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# Young people tapped to ‘connect’ local nonprofits to public
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/young-people-tapped-to-connect-local-nonprofits-to-public/
- Published: 2008-08-06T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T20:32:53.000Z
- Author: Melody Hanatani
- Tags: Education, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*New campaign aims to raise awareness about nonprofits*

18TH STREET For years, young adults have entered their thoughts on Internet diaries, opting for the electronic medium to publish their opinions on a recent TV episode or latest juicy high school gossip, the likes of Blogger and Xanga replacing the old notebook.

But trendy topics seem to be changing, at least in Santa Monica where a group of local teenagers have found something new to blog about — nonprofit organizations.

Their journals are part of a new City Hall-sponsored effort to raise more awareness about the city’s 34 artist groups and human service providers, tasking 10 local high school and college-aged students to spend the next three months interviewing and writing about the various cultural and social efforts, the entries being posted on a new Web site called SantaMonicaConnect.org.

The initiative was unveiled during a Tuesday press briefing at the 18th Street Arts Center, which is partnering with City Hall, acting as a go-between for the various program participants, including Jewish Vocational Services — who hired the teenagers — and marketing firm Counterintuity.

“We’re proposing some innovative and different ways to get the word out,” Julie Rusk, the human services manager for City Hall, said.

The $70,000 project aims to increase the visibility for nonprofit organizations through an aggressive marketing campaign, consisting of the new Web site, a monthly e-mail newsletter, a door hanger drop to every residence in the city, and a mass-mailed postcard — reading “It’s here for you” — delivery to 300 businesses and groups.

In addition to directing the public’s attention to the services provided by the nonprofits, the site will also help the various organizations, all of which receive city funding, communicate with each other.

“We found that these … organizations don’t all know each other,” Lee Wochner, the CEO and creative strategist for Counterintuity, said.

The site will launch on Aug. 11 — or 8/11 — at 8:11 a.m.

Among the beneficiaries of the new campaign will be the Venice Family Clinic, which is one of the largest health care providers in the state.

“Our mission is to provide fine quality health care to people in need, so it’s nice to get support with activities that are not central to our mission but are very important,” Timothy Smith, the communications director for the clinic, said. “It’s nice to see the city’s role as being larger than simply providing funding.”

Among the bloggers is Asia David, a Santa Monica resident who will be a senior at the Community Harvest Charter School in Los Angeles.

“I wanted more experience in connecting with people and being a better writer as well,” she said.

After going through a series of workshops, the students were allowed to select a group of nonprofits in which they were interested. The only catch is that all 34 organizations must be profiled on the site at least twice before the project concludes in the fall.

The site will be updated with three or four new entries every week.

The students, many of whom are between the ages of 15 and 20, are all from the city and largely unaware of the plethora of organizations.

In her first week on the job, David has already interviewed the Virginia Avenue Project, a free after-school program that uses the arts to help children reach their full potential.

“I learned a lot about an organization I had no idea existed,” David, who plans to write up her blog later this week, said.

City Hall will evaluate the program after the three-month project period is over, asking organizations whether they have noticed an increase in activity, monitoring the number of hits on the Web sites and e-mail newsletters.

John Ruskin, the artistic director of the Ruskin Group Theater Co., said it’s hard for nonprofit groups to get the word out because of the high cost of advertising.

“It’ll be great to come together on one Web site,” Ruskin said. “Anytime you unionize the artists and the various nonprofits, it’s powerful.”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 6, 2008.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/080608.pdf?ref=smdp.com)