Volunteer Project Catalog
Koreatown Youth and Community Center
KYCC’s BRIDGE summer volunteer program, located at our Wilton site, aims to close the gaps in academic, social, and emotional growth in our elementary and middle school students by recruiting, training, and placing high school volunteers who will work directly with our students in our K-8th grade afterschool programs. Bridge's Summer Program provides high school students with the opportunity to earn community service hours while gaining hands-on experience in various classroom settings. Volunteers can choose from multiple days, shifts, and classrooms to fit their schedules. In addition to volunteering opportunities, the program offers engaging field trips, allowing participants to explore new environments and enhance their learning. This program is a great way for students to give back to their community, develop valuable skills, and make meaningful connections! This is open to high school youth 9th to Rising Seniors. The following shifts are available Monday - Friday: 9:00 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. 1:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. 9:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. (with lunch and breaks) To request an application, please Please submit all questions or application inquiries to bridge.kycc@gmail.com. SPACE IS LIMITED and this program will fill up quickly, so we advise all interested volunteers to inquire ASAP. The deadline to apply is May 2, 2025. Student Application: https://form.jotform.com/250625774086059 Parent Application: https://form.jotform.com/250634565017152 BOTH applications must be completed in order to apply.
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Koreatown Youth and Community Center
Join KYCC to beautify our neighborhood and make it more livable for our community members. A well-maintained and graffiti-free environment fosters a sense of pride among residents. People are more likely to feel safer and happier in neighborhoods where efforts are made to remove graffiti promptly. We can't do it alone and need your help! Meeting Location: KYCC Environmental Services Office 1319 W Pico Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90015 Street parking only. Carpooling and public transit is always encouraged as parking in this area can be challenging. If you are driving, please arrive early to find parking. Shifts: Tuesday - Saturday with half-day shifts from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. or full-day shifts from 7:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Registration: ALL volunteers must register 48 hours in advance of their shift. Sign up by scrolling to the bottom of this page and clicking "Volunteer" - please note this button will say "Fulfilled" when the shift is full. Volunteers must be at least 18 years or older. Every year, KYCC removes over 1.3 million square feet of graffiti from the community to improve the quality of life for our residents, increase feelings of safety, and to build a better Los Angeles. During graffiti removal, volunteers will head out with our graffiti removal teams in our trucks to beautify our communities. All tools and supplies are provided. Please note, each shift we only host 4 volunteers and each volunteer may go in a different vehicle as we have several teams covering our community, so if you were hoping to volunteer alongside a friend during your shift we unfortunately cannot promise that. Impact: Did you know? • Neighborhood beautification builds community pride and ownership and can improve the quality of life of the residents. When a person has a good quality of life, they are happier and relieved of many stressors related to their safety and well-being. • Neighborhood beautification can help attract new business, providing convenient local shopping and services, jobs to neighborhood residents, and contributing to street life and economic development. • Overall, community beautification is important because it makes a statement: someone cares about this place. *Please be sure to wear comfortable clothes you don’t mind getting a little dirty, long pants and close-toed shoes are MANDATORY, bring sun protection and a water bottle and be ready to make some change!* **For any court mandated community service, please contact Rudy Fortiz (213) 365-7400 Ext. 5400 or rfortiz@kyccla.org before signing up for a shift. All court mandated volunteers MUST come through a referral agency.**
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Koreatown Youth and Community Center
KYCC's grocery program initially started during the pandemic when we began delivering hot meals to isolated elders in our community, but over the years the program has evolved and grown into a standing grocery program open to our entire community. Every 4th Friday of the month, our housing team and volunteers package hundreds of grocery bags, and as you can imagine it’s a very labor and time-intensive process so we can always use extra help! Shift: 8:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. - work with our team to unload, organize and distribute groceries to those in need as well as clean up after distribution. We also have a lunch that all volunteers are welcome to join (but optional) from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. (food is provided). Street parking only - please note this is a congested area and parking can be challenging at times so we do ask that you plan accordingly. Volunteers must be 18 years or older. Should you have any questions about getting engaged with this program please feel free to reach out to volunteer@kyccla.org.
How you can help:
Koreatown Youth and Community Center
From our small business programs, financial coaching services, preschool and K-12 programs, KYCC has a variety of opportunities for interested individuals and groups to lend their talents to our community. Previous partnerships have included workshops in film, artificial intelligence, college essays, kimchi and a variety of career presentations from professional golfers to cinematographers and everything in between! If you are passionate about your career or have a particular skill you'd like to share with our community and programs then we'd love to hear from you! These opportunities may range from one-time workshops to month-long series or more. Although we do our best to make a match every time, please note that all activities must be aligned with our curriculum and programming, as well as match the interests of those we serve. To learn more and explore a potential partnership please feel free to contact us at (213) 365-7400 Ext. 5239 or volunteer@kyccla.org. We're looking forward to hearing from you!
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Koreatown Youth and Community Center
In addition to all the services KYCC delivers in our community, we also know it's important to provide goods to ensure the day-to-day stability of our most vulnerable neighbors. If you'd like to join us in providing items directly to our community, we welcome you to lead your own item drive on behalf of KYCC and our families. As a note, we'd like to add that we generally prefer not to distribute used items, unless they are very gently used. Our needs may vary, but generally speaking we accept the following year-round: 1. Arts and craft supplies: Art materials and craft supplies for creative activities for our youth participants. 2. Toys: New or gently used toys and games for children of all ages 3. Raffle prizes: Donations of new, unused items suitable as prizes for fundraising raffles and events. 4. Outreach event giveaway items: Small gifts or promotional items to distribute at community outreach events and programs. 5. Hygiene items: Personal care products including toiletries, hygiene kits, and feminine hygiene products 6. Clothing: New or unworn clothing items for individuals of all ages for our housing program residents. 7. Household items: Essential household items such as kitchenware, appliances, furniture 8. Food and Snacks: Non-perishable food items, snacks, and beverages for food drives and programs. 9. School supplies: Backpacks, notebooks, rulers, etc. 10: Misc Items: We are open to donations pending appropriate use for KYCC programs and clients. Please contact us to see if we can accept your items. *KYCC accepts in-kind donations if they provide added benefit to the organization’s work and those we serve. We cannot accept all donations and have limited storage. KYCC reserves the right to decline items we cannot immediately distribute to our families. Items we are not accepting at this time: Books, masks, hand sanitizer.
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Koreatown Youth and Community Center
KYCC's Environmental Services unit offers opportunities for groups to host private tree planting and beautification events. These events are great ways for groups to bond, work as a team and improve morale, all while making a visible impact on our community in just a few hours. Private events also allow partners to work with KYCC staff to set the date, time and location. More details on our fee structure is available at bit.ly/kyccprivateevents To learn more about hosting a private event, please contact Ernie Yoshikawa at (213) 365-7400 Ext. 5239 or volunteer@kyccla.org.
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Koreatown Youth and Community Center
Join the Los Angeles City Mayor's Office, the Office of Community Beautification, and KYCC to clean up our neighborhood and make it more livable for our community members in recognition of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month. This will be one of biggest clean up events of the year. We can't do it alone and need your help! Event Location: Trinity-Central Lutheran Church - 987 S Gramercy Pl, Los Angeles, CA 90019 Parking: Street parking or starting at 8:00 a.m. at Koreatown Plaza located at 928 S Western Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90006 (validation provided at the volunteer check-In - please note it's a 10 minute walk). As always, public transit and carpooling is encouraged. Date/Time: Saturday, May 31st from 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Registration: ALL volunteers must register in advance. Sign up by scrolling to the bottom of this page and clicking "Volunteer" - please note this button will say "Fulfilled" when the event is full. Every year, KYCC removes thousands of bags of trash from our neighborhood to improve the quality of life for our residents, keeping trash out of our oceans and building a better Los Angeles. At this event, volunteers will work in small teams to beautify a designated part of our community. All tools and supplies are provided. Impact: Did you know? • Neighborhood beautification builds community pride and ownership and can improve the quality of life of the residents. When a person has a good quality of life, they are happier and relieved of many stressors related to their safety and well-being. • Neighborhood beautification can help attract new business, providing convenient local shopping and services, jobs to neighborhood residents, and contributing to street life and economic development. • Overall, community beautification is important because it makes a statement: someone cares about this place. Please be sure to wear comfortable clothes you don’t mind getting a little dirty, close-toed shoes, bring sun protection and a water bottle and be ready to make some change!
How you can help:
Koreatown Youth and Community Center
If you're looking for a short-term individual or group project, we have needs that could be a fit! These can take anything from a few hours to a few days, depending on the project. Our needs can vary throughout the year, but may include the following: 1. Site beautification: paint a mural, re-finish and paint furniture, and/or do some light gardening/landscaping 2. Holiday decorations: this is a seasonal opportunity - our youth sites are often in need of some extra hands to decorate our facilities to celebrate upcoming holidays and spread cheer. Work with our team to create and put up decorations and brighten our kids' days. 3. Custom projects: We're open to suggestions, so if you have a project in mind please feel free to reach out to us and share your proposal! In the past we've had volunteers source materials and build furniture for our sites, create themed bulletin boards, and we're currently in need of a team to help us create a quiet space for children to decompress. Please feel free to contact volunteer@kyccla.org with any questions.
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Koreatown Youth and Community Center
Please note, since the 2024 tax season is over this program is currently only accepting previous VITA volunteers. We encourage all new volunteers to join us in November/December 2024 for our next series of trainings, with the new tax season starting in February 2025. The IRS-sponsored Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program is a rewarding experience and a wonderful way to give back to your community. For each hour a volunteer contributes - $1,800 in refunds are brought back to your community. With your support, we can help more households with free VITA services. Our VITA program begins training in December, and operates seasonally from February - April every year. During our VITA season, we have the following positions available: Volunteer Intake Specialist - Assist taxpayers complete the Intake & Interview Sheet at the VITA site. These positions require the successful passing of both (1) Volunteer Standards of Conduct test and (2) Intake & Interview tests. Each test is 10 questions, open book, and about take 2-3 hours to complete. Expect 2-3 hours of studying and completing both tests. Volunteer Tax Preparer - Prepare simple tax returns on the IRS's Tax Slayer Software. This position requires the successful passing of (1) Volunteer Standards of Conduct, (2) Intake/Interview tests, and (3) either Basic, Advance, or Circular 230 tests. Expect 12-20 hours of studying and completing the tests. Our current tax season has begun and will be ending in mid-April 2024. Volunteers are welcome to join at any time during the tax season. All tests are self-paced and open book. Also, free tax preparation software is available to help you train. You can learn more about VITA here: https://www.volunteertaxprep.com/serve. Should you have any questions or if you would like to join please contact our VITA team at freetaxes@kyccla.org.
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Koreatown Youth and Community Center
YDAPP was established in September of 1996 by the High School Korean American Youth Leadership Program as a pilot community project. It has achieved milestone successes and became a permanent youth program since that time. The 10-month leadership program aims to empower high school students to create healthier communities through substance abuse awareness and prevention. Throughout the year, members will participate in weekly workshops that will focus on leadership skills, substance abuse prevention workshops, and community action. YDAPP aims to empower the youth to grow emotionally, socially and mentally through various opportunities and weekly meetings that will help them engage with their communities and one another. Meetings will be held every Thursday from 5:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. at the KYCC offices located a 520 S La Fayette Park Pl, Suite 560, Los Angeles, CA 90057. YDAPP is currently off for the summer and will resume in Fall of 2024. To apply for our 2024-2025 term, please apply at https://form.jotform.com/241715537275056. Please contact Karen Salas at ksalas@kyccla.org with any questions.
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Koreatown Youth and Community Center
Youth Services provides safe, accessible and high quality programs for Koreatown youth. KYCC’s afterschool programs have been a mainstay in our organization since the day we opened our agency in 1975. Nearly forty four years ago, we recognized the need for support for recently immigrated Korean youth who were having trouble adjusting, both culturally and linguistically, to life in the United States. Today, with over 60 percent of Koreatown residents being foreign born, KYCC knows that essential services for all children in our multiethnic community are still a necessity, and that case management, enrichment activities, and academic services are critical to their emotional and educational well-being. Our volunteers help to mentor and tutor our K-12 students in our afterschool programs by assisting our instructors with Homework Help and Enrichment Activities. Volunteers are asked to commit to at least one two-hour shift per week from 4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. Monday - Friday for at least three months. Interns are asked to commit to at least 10 hours per week from 1:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. Monday - Friday for at least three months, however we are not onboarding new interns until Spring 2025. To apply, scroll to the bottom of this page and click on the "volunteer" button to be prompted to sign up for the YS Staff Interview where you'll meet our volunteer supervisor for a brief and informal meeting.
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