Amid the ongoing devastation caused by the Los Angeles wildfires, longtime resident and home-owner Jennifer Garner is pitching in as much as she can.
The actress, 52, is partnering with her foundation Save the Children to provide daycare centers and rehabilitation facilities for those whose homes and lives have been affected by the wildfires.
In association with Project:Camp, she is working on providing pop-up camps for children especially, to give them the resources to continue their growth and development while their parents work on rebuilding.
Jennifer spoke with Today's Jacob Soboroff about her work with them in what she described as "my own backyard," interspersed with footage of herself playing with the kids and participating in learning activities with them.
"Therapy is play," she explained. "What they're doing right here, this is therapy for kids. This is exactly what they need."
She noted that as a board member and ambassador for Save the Children, she has witnessed their disaster relief efforts for children "all over the country, and it's crazy that it's in my own backyard now."
The group has already set up three emergency relief pop-up camps throughout Los Angeles with more on the way. "Everyone is just trying to give children a little bit of joy and normalcy, if that's at all possible. And give parents the space to figure out where they're going to live, where their kids are going to go to school. There's so much work to do."
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The 13 Going on 30 actress concluded her segment with: "I'm grateful to have somewhere to be and to have this work to do. I'm grateful to have seen it before and to feel like, 'Okay, this is my job today, I have a job today, I have something to do today.'"
Jennifer has been open in recent days about dealing with "survivor's guilt" over the wildfires, especially when it came to evacuating her children Fin and Samuel, with the help of their father and her ex-husband Ben Affleck. Their oldest, daughter Violet, now lives on-campus at Yale University.
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She even emotionally shared in the midst of her relief efforts that a friend of hers was unable to escape, telling press while working with World Central Kitchen: "I did lose a friend. And for our church, it's really tender. So, I don't feel like I should talk about her yet. But yeah, I did lose a friend who did not get out on time."
At the end of the segment, when it cut back to the Today studio, anchor Craig Melvin praised Jennifer for her years of volunteer and charitable work for her community, which was supported by Carson Daly.
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Carson recalled living in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood with his family before their move to New York, and his friendship with Jennifer. "When I lived in the Palisades, you would see, she's like an unelected official in that city in particular."
"You would see her coming out of church, our kids played together in the playground. And the fact that she's there, boots on the ground, doing that great work that she's done in their own backyard…they're lucky to have her."