Lutheran Social Services of Southern California is one of the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank’s Agency Partners in a network of about 700 organizations. Area director for LSSSC/San Fernando Valley, Jan Maseda, opens up about her 20-year experience in a virtual interview with the Food Bank on Zoom. Jan discusses the people she’s been able to help, including those experiencing...

Kimberly’s parents left El Salvador due to the devastating impact of the country’s civil war on her community. After a very difficult road they ultimately made their way to the US where Kimberly eventually joined the LSS Southern California Upward Bound (UB) program at San Ysidro High school. Kimberly immediately became an asset and star student of the program. Once...

We have just mailed out the LSS Southern California 2020 newsletter. It is now available online. It has been a unique year and LSSSC has done a lot. Please take time to read and if you want download and share with friends. Thank you, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from LSSSC. Click here to download the

Please take a moment to look at our current LSS Southern California newsletter. In this edition you will read an article about our new President and CEO, Dr. LaSharnda Beckwith, and her plans and focus for the fall. In addition, there is an update from some of our service locations about issues relating to Covid-19, as well as a story...

Dr. La Sharnda Beckwith, President and CEO of Lutheran Social Services Southern California recently met with prominent women from across the country to discuss the intersectionality of systemic racism in our country and the growing disparities recent events have revealed. A community leader with a global perspective, Dr. Beckwith facilitated a respectful yet candid discussion on a number of wide-ranging...

For over 70 years, Lutheran Social Services has reached out to those on the margins of society: men, women and children with no home in which to live, no food to eat, no clean clothes to wear, no work to earn a living, and no reason to think today will be any different from yesterday. But there is another population...

Guadalupe, a single mom, lived with her three children in their apartment.  She tried to provide her young ones with everything they needed, and spent as much time as possible being a caring mother.  The children’s father had visitation with them every other weekend.     Lupe worked a night shift, and the father kept them during the evening hours,...

Felix came to the LSS office in Garden Grove. We gave him food and clothing and helped him pay for a storage locker for the next 30 days.  Everything he owned was in storage, and without money to pay the rent, all his possessions would have been sold at auction.     It was really a bad time for him. ...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Veteran Executive Becomes First African American CEO to Lead Venerable Institution FULLERTON, Calif. – The Board of Directors of Lutheran Social Services Southern California (LSSSC), today announced the appointment of Dr. LaSharnda Beckwith as President and CEO of LSS Southern California. Dr. Beckwith becomes the first African American CEO in the agency’s 75-year history. Beckwith joins the...

Carla’s life had consisted of one disaster after another. She grew up in foster care, and struggled with mental health issues from her early childhood. By the time she was 35, she had four children between the ages of four and ten, all of who had special mental health needs. She couldn’t find a job, and if she had, there...