LOS ANGELES, Nov. 2, 2018 — Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) employees at the utility’s Pico Rivera base today built Welcome Home kits for people transitioning out of homelessness and learned more about what it is like to be homeless through virtual reality and role-play activities and by listening to a community member’s personal story at an Everyone In™ event. Led by United Way of Greater Los Angeles (United Way), the event was the first of its kind to be held at a workplace location. Everyone In™ is a coalition that focuses on ending homelessness across Los Angeles County by providing critical services to those who need it most and helping transition people experiencing long-term homelessness with short-term and permanent housing solutions.
“This was an enlightening and inspiring event for all the SoCalGas employees who participated, and I recommend it to other corporate leaders as a way to bring their teams together to address a critical issue,” said Sharon Tomkins, vice president of customer solutions and strategy at SoCalGas. “SoCalGas is a longtime partner of United Way and supporter of efforts to end homelessness, and I am extremely proud that our employees have continually given their time and money to help this cause.”
“We're thrilled to have worked with SoCalGas and the Los Angeles Rams on such a groundbreaking event,” said Elise Buik, President and CEO of United Way of Greater Los Angeles. “One of the top priorities of the Everyone In™ campaign is activating our community members around solutions to end homelessness.”
Participants learned more about homelessness through a variety of activities, including a virtual reality experience showing a formerly homeless community member’s journey into supportive housing and a role-play simulation demonstrating the choices homeless people must make every day. They also gained information on how they can help to end homelessness and encourage others to join the effort, and a representative from the Corporation for Supportive Housing shared how homeless assistance programs have helped her. Los Angeles Rams cheerleaders provided additional excitement at the event.
SoCalGas employees also put together 50 Welcome Home kits with bedding and kitchen and cleaning supplies for formerly homeless individuals and families transitioning to new homes.
Since 2012, SoCalGas has contributed more than $475,000 to United Way for homeless assistance programs, which has helped over 730 homeless individuals obtain housing. The utility has also been the top team fundraiser and has had the most participants of any team for the last five years at HomeWalk 5K, United Way’s annual family run/walk that raises public awareness and funds to help end homelessness in Los Angeles County.
About SoCalGas
Headquartered in Los Angeles, SoCalGas® is the largest natural gas distribution utility in the United States. SoCalGas delivers affordable, reliable, clean and increasingly renewable natural gas service to 21.8 million customers across 24,000 square miles of Central and Southern California, where more than 90 percent of residents use natural gas for heating, hot water, cooking, drying clothes or other uses. Natural gas delivered through the company's pipelines also plays a key role in providing electricity to Californians—about 60 percent of electric power generated in the state comes from gas-fired power plants.
SoCalGas is committed to investing in its natural gas system infrastructure, while keeping bills affordable for our customers. From 2013 through 2017, the company spent nearly $6 billion to upgrade and modernize its natural gas system to enhance safety and reliability. The company is also committed to being a leader in the region's clean energy future, and is working to accelerate the use of renewable natural gas from dairy farms, landfills and wastewater treatment plants and the development of renewable energy storage technologies. SoCalGas is a subsidiary of Sempra Energy (NYSE: SRE), an energy services holding company based in San Diego. For more information visit socalgas.com/newsroom or connect with SoCalGas on Twitter (@SoCalGas), Instagram (@SoCalGas) and Facebook.
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