What's Happening at the Center
- The Fifth Annual MENDing Poverty Conference will be held from 8 am to 2 pm on Wednesday, June 13, 2012 in Pacoima, co-hosted by MEND and VNR. This year’s theme is “Where Are the Jobs?” Speakers and workshops will focus on the role finding, getting and keeping a job plays in helping people get out of poverty. Keynote speakers will be Alicia Villareal, US Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis’s West Coast representative; Dr. Christine Cooper, Vice President of Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation (who will provide a commentary to Ms. Villareal’s speech, and later chair a workshop); and Dolores Huerta, President of Dolores Huerta Foundation and co-founder of United Farm Workers. Workshops will focus on employment policy, innovative employment programs, and the role of volunteerism both in promoting employment and helping sustain the nonprofit sector. This conference brings together the leadership of Los Angeles area nonprofits serving poor people, as well as funders and policymakers - more than 180 people came to the 2011 conference. Conference planning committee co-chairs are Jocelyn Guihama of UCLA Center for Civil Society and James Garrison of Pacific Federal. For more information and to register, contact Maggie Torres maggie@mendpoverty.org
