Today we’d like to introduce you to Sean Lawrence.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Sean. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
My story is defined by my parents who led with their actions. There was never a disconnect between what they taught us and how they lived. When they taught us to love God with all our hearts and our love neighbors as ourselves, they meant it. Our home was always a haven for strangers – the lost and lonely. Learning that lesson early in life set the stage for the opportunity to lead an organization that has the privilege of serving so many “strangers”.
Has it been a smooth road?
It hasn’t been a smooth road. Four years ago, I walked into my office and I was told I was the new Executive Director of Giving Children Hope and I was replacing the founder. I didn’t know a single board member and I had never managed a budget beyond my personal one in my whole life. But we had an amazing team of hard-working, idealistic people who strongly believed in our mission and were able to bring the organization to a much healthier place, enabling us to serve more more people, more effectively. We’ve taken the challenges, and there’s been lots of them, as an opportunity to learn and improve Giving Children Hope and to grow closer as a team.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Giving Children Hope story. Tell us more about the business.
Giving Children Hope loves our neighbors both across the street and around the world by providing nutritional food, medical resources and basic need items to families in crisis. Every week we deliver over 1,200 backpacks full of food to children identified as homeless by their schools in Orange and Los Angeles counties.
In addition, we provide relief items to families suffering from disasters around the world. Over the past five years we have sent 25 shipping containers filled with relief items to support Syrian refugees in the Middle East and are currently responding to the brewing crisis in Venezuela.
Back in college I went on my first humanitarian trip to Vietnam with my dad. On the flight home, my dad told me, “they’ve invited you into their story, you’re now responsible to do something with it.” I’ve taken that challenge seriously, and our intent is to help write better endings to people who have invited us into their story.
Contact Info:
- Address: 8332 Commonwealth Ave.,
Buena Park, CA 90621 - Website: www.givingchildrenhope.org
- Phone: 714.523.4454
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: instagram.com/givingchildrenhope
- Facebook: facebook.com/gchope
- Twitter: twitter.com/gchope
Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
