Sunco Cares Charitable Contribution Q1 2021

Sunco Lighting regularly donates to worthy charity organizations to promote green initiatives at home and abroad. We also care about the local community. This month, we supported two local charities to fight the growing issue of homelessness in Los Angeles County.

The United Nations lists 17 Sustainable Development Goals they are trying to improve, including: affordable and clean energy, climate action, clean water and sanitation, life below water, life on land, and reduced inequalities. Those admirable goals are something we embrace, too, in our Sunco Cares initiative and our Mission Statement.

The charities Sunco Lighting donated to during Q1 2021:

• Combat energy poverty worldwide
• Promote eco-consciousness worldwide through tree planting
• Promote eco-consciousness locally by reverting urban waterways to a more natural state
• Help local families and individuals experiencing homelessness

Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF)
Powering a brighter 21st century

Mission: SELF design and implements solar projects for disadvantaged communities around the world to advance their levels of healthcare, education, water and food security, and economic development.

Per the SELF website, close to 1 billion people do not have access to electricity. Their solution is to implement and design solar projects for disadvantaged communities worldwide. Although the SELF founders originally focused on solar for homes in countries in Asia. They now focus on the community, rather than the individual, to provide resources like improved healthcare, education, and food security for community empowerment.

One such project was in Haiti where less than 25% of the rural population has access to reliable electricity. SELF created solar hybrid micro-grids to provide renewable energy to people who had not yet received power from the national grid due to the rugged conditions where they lived. Hybrid micro-grids combine solar power and diesel generators. This project was initially begun before the devastating 2010 earthquake and Hurricane Matthew (a category 5 hurricane) struck the country. Nearly 60% of the solar installed had to be replaced after these disasters. SELF returned to Haiti to both rebuild and expand the micro-grid by the end of 2019.

Solar Electric Light Fund also finances additional projects to create solar-powered water pumps in West Africa to deliver clean drinking water. Access to clean water can reduce diseases and the need for women and girls to walk miles each day to collect water. Through a generous grant from The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), Solar energy is now used to pump water from aquifers to reservoirs in the Kalalé District of Benin in West Africa. The low tech pump stations access the water in the reservoir via gravity.

When people have access to clean water it improves not only their health, by avoiding waterborne illnesses, but also frees up their time for other things.

Help deliver solar solutions to people in need.

Donate today to SELF

If you want to learn more on the subject of clean energy, check out the UN’s PDF on why affordable and clean energy matters.

Jewish National Fund (JNF)

With campaigns to plant trees, source water solutions, and fund agricultural research, the JNF is achieving their goal of creating a vibrant oasis in place of a desert.

The National Jewish Fund forests are home to thousands of animals and birds, along with cypress trees, Atlantic cedar, almond, and oak. The NJF have created over 250,000 acres of greenery to beautify the land and provide the green lungs of cities and towns across Israel. Sunco Lighting donated towards their tree planting efforts. You can expand the forest, too.

Plant trees to honor someone you love.

Friends of the LA River
Promoting river stewardship and a more natural watershed

Mission: Ensure an equitable, publicly accessible, and ecologically sustainable Los Angeles River by inspiring River stewardship through community engagement, education, advocacy, and thought leadership.

The Sunco Lighting company headquarters sits alongside a river in the Santa Clarita Valley region with a host of birds and other wildlife in the shrubs and trees that take root there. Los Angeles County has its own river system that was cemented over in 1938, but because of charities like this one, it has been returning to its natural state. Friends of the LA River (FoLAR) has been working towards a return to a more natural ecology along the entire route of the LA river for over 30 years. They also strive to recreate a community connection to what was once a water source for the people and wildlife of this area.

This charity hosts the largest river cleanup in the United States. In 2019, they mobilized thousands of local volunteers to remove over 100 tons of trash. Their goals are to work with nature and alongside communities. This regular cleanup activity prevents ocean contamination by harmful waste and results in a pleasing, visual impact to local residents who use the river for recreation purposes and to reconnect with nature.

Due to the recent pandemic, more Angelenos began to walk, run, and bike along the river. FoLAR pivoted to the need for more virtual content and storytelling in 2020 to involve the community. One activity was to create a month long series of videos that focused upon hearing from indigenous peoples about the history of how the river and watershed impacted the native Tongva’s history, traditions, and their future.

Help improve the environment when you support river stewardship.

Bridge to Home
Homeless Services | Help. Hope. Change.

Bridge to Home focuses on helping local families and individuals experiencing homelessness. This charity provide shelter and supportive services in the Santa Clarita Valley at their Homeless Services Access Center.

Their shelter is open 365 days a year and 24/7. Staff and volunteers work together to support the clients who stay there. By addressing the conditions and causes of homelessness, they help their clients access and then retain housing.
At the moment, Bridge to Home is building a new shelter facility (17,000 sq ft) to house 60 individuals along with 8 families. It should complete in 2022. The shelter will feature a larger kitchen than their existing facility, along with places to meet for workshops or case management. A special technology center will focus on access to education, housing resources, and job training.

Help shelter local people struggling with homelessness.

Donate today to Bridge to Home

Promise of Santa Clarity Valley
Because no child should be homeless

Another local charity near the Sunco Lighting headquarters is Promise of Santa Clarita Valley. This organization focuses on serving families who are struggling with homelessness. Their parent organization, Family Promise, has 149 affiliates in 39 states nationwide. They offer shelter, meals, housing, and job placement services to their clients. They provide hotel rooms or placement in their new Transitional House.

Nearly 60% of their clients are children.

Their method is to house clients for 30 to 90 days during the time while they are seeking employment or housing. They focus on how childcare is a necessity for displaced people who are employed. They also help at-risk families and pregnant women avoid homelessness through advising and mentoring to help people maintain self-sufficiency.

Recently, the City of Santa Clarita donated unused land to the organization to build a new resource center and affordable housing units. Although that will help, 2021 is proving to be extra challenging since the number of displaced people is increasing due to evictions and the end of a rent moratorium. They are currently focusing on rental assistance programs to combat that, along with childcare and transportation assistance.

Donate today to Promise of Santa Clarity Valley

Charitable contributions are not just for show. Donations can directly impact climate change, improve the daily lives of those struggling with energy poverty or economic turndowns, and transform a barren landscape into a forest.

Solar power can be a sustainable alternative for lighting and provide power for much-needed healthcare, education, and local needs in rural areas worldwide. Your donated funds can improve the world in small, meaningful ways to create a more sustainable future when we band together and take a stand for change.

Join our vision for a brighter tomorrow by donating to worthy organizations like these.