On Saturday, February 8th, 2014, the Pacifica Institute joined LAMP Community and a number of other local nonprofits to organize “Diva Day,” a day-long event that provided health and wellness services to homeless women living in Skid Row, an area of downtown Los Angeles with an estimated homeless population of 11,000 people—the largest in the nation.
The event, organized by The Roots Foundation, offered a full day of pampering and health services for homeless women living on Skid Row, including free hairdressing, nail care services, clothing, hygiene kits, a confidence and well-being workshop, blood pressure screening and health check-ups. Around 100 women stopped by. The Roots Foundation is composed of a group of undergraduate students at the University of Southern California that strongly believes that all people, regardless of their circumstances, should receive the medical care they need. To that end, The Roots Foundation works to bring health- and wellness-related services to the particularly vulnerable population of women living in Skid Row.
‘Diva Day’ on February 8th marked the first of what The Roots Foundation and Lamp Community anticipate to be a monthly event for women living in Skid Row. Forthcoming events will consist of educational and recreational workshops and as medical counseling and will strive to empower women through self-efficacy- and confidence-building—critical skills that are often lost during homelessness.
LAMP Community is a Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization seeking to permanently end homelessness by providing permanent support housing and by remaining unrelenting in its mission to end homelessness by improving the health and building the self-sufficiency of men and women living with mental illness in Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles branch of Pacifica Institute sponsored beverages for the event. It also mobilized volunteers to serve food and sort donated clothing items. Pacifica Institute is a non-profit organization established in 2003 by a group of Turkish-Americans. Over the years, Pacifica Institute has maintained a proven track record of designing and executing projects covering social welfare, education, poverty, and conflict resolution issues in collaboration with scholars, activists, artists, politicians, and religious leaders-communities. It maintains 5 local branches in California, in addition to ones in Nevada, Hawaii, Idaho and Utah. Pacifica Institute is organized under the West American Turkic Council (WATC), a regional federation under the Turkic American Alliance headquartered in Washington, D.C.
