We’re Pando.
We’re accomplishing the impossible through real-life projects with young people.
We’re building a brighter and better future for the 10 million people who call LA home.
Now, people in other cities have asked for our help.
Our flagship program, Pando Days, has delivered real results in its birthplace, the California Southland.
Pando Days is the higher-education program that organizes and supports young people and their instructors creating practical projects that address the sustainability goals prioritized by Los Angeles County.
Project-based civic engagement is at the heart of everything we do, focused on real-world needs and actual solutions. We produce programs for young people in higher ed, K-12, outside of schools, and across faith communities.
And they’re run by passionate people who care.
Our secret sauce.
The most powerful force that we unleash is the imagination and determination of young people. We know how to motivate and organize them with our proven model and methodology.
Our focus is their futures.
We remind them that it’s their job to create their futures. We give them the inspiration and resources to make courageous things happen. People, knowledge, funding, and skills are all part of our Pando toolkit.
Challenge-based education matters.
Our guide in our Southern California work is the sustainability plan adopted by LA County leaders, so the challenges addressed by Pando projects align with the highest strategic priorities of the region: jobs, resilience, shelter, water, climate, transportation, food, trash, biodiversity, and justice.
Our most important thing is connections.
We’re connecting more than 25 colleges and universities across Los Angeles to each other and to the heart of education: saving the world by improving communities. We’re also connecting businesses, utilities, public agencies, governments, civic organizations, K-12 education districts, and just about anyone who cares about their community.
And we’re doing it in ways that make people wonder why they were all never connected before.
Expanding Pando.
Now we want to help recreate the success of Pando Days in new cities to address their local issues. We’re out to multiply our success in new places and in better ways — quickly.
Pando.
We’re a non-profit education organization focused on the civic engagement of young people that cultivates projects that address the goals of LA County’s Sustainability Plan. We’ve been asked to help bring our success to more communities across America.
Our funny name.
We’re named after the one-tree aspen forest in south-central Utah, the largest organism on Earth – Pando. Made up of over 47,000 trunks and millions of leaves, all connected through one root system.
It’s a particularly good metaphor for our interconnected lives, challenges, and solutions — and a particularly good name for this organization that’s passionately committed to connecting everyone.
Pando Days 2024-’25: project applications being accepted through Nov. 15 for the spring
Our growing successes
Pando Days
Series
Our flagship program in higher education unites instructors across the County to tackle the toughest of our sustainability issues.
Magenta House
Series
Our youth program empowers kids to create the water- and power-conscious future we all need and desire.
Camp Pando
Camp Pando is for young people reentering from juvenile detention, foster care, and dropping out of school and focuses them on creative projects that help meet Southland challenges.
Pando at Encino
Pando’s community partnership office at the Sisters of Social Service, Encino supports diverse collaborations and new program opportunities.
Blog Posts
LA’s housing crisis and what’s being done about it
Mark VanderSchaaf discusses both good news and challenges associated with LA’s housing crisis.
Mark VanderSchaaf Pando Days Water Spotlight: 2024-25
A new report by Mark VanderSchaaf provides a framework for LA County’s work on pressing water sustainability issues and the role of regional agencies in support of these goals.
The wisdom of the rainforest in Northridge
“We could easily process almost 100% of the school’s food waste,” says Carlos Marin who is continuing CSUN’s 2023 Pando Days composting project. “Do you understand what that means?”
Bottled at the Source: The Pando Days 2024/25 Blitz
How can we get Angelenos to love recycled sewer water? This year’s Pando Days Blitz got teams together to brainstorm innovative ways to make recycled sewer water sexy — and learn the art of thinking wrong.