Deni Rodriguez: artist, writer, thinker, as well as Kid City and Urban Foundation volunteer, is also a first-year Santa Monica College student. Deni wrote this lyrical piece for the Santa Monica College Corsair. No wonder they want her to write more articles!

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College students got some tender love and care thanks to the generosity of Centenary United Methodist Church and Fox Gives. High school students assembled packages with snacks, school supplies, support letters, and slippers, and sent them off before finals! Jorge Morataya (UCSD first-year) sent a facebook message with 21 happy faces: “This is me when I found out through email you sent a package. It just got here, I love the soup and cookies! thank you so much you are the only person who has sent me stuff like that.” Paula Pelayo (UCLA first-year) and Silvia Coto (UC Irvice sophomore) visited Centenary last month with Anne Hawthorne to thank the congregation. 

Jocelyn Martinez is one of ten Kid City students at UCLA. Now in her second year, she is majoring in English and writing for La Gente. Click here for the full article, about how monolingual Spanish speaking parents participate in activities to support their children studying at UCLA.

In addition to regularly volunteering at Kid City, Jocelyn taught a summer pre-college writing and "college-knowledge" course with fellow Kid City college student Maria Alonzo (UCSD) during summer, 2014. Look for more of Jocelyn's writing at Streetsblog LA, where she was recently hired as an intern, and many more places, sure to come in the future. Great work Jocelyn!

At Kid City, just like everywhere else, it's all about who you know. In this case, one of our Kid City student's friend's big brother's cousin. Roger Francisco, a film student at Los Angeles Community College made these two beautiful videos as a course project with support from classmates, instructors, and Kid City staff person (and fellow filmmaker) Alma Catalan. Take a look and thank Roger in the comments below.

http://youtu.be/-eMBphZ7LBY

http://youtu.be/vtbxwtpoVeA

Throughout the past school year, even the previous year as a freshman in high school, my mom repetitively told me, “Kendal, you need a job!” I would always respond with a tone of disinterest, “Yeah yeah, whatever Mommy” to get her to stop talking about it. My family and I have attended Historically Black College and University presentations at Holman United Methodist Church through invitations from a friend of my parents. At the last HBCU presentation, which focused mostly on the top two schools – Spelman and Morehouse, there was a small booth towards the back of the room that caught my mothers’ attention.

We are proud of every single student at Kid City-- from a student doggedly pursuing his diploma at community college, to those excelling at UCLA and UC Berkeley.  This year, Kid City has several students planning to enroll in private colleges, including Yale, Fordham, and Elizabethtown.

Jose Lopez comes from a family of five that has an annual income of less than $20,000. His mother is a homemaker and his father is a garment worker who gets paid by piece. They live in a 250 square foot room, with two bunk beds, a folding table, and one folding chair.  When Jose was little he visited his father at work and was impressed because his father sewed so fast. His father knew he could do better. 

IMAGINE NO MALARIA PANCAKE DINNER:  When members of Kid City’s band, the Baked Potatoes, are not taking music lessons or jamming with their peers, they are performing at events. Last month the Baked Potatoes joined forces with the Imagine No Malaria campaign to fight against this deadly disease at Pasadena First United Methodist Church.

Kids from Kid City Hope Place are busy this week getting ready to host “Splash of LA,” a fundraiser for Kid City. “Splash of LA” will have games and activities for the entire family to enjoy! Annual highlights include a photo booth, bouncy house, arts & crafts, children’s games and activities, delicious tacos and pupusas, raffle & prizes. New this year: tug-o-war, sponge bombs, a theater piece by Kid City's youngest participants, and a table where you can paint, draw, and write a letter to child refugees from Central America. Please join us!

Pay at the door ($5 per person includes performances, entrance, games and activities) or if you can't come but would like to support us, right here. 

Thanks to "First Generation" filmmakers, Wells Fargo, and the Lumina Foundation for bringing their profound film to Los Angeles, inviting Kid City, and serving up popcorn and soda for everyone. The entire Kid City posse laughed, cried, and learned as the four students in the film portrayed their same hopes and fears.

In 2014, the Urban Foundation is celebrating 30 years of supporting urban ministry and faith-based community building by raising funds for our future. In 30 years, the Urban Foundation has:

• Given 1.7 million dollars to support Urban Ministry programs at Claremont School of Theology

Thank you for visiting the new Urban Foundation website, which was made possible by a generous donation from board member Marcus Tanimoto and his wife Eisanne.