LA Galaxy, Corporation for Supportive Housing and Robey Theatre is going through TRANSITIONS.

Southern California Experience with LaFern Cusack

710 ESPN Radio Los Angeles

Click Here To Listen Live Online: ESPN Los Angeles.com

Gloria King, Director, Community Development, LA Galaxy/ Director, Los Angeles Galaxy Foundation

In her eleventh season with the LA Galaxy, Gloria King oversees the club’s community development department, in addition to her dual role as director of the Los Angeles Galaxy Foundation. A leader in her field, King created and runs one of the most ambitious and successful community development programs and foundations in Major League Soccer, which aids the club in ticket sales, sponsorship and media exposure. (Photo ID Right: Gloria King and LaFern Cusack)

With the support of the LA Galaxy coaching staff and players, King has coordinated numerous fundraisers such as the Foundation’s annual Day on the Links Golf Tournament and How Suite It Is! Champagne and Wine Tasting in order to fund its many outreach programs and initiatives, including Camps for Kids, Kicks for Kids, the annual Foundations’ Feast and the Holiday Assist Program.

Additionally, King has organized outstanding team and community involvement throughout her tenure including but not limited to visits with children in LA area hospitals and team clinics which assist in growing the sport of soccer by demonstrating not only skills, but also character and sportsmanship to thousands of kids. King has also fostered relationships and partnerships with non-profit organizations such as the Los Angeles Regional Foodbank, City of Hope and the National Education Association (NEA) in order to further the team and Foundation’s philanthropic endeavors.

It is through these efforts by King that the LA Galaxy and Los Angeles Galaxy Foundation are recognized as one of the most responsible community and corporate partners in Southern California.

The Los Angeles Galaxy Foundation is a 501(1)(c) organization dedicated to supporting and creating educational, health and recreational activities and programs for children in Southern California, with a specific focus on assisting underserved and at-risk youth. The Galaxy Foundation is committed to encouraging, educating and empowering the children in our community.

The LA Galaxy are teaming up with the United Nations Foundation’s Nothing But Nets—a global, grassroots campaign to end malaria in Africa. Galaxy midfielder Chris Klein serves as the club’s MLS ambassador to Nothing But Nets increasing awareness and encouraging fans to help kick Malaria out of Africa. MLS W.O.R.K.S., Major League Soccer’s community outreach initiative, has been connecting its teams, players, and fans to send nets and save lives through Nothing But Nets since 2007.

In the lead up to the 2010 World Cup, to be played in Africa for the first time—where 90 percent of malaria deaths occur, Nothing But Nets, the Galaxy and other MLS teams across the country are Uniting Against Malaria to use the momentum around the World Cup while all eyes are on Africa. Malaria infects more than 500 million people around the world each year, killing more than 1 million. Bed nets are an easy and cost-effective method of preventing the spread of the disease. For more information: http://www.lagalaxy.com/  

_____________________
Segment II:  Sunday, June 13, 2010 (5a-6a PST)Listen Online Live: ESPNLosAngeles.com

Neil McGuffin, Associate Director, The Corporation for Supportive Housing: Public-Private Partnership to Rescue Stalled Supportive Housing Projects 

The Corporation for Supportive Housing is a national nonprofit organization and community development financial institution that helps communities create permanent housing with services to prevent and end homelessness. CSH advances its mission by providing advocacy, expertise, leadership, and financial resources to make it easier to create and operate supportive housing.

$5 Million Initiative Will Fund Housing Projects Halted by Budget Crises and Frozen Credit Markets
The Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH) and Conrad N. Hilton Foundation today announced a $5.2 million initiative to continue building permanent supportive housing for homeless people in Los Angeles. With assistance from the Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles (CRA/LA), JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Fannie Mae, The Los Angeles Supportive Housing Recovery Initiative, as the new effort is called, will provide a mix of grants, low-interest loans and technical assistance to housing developers in Los Angeles that are experiencing project delays due to state and municipal budget crises and frozen credit markets.

Permanent supportive housing, which combines affordable housing with supportive services, has proven to be a highly cost effective way to end long term homelessness for people facing complex challenges, including mental illness, substance abuse and physical disabilities. The economic downturn has stalled construction of new supportive housing developments and placed a crippling financial burden on many nonprofit housing developers who have been forced to resort to program cuts, hiring freezes and lay-offs.

“The LA Supportive Housing Recovery Initiative is critical to ensure that the permanent supportive housing industry isn’t permanently hurt by the recession, which would have long-term and devastating results for the city, nonprofit developers and homeless and disabled people in desperate need of this housing,” said Ruth Teague, CSH Los Angeles Director.

Reports show a significant drop in homelessness in Los Angeles County over the last few years due, in part, to an unprecedented rise in the production of permanent supportive housing. The initiative will restore momentum to an effort that CSH, the Hilton Foundation and other partners began five years ago to address chronic homelessness in Los Angeles. That initial effort stimulated the development of more than 2,000 new units of permanent supportive housing and attracted dozens of new developers into the permanent supportive housing field. Approximately 600 of these units are shovel-ready but have not been built due to the difficult economic environment and lack of access to public and private financing commitments that were previously made.

“In order for the supportive housing sector to weather the current economic storm and ensure earlier successes and momentum continue, the initiative also will foster broader collaboration among government, foundations, banks, and Community Development Financial Institutions. This will allow the community to address the recession in a more proactive, coordinated manner, enabling stalled projects to move forward, while promoting greater collaboration as an industry-wide solution to this crisis,” Teague noted.

By providing chronically homeless people with a way out of expensive emergency public services and enabling them to get back into their own homes and communities, supportive housing not only improves the lives of its residents but also generates significant tax savings.  For more information: http://www.csh.org/

_____________________
Segment III: Sunday, June 13, 2010 (5a-6a PST)
Listen Online Live: ESPNLosAngeles.com

Kellie Roberts, Playwright, "Transitions" and Ben Guillory, Producing Artistic Director, Robey Theatre Company

Robey's mission is, through the creative process, to explore and develop relevant provocative, and innovative new plays written about the Black experience, as well as to reinterpret established works.

Robey creates a nourishing environment of understanding and support in which multi-cultural theatre artists are compelled to take risks in the search for artistic fulfillment. It provides time, educational opportunities, and encouragement for such growth and contributes to high standards of excellence in the Black theatre in America.

“Transitions.” World Premiere engagement of a new show. Written by Kellie Roberts. Directed by Dwain A. Perry. Produced by Ben Guillory for Robey Theatre Company in association with Los Angeles Theatre Center. Los Angeles Theatre Center, in the intimate Theatre 4, 514 S. Spring St., Los Angeles, CA 90013. Previews Thursday, June 17 at 8 p.m. Opens Friday, June 18, 2010 at 8 p.m. Regular show times Fri. at 8, Sat. at 3 and 8, Sun. at 3 and 7. Closes Sunday, June 27. ADMISSION: $30. Students $20. RESERVATIONS: (213) 489-0994 ext. 107. ONLINE TICKETING: http://www.thelatc.org/

Kellie Roberts is a versatile talent who is not only an actress but a writer and ballroom dancer as well. Last year Kellie performed in the Robey Theatre Company’s West Coast Premiere of “A House With No Walls,” in the role of Cadence Lane. As a member of the Robey Theatre Company’s Playwrights Lab, Kellie has written a series of one-acts.

Ben Guillory is a revered veteran African-American actor and theatre producer and director of both the stage and screen. Raised in San Francisco, California, Guillory co-founded the Robey Theatre Company in honor of pioneering actor, public speaker, and opera singer 'Paul Robeson' with actor Danny Glover (of Lethal Weapon (1987) fame in Los Angeles in 1974, and serves as its artistic director. He received an Ovation Award nomination for Featured Actor in a Play in 2008, for his performance as Wining Boy in "The Piano Lesson" produced at The Hayworth Theatre in Los Angeles.
A highly sought-after supporting actor on the large and small screen, he has appeared in such films as the Oscar-Winning film The Color Purple (1985), and the biographical TV film The Tuskegee Airmen (1995) (TV). His television credits include guest spots on television shows such as "Dynasty" (1981), "The Jeffersons" (1975), "JAG" (1995), and numerous other programs. Guillory is slated to appear in the film The Harimaya Bridge (2009), which is post-production as of May 2009.
For more information: http://www.robeytheatrecompany.com/