Laundry Love is a nationwide network of more than 100 groups that offer free laundry to people in need, creating new communities at laundromats. It began in Ventura, California in the early 2000s when T-bone, a homeless man, told a pastor at a local church, “People would treat me differently if I had clean clothes.” In this video, volunteers from Long Beach, East Hollywood, and Huntington Beach Laundry Love initiatives share how the project has affected them, their faith lives and their sense of community.
Laundry Love took shape not just as a way for members of the church to address unmet needs at society’s margins, but also as an opportunity to partner with a diverse array of volunteers in the community. Around the country, Laundry Love initiatives engage religious as well as irreligious participants to create relationships, ease suffering and promote mutual understanding through service.
This video is part of CRCC’s “Reimagining Religion: Stories of Religious Creativity in L.A.” series, part of the Religious Competition and Creative Innovation project. The project was made possible through the support of a grant from the John Templeton Foundation. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of the John Templeton Foundation.
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