Local tutoring and writing non-profit 826LA is moving to Mar Vista

We’re thrilled to let everyone know that 826LA in Venice is relocating to 2,625 square feet of space for tutoring, publishing, and administrative support at 12515 Venice Blvd., in the heart of Mar Vista. Our construction team is hard at work, and we plan to move very soon.

After more than seven amazing years working in the SPARC Building on the Westside, where our first tutoring sessions were held and our first books with public schools were pressed, we’re bidding our cozy second-floor space in the old police station goodbye and preparing a beautiful building near the border of Venice and Mar Vista to work with as many local families as we can. Tutoring begins in our dramatically bigger facility, just 1.6 miles away on a pedestrian-friendly block between Beethoven and Centinela, on October 29. Our programming’s last day in our current space near Venice and Abbot Kinney is October 25.

For the unfamiliar, 826LA is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting students ages 6 to 18 with their creative and expository writing skills, and to helping teachers inspire their students to write. Our services are structured around our understanding that great leaps in learning can happen with one-on-one attention, and that strong writing skills are fundamental to future success. With this in mind, we provide free after-school tutoring, free evening and weekend workshops, free in-school tutoring, free help for English language learners, and free assistance with student publications. All of our programs are challenging and enjoyable, and ultimately strengthen each student's power to express ideas effectively, creatively, confidently, and in his or her individual voice.

This move represents a decision on our part to strategize ways to be an even better local organization: we’ll move a little further inland and position ourselves to work with new volunteers, while still remaining connected to the Venice locals who have served us so well since 2005. We’ll have better public transportation access and be a short walk away for many students, both those coming to us from homes and those commuting straight from campuses like Venice High School. And perhaps most importantly, we’ll be able to keep pace with the demand for our programs – which has exploded over the years – by accommodating dozens of additional kids in each program we run, a benefit of having several times the space we enjoyed at SPARC.

Developing a new space at 12515 Venice, renovating it for families to enjoy the same safe and welcoming atmosphere they’ve come to expect from 826, and launching an incredible Mar Vista Time Travel Mart (to meet all your time travel needs on the Westside!) is going to be a big task, but we're up for the challenge.

Stay tuned for more exciting developments about the opening of our space, and get ready to see an even bigger and better 826LA. All of us on the staff and board are so pleased to begin the first steps of this journey, and we’re excited to keep you posted.