– Who We Are –
Founded in 2011 by a group of caring people, U-Turn Lives is a volunteer-driven nonprofit organization (501c3). We believe that the greatest joy and fulfillment in life is to make a positive difference to the society we live in.
– Our Mission: To Serve, Support and Rebuild –
• To serve the homeless and those in need through a range of support programs
• To make a difference by offering a helping hand to the vulnerable
• To involve and inspire young people to serve their communities
– Our Story –
U-Turn Lives started with one mission — to make a positive difference to the community we lived in. In the backdrop of huge economic disparities, a group of friends came together, united by a simple but inspiring idea — to provide food to the homeless in the Southern California region.
Driven by the enthusiastic and overwhelming support of the community, we have grown to offer many successful programs in addition to our core mission of supporting homeless people.
– Vision –
Our aim is to be able to cater to all those sections of society that have one of the basic human needs that is hunger. We are currently focused on one homeless community in Southern California, but we are constantly looking at opportunities where we can provide assistance to other communities in this region.
Please use the Contact Us link for any suggestions, comments and/or if you are interested in volunteering.
– The Team –
Volunteers do not necessarily have the time; they just have the heart.” ~Elizabeth Andrew
The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. ~Mahatma Gandhi
We are fortunate to have a hundreds of dedicated volunteers who take time from their busy lives to help out in any way they can. We are grateful to each and every one of our volunteers for their selfless service, kindness and generosity.
– Board of Directors and Executives –
- PrabuShankar Somasundaram – President and founder. Visionary, motivator, program lead and organizer.
- Abhijeet Deshpande – Co founder and board member. Primary responsibility. Packing events, procurement, troubleshooting and distribution.
- Prashanth Brindavan – Co founder and board member.
- Shishir Shah – Board member. Primary Responsibility: Corporate outreach, high volume packing events, vehicle donation programs and strategy.
- Chandrashekhar Ramamoorthy – Board member. Primary Responsibility: Communications, food distribution at San Diego and UCSD pantry.
- Sunalini Hegde – Board member. Primary Responsibility: Financials, food distribution, destitute women and children program.
- Vengu Subramanian – Board member.
- Rahul Sheth – Executive. Primary Responsibility: food distribution at Anaheim
- Anandi Prabushankar – Executive. Primary Responsibility: Food camps and Communications.
- Jayant Wagh – Executive. Primary Responsibility: food distribution at Santa Ana.
- Deepa Ramamoorthy – Executive. Primary Responsibility: Destitute women and children program.
- Mallika Athreya – Executive. Primary Responsibility: CSULB food pantry.
- Lakshmi Meduri – Executive. Primary Responsibility: CSULB food pantry.
We are thankful for the continuing advice, service and dedication of our co founders and past board members – S Balasubramanian and Srikanth Thiagarajan.