Social Impact Social Media

durfee.org Celebrating their 10th year --ince opening in 2010, Libros Schmibros has put over 20,000 books in circulation in Boyle Heights and beyond, and welcomed 17,600 patrons. Founder and co-Director David Kipen obviously has a passion for books and literature. He was a book critic and editor for the San Francisco Chronicle for seven years. He later became Director of Literature for the National Endowment for the Arts. He is a published author and frequently reviews books for the Wall Street Journal, KPCC radio and New York Times. Libros Schmibros’ mission to champion the pleasures of literature and its power to change lives by putting low-or no-cost books into all hands, native and immigrant on Los Angeles’s East and West sides. They are launching a bicycle library outreach program with bikes especially outfitted to carry 40 books. Volunteers will ride neighborhoods including outside local area schools to distribute books from the library If you are in the Los Angeles a...

Started in 1994 by Captain Charles Moore the organization’s initial mission was to restore the disappearing kelp forests and improve water quality along the California coast.   In 1997 all that changed. Captain Moore made a startling discovery at sea. Taking a shortcut from Hawaii to California aboard his 50-foot catamaran he veered away from his usual course and went through the rarely traveled North Pacific Gyre. greatnonprofits.org He recalls that “As I gazed from the deck at the surface of what ought to have been a pristine ocean, I was confronted, as far as the eye could see, with the sight of plastic,” the captain wrote in an essay for Natural History. “It seemed unbelievable, but I never found a clear spot. In the week it took to cross the subtropical high, no matter what time of day I looked, plastic debris was floating everywhere: bottles, bottle caps, wrappers, fragments.” From that point Algalita has pioneered the scientific study of plastic pollution in ...

ladowntownnews.com   I met Mark Horvath some years ago at a networking event for the Social Media Club of L.A. He is funny, smart, approachable and helpful. Most people at the event seemed to know him.  He talked very passionately about what a difference the organization made for him. For 10 years beginning in 1995 Mark, a former Hollywood executive, had been homeless. By 2005 he regained his footing, had a job and bought a home. In 2008 he lost his job and his home, as a result of our economic downturn. Mark was only months from being homeless again when he started InvisiblePeople.TV - literally traveling the country documenting the stories of the homeless. In a visit to the Social Media Club LA he talked about how he wandered into a SMCLA meeting to get something to eat. He was struck by the impact and accessibility of social media and immediately engaged in the organization. He talked about his experience of homeless. He went on the make his case that the homele...