Arianna Huffington: Making An Impact: Help a Kid Take the Leap from the Mean Streets of L.A. to a College Campus:
"When we launched HuffPost Impact, our new section devoted to service, causes, and giving back, I wrote about my longstanding (and, now, finally realized) desire to put the spotlight -- 24/7 -- on the work of nonprofit groups in a way that enables people to be inspired and immediately take action to address the urgent needs in our society.
To this end, we have decided to regularly feature nonprofit groups that are working in the trenches every day to help turn people's lives around."
To kick things off, I've decided to pick an organization very close to my heart, A Place Called Home.
A Place Called Home is a remarkable place, with a remarkable backstory.
Back in the early 90s, Debrah Constance was a successful real estate agent, earning over $100,000 a year. She also had a serious drinking problem, for which she was eventually hospitalized. Her recovery inspired her to find a new focus for her life: service.
Determined to make her life about something larger than herself, she met with a consultant for nonprofits who stopped her in her tracks by asking: "What do you really want to do with your life?"
The answer came to her in an instant: "All I want to do is open a safe house for children who live around Jefferson High School, in South Central Los Angeles, where they can get off the street, get a healthy snack, watch TV and do their homework."
The next day, she told her boss she was quitting. He gave her six months severance pay and an office. Six months later, she opened A Place Called Home (APCH).
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/making-an-impact-help-a-k_b_318420.html
"When we launched HuffPost Impact, our new section devoted to service, causes, and giving back, I wrote about my longstanding (and, now, finally realized) desire to put the spotlight -- 24/7 -- on the work of nonprofit groups in a way that enables people to be inspired and immediately take action to address the urgent needs in our society.
To this end, we have decided to regularly feature nonprofit groups that are working in the trenches every day to help turn people's lives around."
To kick things off, I've decided to pick an organization very close to my heart, A Place Called Home.
A Place Called Home is a remarkable place, with a remarkable backstory.
Back in the early 90s, Debrah Constance was a successful real estate agent, earning over $100,000 a year. She also had a serious drinking problem, for which she was eventually hospitalized. Her recovery inspired her to find a new focus for her life: service.
Determined to make her life about something larger than herself, she met with a consultant for nonprofits who stopped her in her tracks by asking: "What do you really want to do with your life?"
The answer came to her in an instant: "All I want to do is open a safe house for children who live around Jefferson High School, in South Central Los Angeles, where they can get off the street, get a healthy snack, watch TV and do their homework."
The next day, she told her boss she was quitting. He gave her six months severance pay and an office. Six months later, she opened A Place Called Home (APCH).
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/making-an-impact-help-a-k_b_318420.html