A volunteer group of mainly retirees is devoted to cleaning up the dirty streets of L.A. Volunteers Cleaning Communities is one of the city’s largest clean-up groups. Members not only find purpose in their work, but find friendships and a new social life.
Brenda Elizondo is an audience engagement fellow at the Los Angeles Times. She was previously a video content creator and reporter for L.A. Times Food and De Los, the Latinidad section. She received her bachelor’s degree in communications from Cal State Fullerton.
Dakota Smith is a staff writer in the Los Angeles Times’ Sacramento bureau, where she covers state government and politics. She was part of the team that won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news for reporting on a leaked audio recording that upended City Hall politics. She joined the newsroom in 2016 and previously covered City Hall for the Los Angeles Daily News. She is a graduate of Lewis & Clark College.
