November 4, 2020

Diana Pinto – Executive Director, South Central Los Angeles Ministry Project (SC LAMP)

We at LAMP mark a month since reopening and the launch of our new schedule. Normally I would share news of the children’s pitter-patter and how they are adjusting to school life, along with the progress of their moms. However, with COVID 19, our program looks very different.  We decided our theme would be “adjust, adapt and respond.”  We knew that if we were going to get through the challenges of this pandemic, we would need to be flexible and ready to do precisely this – adjust, adapt and respond!

Being flexible has not been easy, change rarely is, and when one works with a community disproportionately affected by COVID 19, challenges are even greater. An incredible reality, however, is that these challenges enable help us to see things differently. At the end of the day, how we achieve our mission is not as important as fulfilling our mission. We created a hybrid program that allows families to bring their children one day a week, pick up packets to take home, and then join their class on zoom and class dojo.  We soon realized that just because our current schedule does not look like regular programming does not mean it is not valuable. I am newly excited to see how dedicated our families have been to their education and those of their precious children.   But I am not surprised, because our mission has always attracted those who want to better their lives and the lives of those they love!