Prepare Winter Kits & Children’s Activity Kits!

Set-up a Big Give-style assembly line in your own home and prepare Winter Kits to bring some warmth to our neighbors who are unhoused, or Children’s Activity Kits to help the youngest members of our community have some extra fun and explore their creativity this holiday season.

Drop these items off at the Karsh Center only on Thursday, 11/18, between 4:00pm – 6:00pm or Tuesday, 11/23 between 9am – 11am (sign-up required so we know you’re coming). Please print and complete this form to bring with your items (only one form is needed per household dropping off items, taped to the outside of the box or bag you drop items off in).

Click here to see what goes into a “Winter Kit.”

Click here to see what goes into a “Children’s Activity Kit.”

No-Sew Blankets

Take on this favorite annual Big Give activity right from your own living room!

Register to pick up a no-sew blanket making kit from the Karsh Center while supplies last. Drive-through blanket kit pick-up will take place at the Karsh Center on Tuesday, 11/9, from 4:00pm – 6:00pm, and you can drop-off completed blankets on Thursday, 11/18 from 4:00pm – 6:00pm.

Additionally, there is an option to pick up blankets from a private home in Westwood on Tuesday, 11/9 from 3pm – 6pm, and drop off at that same location on Thursday, 11/18, from 3pm – 5pm. Our thanks to Women of Wilshire for spearheading this project and hosting this alternative pick-up/drop-off location!

Click here for more instructions about how to make a no-sew blanket.

You are also welcome to purchase your own no-sew blanket making kit online at yourfleece.com. If you are going to make and donate a blanket using your own materials, let us know you’re coming to drop-off by signing up here!

Donate Blood

Each pint of donated can save up to three lives! What better gift to give this holiday season. Interested blood donors can sign up directly with Cedars-Sinai Blood Donor Services here for an appointment on-site at Cedars-Sinai. 

Housing Security Lunch & Learn

Tuesday, 11/16, 12:00pm on Zoom

Registration required.

Since before the pandemic began, housing access and insecurity has been at the forefront of the conversation around key challenges facing Angelenos. The eviction moratorium that was put in place at the beginning of the pandemic has been an important measure to help our communities stay housed in the last 18 months, and it also shines a spotlight on the gravity of housing insecurity. While the moratorium was an important resource for many to survive the last year and a half, it also begs the important question: what happens to those who stayed housed during the moratorium, now that it has expired? 

Join the Karsh Center, and experts from our community, including Congressman Jimmy Gomez’s office and Inner City Law Center, for a lunchtime panel discussion about the eviction moratorium, the realities of how it impacts our communities and neighbors in Los Angeles, what the short-term future holds for renters, and ways that you can help now that the moratorium has expired in LA County.

Thanksgiving Bag Recipe Demonstration

On-Demand

Join FEAST to explore our Thanksgiving meal bag and watch a recipe demonstration for creative ways to use the items we’ll distribute. A Karsh Center Collaborator, FEAST’s mission is to promote health and wellness in communities through the power of healthy foods and human connection. This includes hosting cohorts of Karsh Center clients for their 16-week group program.

Show Us Your Big Give

Have a Big Give memory or activity you can’t stop thinking about this week? Help us bring the Big Give community to life by recording a video here telling us what the Big Give means to you, sharing pictures of your Big Give volunteer service, or showing us your at-home Big Give Week 2021 projects!  

Check back soon for additional virtual volunteer activities! 

It is only with the support of dedicated volunteers that we will be able to prepare 1,500 Thanksgiving meal bags to our community, feeding 6,000 people! It will take an amazing group of volunteers to help prepare the bags, move the turkeys and pies, load up vehicles, pack hygiene kits, and of course, hand off the Big Give bags to the members of our community who will turn it into their Thanksgiving meal.

For safety reasons, this year’s on-site volunteer activities are highly limited and registration is required. This year we are unable to host any groups for activities, and individuals will only be permitted to sign up themselves and the members of their own household. Please read all instructions in the registration portal before beginning registration.

Click here for a visual guide for registering for on-site volunteering at Big Give Week 2021

This year, volunteers will register for Big Give 2021 in-person activities as households, not as individuals. However, one individual from the household will be the lead contact and will sign up for the group. The lead contact will fill in their information as the primary contact and can then add up-to-four other members of their household/pod. For each member of the household, the primary contact should be prepared to upload their name, birthday, emergency contact information, and a photo of the front of their vaccine card.

To register for in-person Big Give activities, click here or on the link below. Registration will be a three step process:

1. Sign-in based on whether you have volunteered with us before and fill out your contact information if prompted.
2. Then, fill out the “Qualification” section and the “About You” section and enter the complete information of up to four other members of your household who will be volunteering with you in the “Household Members” section. “Submit” your application.
3. After selecting submit, you will be able to see the available shifts by navigating to “Opportunities” and then “Opportunities Calendar” at the top of your screen. This will show you all available Big Give volunteer shifts, for which you can select “sign up.” 

If you are a current volunteer (you have gone through the Karsh Center orientation and regularly sign up for shifts through Volunteer Impact):

• You still must fill out the Big Give 2021 application to be able to see Big Give Week activities, even if you have already filled out the general Karsh application
• When you open the application, sign in on the right side under the heading “I already have a username.” You will log in with your usual login information

If you are a new volunteer or haven’t logged into this system before:

• When you open the application, sign in on the left side under the heading “I am new to MyImpactPage.com.”
• If you do not currently volunteer at the Karsh Center but receive a popup message that you have an account about which you are not aware, please go ahead and make a new account

For a more detailed explanation of how to fill out the in-person activities application, click here for a visual guide.

–  COVID-19 On-Site Safety Protocols –

All on-site activities will be conducted according to strict on-site COVID-19 safety protocols, including a requirement to wear a mask while on-site; a limited number of individuals on-site per volunteer shift; wellness screenings prior to arriving and upon arriving at-site; and maintaining adequate physical distance from others while on-site as a volunteer or picking up a bag. Finally, all on-site volunteers must be at least 12 years old and fully vaccinated.