Since his retirement in 2007 from a career as a project manager in commercial construction, Jay Scott has not been content to sit around the house or play golf every day. He’s made a nearly full-time job of actively volunteering in the Malibu community, doing something nearly every day to help the needy, the jobless, and the homeless, and has worked with a half-dozen local nonprofit organizations and faith-based initiatives.
At the present time, Scott is on the Board of Directors of the Malibu Community Labor Exchange (MCLE), a position he’s held since 2011. He is also one of the founding members of the Community Assistance Resource Team (CART) and the offshoot Malibu Task Force on Homelessness. In addition, Scott is one of two representatives for the Malibu Jewish Center & Synagogue (MJCS) in an interfaith group that provides dinners for the homeless every Thursday evening at the Malibu United Methodist Church.
Sometimes, Scott’s involvement with one group will also benefit another group he works with. Several years ago, he began picking up donated foodstuffs from HOWS Market and delivering them to the MCLE “for unemployed workers to take care of their families.” When HOWS went out of business, he lobbied other local grocery stores until he got Vintage Grocers to agree to the arrangement. When they were no longer able to contribute, he was able to get Ralph’s.
On those occasions when Ralph’s donates a number of leftover turkeys or hams, he takes those for the homeless dinners served at the Methodist Church.
He has helped MCLE with site management, replacement of its trailer, various projects, fundraisers and speaking to City Council. Scott even fills in for Director Oscar Mondragon, giving him the opportunity to take time off as needed. Now that MCLE will be moving its trailer to the east side of the library to accommodate construction of the new Santa Monica College Malibu campus, he will also be involved in that.
Scott’s real passion over the past year has been helping Malibu’s homeless. The Malibu Task Force on Homelessness, an offshoot group which consists only of Scott and two others, appears to have succeeded in getting private funding for Ocean Park Community Center (OPCC) a service provider based in Santa Monica, to put a couple of professional “boots on the ground” in Malibu to help steer the homeless to services and housing.
“Our long-range goal has always been to get a service provider to come out,” he said.
As one of the founding members of CART, along with Carol Moss, Scott helped in laying the groundwork to sponsor Malibu’s first-ever Homeless Connect Day outreach event on Oct. 28, 2015 at the old courthouse. In addition, CART was able to pressure the county to secure a shuttle bus each night to take Malibu homeless to a shelter in West L.A.
Scott also volunteered to participate in the 2015 and 2016 Malibu Homeless Count coordinated by the L.A. Homeless Services Authority.
Scott served on the Board of Directors of MJCS from 2011-14, where he was responsible for managing the facilities, and was also a frequent volunteer for the Malibu Film Society, which holds nearly all of its events there.
“My goals are to participate in the continued success of the Labor Exchange,” Scott said. “They have many dedicated workers that show up every day in hopes of getting work. Oscar Mondragon and the other members of the board are also dedicated to that goal.” In addition, he plans “to continue working with the homeless task force, CART, and city, county, and state organizations to assist the homeless with their needs.