The December meeting of the North of Montana Avenue Neighborhood Association (NOMA) will be dominated this month by talks from four local non-profit organizations: Rev. Ron Hooks from West Coast Care, Josh Hertz from The People Concern, Mallory Loring from Chrysalis and Nancy Coleman from We Are Santa Monica Fund.
NOMA is a volunteer group of residents working to improve life in the neighborhood of Santa Monica defined by Adalaide Drive, San Vicente Blvd and City limits to the north, 26th Street to the East, Ocean Ave to the west and Montana Ave to the south — an area comprising of approximately 5,200 homes. It was created in May 1998 and just seven months later it was formally incorporated as a California non-profit, public benefit corporation. It was inactive from 2008 to 2011, whereupon a group of neighbors came together to revive it.
“We don’t normally have a theme, per se, we might have three different speakers talking about three different things,” said Bruce Leddy, Chair, NOMA, adding, “But I thought it would be interesting to have a theme that was a little bit seasonal, in that it’s the season of giving, and that we’d invite speakers from some of the local nonprofits and charities that are doing the hard work of supporting the most vulnerable people in Santa Monica.”
“There’s a sense, a climate, right now in our town about homelessness, where people are feeling very desperate and very frustrated and there’s really no progress being made,” Leddy said. “It’s important to hear from the people who are actually out there doing the work and hear what their approaches are, what their successes are and hopefully inspire some charitable giving to these organizations that are doing the work we want to have done.”
Meetings are normally held on the first Thursday of each month and this will be on December 7 at 7pm. It will be held over Zoom, so anyone can participate. Details on how to join the meeting can be found at the NOMA website at smnoma.org.
scott.snowden@smdp.com