League Champions Hollywood Neighborhood
Around the corner from the Crush Bar in Hollywood, where disco divas dance till dawn, there is a little oasis of decorum called the Assistance League. From the inside it resembles a sorority house circa 1960, with a grand staircase, a tea room and antiques scattered here and there.
But it is here that the Assistance League of Southern California does most of its community social service work, nine programs in all that range from caring for the elderly to a latchkey facility for children to family counseling.
Long Waiting List
Although the Hollywood community makes extensive use of the programs (there is a waiting list of 3,500 for the day nursery, which now has 166 children), league members believe the rest of Los Angeles has an image of it as a group of nice ladies who give teas. That’s not unusual; other charities have that image also. But rather than be satisfied with that impression, the league is playing catch-up with the sophisticated and highly competitive world of fund raising and volunteer support.
The neighborhood is enough to remind members that the world is not made up of benefit fashion shows and thrift shops. “Sometimes I sit up here all day in this lovely office and it doesn’t hit me until I walk out the front door and the security guard has to walk me to my car,” said Sally Hinckley, current president of the league, a volunteer post. “There are children playing in the parking lot, children who don’t have a playground to play on. I think for a lot of women who work here have had the opportunity of raising their families in an entirely different environment, and it really tugs at their heart that there are children who have not had the same opportunities. We have to be aware of the fact that we are sitting in the middle of a lot of the people that we serve. And there are some of our members who aren’t enchanted with coming over here.”
The league began in 1919 with one community service, providing baby-sitting services parents in the movie industry. Now there are nine, run by an all-female volunteer and salaried staff: the day nursery, with classes and recreational activities for children 2 1/2 to 6 from low-income families; Family Service, which incorporates family and individual counseling, the Western Region Asian American Project (social and health services) and the Hollywood Senior Citizen Multipurpose Center; Children’s Theater, which stages two performances a year for children not exposed to live theater; Children’s Club, an after-school latchkey facility; Operation School Bell, providing clothing to needy children; Children’s Service--Safety On Stage, which produces puppet shows and visual presentations that teach basic safety rules; the Volunteer Center of the San Fernando Valley, where volunteers are placed in community agencies; and the Over 50 Club, a recreational and social club for men and women older than 50.
Supporting these services are 1,550 volunteers, most of whom belong to 22 auxiliaries with names like Bib and Tuckers, Hilltoppers and Noontimers. The league has a debutante ball every year for high school girls who have completed required volunteer work.
Tea Room and Gift Shop
The league also supports a tea room, gift shop and thrift shop at its main offices on North St. Andrews Place. “We’re very proud of our tea room and gift shop,” Hinckley said, “but in terms of what we do in the community this is the tip of the iceberg.”
The league is one of 73 chapters nationwide, but its roots are here. Eighty years ago Anne Banning, wife of Hancock Banning, a prominent businessman and member of one of the city’s founding families, convinced some friends to help her gather up supplies to send to victims of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Figuring she should also do something to help out the needy locally, she started the Assistance League in 1919.
The organization is somewhat unusual because it started and continues to support so many varied services. But there has been no master plan that has guided its growth, Hinckley said. “It happened as the need arose,” she said. “I think the progression really did start as women worked in the community and saw the need for a children’s club. And that very thing has caused us in the last few years to sit down and say we must evaluate where we are. We could keep going forever, the need is so great.”
The league is satisfied with its current crop of services and has no immediate plans for expansion. Recently, however, the board of directors came up with a five-year plan that is still being evaluated. One idea being bandied about is the concept of a family center, bringing together several agencies under one roof. That way, said Hinckley, services would be more closely connected. Seniors could be brought in from the Multipurpose Center blocks away, perhaps serving in a volunteer capacity with some of the other agencies.
According to executive director Betty Ketron, “We realized that what we were doing really was needed. And obviously the need is greater than any agency can fill, so it’s a matter of focusing on what we do best.”
The league owns a sizable chunk of property around Western Avenue and Sunset Boulevard, on which is built its office and several facilities (satellite offices are spread around Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley). Across the street from the main office is the Children’s Club, where 97 older youths take afternoon classes in computers, music, swimming and drama.
Boon to Single Parents
Parents pay on a sliding scale according to their income (fees range from 5 to 20 cents an hour). The facility is a boon to single parents like Maria Bello, a paralegal who has two sons, 7 and 9, in the club. “I desperately needed a place for my children,” she said. “I looked all last summer in desperation, and I couldn’t find what I considered a proper place,” or one she could afford.
“The club is very well organized,” she said. “The children are not standing out in the street. My children were there this summer, and asked if they could stay after school, too.”
Children at the club can also learn to swim. According to summer director Jana Carson, “Because of the demographics (most of the children are from the nearby Hollywood area) there are no pools, so they never learn how to swim. And most of their parents have a tremendous fear of the water.”
Five-year-old Shoji Morita is considered a success story; his fear of the water was finally cured one day when he ventured into the pool with a swimming instructor. As he was furiously dog paddling a gaggle of other children, also afraid of swimming, huddled near a staircase, intently watching the proceedings.
The club and the day nursery serve a large Latino population, but children are from several different ethnic backgrounds, including Albanian, Korean and Spanish. As a result, Carson said, “The children here are at different levels of English. But they help each other--they use the buddy system. Someone who knows more English will translate.”
The league’s budget for 1986-87 is $3.8 million, up $800,000 from the previous year. Money comes from the United Way, city, state and federal funds, grants and funds raised by the members of the league. Last year the league raised $550,000 through benefits and membership dues, which total $100 a year, not including auxiliary dues.
Ketron said the organization is rethinking its position on benefits. Most of the 22 auxiliaries hold their own benefits, and until this year there was an annual all-league benefit as well. “We find people are benefited out,” said Chip Selby, the board’s liaison to the Children’s Club. One solution has been to combine benefits and have auxiliaries that support the same service team up and throw one party.
Raising More Funds
Techniques of fund raising are becoming more sophisticated, too. A recent seminar on special events stressed underwriting and cost-cutting techniques for charity functions. Plans for this year’s all-league benefit were scrapped while “we’re putting our resources into the auxiliaries to have them get more out of the benefits they’re doing,” Ketron said. But this doesn’t mean an end to all social functions; Ketron and others said that that aspect of the league is what keeps volunteers involved.
The league is also preparing to tap the surrounding community for financial support. Said Hinckley, “I think we’re well known in the Hollywood community to those we serve. The people we want to become more obvious to are those who can help us with funding needs.”
An advisory group for the Children’s Club, made up of local business people and civic leaders, has raised the league’s profile and brought people in to see how the program works.
Members are becoming more aggressive fund-raisers, too, Hinckley said. Years ago “ladies were ladies, and didn’t handle going after money the same way they are today.” Using business contacts, whether their own or their husbands’, is encouraged.
“They’re not feeling a reluctance about that that they once did; but that’s not unique to the Assistance League. At our first fund-raising meeting last week it was obvious that several women had taken classes in fund raising.”
Hinckley is not worried about keeping a steady flow of volunteers coming into the league, although many charities are facing declining ranks as more women enter the job market. “We’re finding ways to work with working women,” she said. Recently a new post, vice president of volunteers, was added to organize the ranks better and place women in areas where they’re needed most. And there has been talk of putting on programs for volunteers, along the lines of lectures and museum talks.
“There is a good reason for it,” she said, “to bring people back. With an organization this large you have to keep in touch with everyone. We’re trying to stay on top of the needs.”