Check out These Five Great Local Charities Making a Difference

L.A. Family Housing including three homeless shelters and 18 permanent rental properties, and has its executive offices on Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood. North Hollywood-Toluca Lake Patch has on a number of occasions to document the good work that they do, most recently for their .

At the Interfaith Food Pantry, food is collected by ten Jewish and Christian congregations, schools and community organizations and distributed at First Christian Church of North Hollywood every Monday and Friday for families in need. Patch has visited this organization a , including for their, and most recently as they mourned the loss of a key volunteer,

Operated by the , the Valley Storefront Senior Center is, well, . As our Faith and Charity writer Linda Rubin discovered, besides housing a senior center with fitness room, congregate lunchroom and classes, the storefront is chock full of social workers providing a plethora of services to seniors and families.

On Thursday nights, Hope of The Valley Rescue Mission offers services from the San Pablo Church in North Hollywood. , it provides emergency services, , clean clothes, basic medicinal needs and hygiene kits . The non-profit organization is devoted to restoring the lives of those affected by homelessness since 2009. The mission welcomes new volunteers and donations.

New Directions for Youth on Lankershim offers free help and services to youths and families throughout the San Fernando Valley and in the greater Los Angeles area. They have a very long list of very good deeds that they do in the community, including family counseling, gang prevention, literacy tutoring, computer classes, summer employment, crisis intervention, substance abuse prevention, parenting classes, and many more.