Southern California
World Vision began serving in the Los Angeles area in 1987, focusing our work in Compton and MacArthur Park.
Our programs include Essential Supplies, Teacher Resource Center (including a mobile unit), Building Materials, and Youth Empowerment Program. We also offer training and capacity-building for organizations that tutor or otherwise serve youth.
In FY2012, we served nearly 265,000 children, youth, and adults in Southern California with our more than 500 partner organizations, more than 450 volunteers, and trainings.
Overcoming struggles to find purpose and unite teens
When David was only 6, his troubled father abandoned him, his sister, and their mother. "There were some days we had no food," David remembered. "We couldn't go out for fun. It was really bad."
Their life stabilized after his mother remarried years later, though central Los Angeles is a hard place to raise a family and be a teen. "Almost every weekend you would hear drunk people in the middle of the night," David said. "Around the MacArthur Park area, that's where you would see a lot of drugs." Read more...
