athletes over 18 years old. We attempt to rectify a lack of programs for developmentally disabled adults, especially those without access to other resources due to economic disadvantage. Special Olympics does its main recruiting in Fall quarter. Contact bruinspecialo@gmail.com.

Social Welfare

BruinHope

BruinHope collects monetary, material, and food donations for orphans in Tijuana, Mexico and visits with the children at La Tribu de Jesus orphanage. In addition to free play and educational presentations, volunteers conduct art projects in order to promote self-confidence and individuality in the children and to give them the one-on-one attention that they often lack. BruinHope’s work also raises awareness within the UCLA community about the difficult conditions that these individuals face in Tijuana, Mexico. Contact bruin_hope@yahoo.com.

Hunger Project

Hunger Project is dedicated to fighting poverty by combining direct service, advocacy, and education. It provides services to homeless and low-income individuals in helping to meet their immediate and long-term needs. Volunteers deliver food, serve meals, provide job assistance, and teach life skills classes. The two active programs that have persisted throughout the history of Hunger Project at UCLA are the food salvage program and the heath clinic program. For more information, contact hungerprojectucla@gmail.com.

Project Angel Food

Project Angel Food's mission is to nourish the body and spirit of men, women and children affected by HIV/AIDS, cancer, and other life-threatening illnesses. From our kitchen, Project Angel Food staff and volunteers cook and deliver free and nutritious meals prepared with love. See website for information about volunteer opportunities: www.angelfood.org.

Health-Related Services

Pilipinos for Community Health (PCH)

Pilipinos for Community Health is a diverse student group which seeks to address the health disparities of socioeconomically underprivileged minority groups, specifically the Pilipino population. Volunteers get a chance to be trained and certified by the American Red Cross to take blood pressure and BMI screenings, and then can go out to our biweekly sites in front of supermarkets to take blood pressure and BMI of various recipients. Volunteers also have the opportunity to participate in additional projects that address health issues among the underprivileged community.As being part of PCH, students that are interested in the health field will have the chance to correspond one-on-one with medical professionals at our quarterly Pre-Health Panel dinners as well as receive a Medical Student mentor that can guide the student throughout their undergraduate career. For more info, visit contact pch@ucla.edu.

Service Opportunities for Graduate Students recommended by GSA

Teach for America

Katie Brown, Graduate Student Recruiter, kathryneganbrown@gmail.com

Camp Ronald McDonald

Marisa Materna, Special Events Coordinator, Marisa@campronaldmcdonald.org, (310) 268-8488 (Southern California)

Camp Okizu

Suzie Randall, Coordinator, suzie@okizu.org, (415) 382-9083 (Northen California)

SEED Mentoring Project

Kathryn Fitzmaurice, UCLA School of Law SEED Director, kfitzmaurice@gmail.com

Make a Wish Foundation

Brooke Dafesh, Events Manager, bdafesh@wishla.org, (310) 788-9474 Union Station

Marisa Albanese, Volunteer Coordinator, malbanese@unionstationhs.org, (626) 240-0720

Union Rescue Mission (medically and non-medically-trained volunteers needed)

Alex Cornejo, Volunteer Department, (213) 347-6300 extension 1149, email csc@gsa.asucla.ucla.edu for volunteer information and documents

LA Family Housing

Cecilia Ribakoff, (818) 982-4091 extension 129, info@lafh.org

School on Wheels

Contact the main office at (310) 589-2642 for information, email information@schoolonwheels.org, website www.schoolonwheels.org

Heal the Bay

Contact the main office at (310) 451-1500 or (800) HEAL-BAY, www.healthebay.org

Project Angel Food

Contact the main office at (323) 845-1816, website www.angelfood.org

One Legacy (Transplant Donor Network)

Stephanie Schmitz, Volunteer and Community Events Coordinator, (714) 961-1356, sschmitz@onelegacy.org

Students Run LA

Nikki Carelli, Program Director, (818) 654-1620, nikki@srla.org

Challenge for Charity (Anderson)

Project Echo, Reading to Kids: Erica Colon, Challenge for Charity Director, erica.colon.2009@anderson.ucla.edu

EGSA SAT Prep Program

Christiane Abouzeid, GSA CSC Director, csc@gsa.asucla.ucla.edu

Tree People

Lisa Sotelo, Volunteer Coordinator, (818) 753-4600, volunteer@treepeople.org