Hello Friend,
From the Pacific Coast to the San Gabriel foothills, people of our beloved Los Angeles are experiencing the life-altering losses of their homes, neighborhoods and in some tragic cases their loved ones. They and we are also experiencing the anxiety of evacuating our homes, including members of our staff, Board, advisors, supporters, colleagues, partners and friends. The Pacific Palisades is gone. Altadena and parts of Pasadena are gone. This is heart-breaking. And this crisis is not over yet. My heart goes out to all impacted families during this time of high anxiety across our city and county as we all try to navigate the uncertainty, grief, and - at the moment - continued threat of more wind and fire.
Our Pasadena office is right in the midst of it all so we shall monitor the situation there very carefully. We will continue to assess how we can serve and meet our commitments in the safest way as events evolve.
I also want to express appreciation for the heroic efforts made by our local fire and police departments and emergency workers including those flying in from around the country and the world to help us. And I really want to express my gratitude to our own POV first responders, our staff and volunteers making sure that POV is there 24/7 for survivors and fielding requests for resources during this crisis time.
Right now even if you may not be directly impacted, we are all trauma adjacent - which means we are all impacted in this collective trauma, so please take good care of yourselves and each other. Amanda Gorman in her poem Smoldering Dawn uses the phrase, “The hardest part is not disaster, but the after.” Once we get through the immediate crisis, “the after” will be daunting and huge. We will all have to hone our resiliencies so that together as a wider LA community we can heal, restore, repair, and rebuild. Remember we are POV Strong and together we are LA Strong!
