January 2013 Frontline to Headlines

Hector Flores of InnerCity Struggle and Lizette Patron of Monica Garcia LAUSD Board President’s office at opening day Esteban Torres HS.

January Frontline to Headlines

The new year means that some changes in state and federal law enacted last year and supported by Liberty Hill grantees are now being implemented (such as the Homeowners Bill of Rights and changes in school discipline). But it’s also clearly a time of new proposals, and there’s a lot of energy behind the push for immigration reform. Most recent items first.

January 23 to February 4

Liberty Hill’s 2013 Leaders to Watch announcements are being gradually rolled out to the press and we hope to follow these Fab Five ambassadors for Liberty Hill throughout the year. The wide range of interest is already apparent in these clips, one Witness L.A., a blog that covers the criminal justice system, another from A Wider Bridge,  a blog that is “building LGBTQ connections with Israel,” and stll another from radio station KPFK. From the blog for KPFK’s show “Uprising,” here’s a  video of an interview with two of the Leaders, Rabbi Heather Miller (Liberty Hill Advisory Council) and Ariel Bustamante (GSA Network).

January 30

Martin J. Blank offers an update in Huffington Post describing how InnerCity Struggle and its allies support the success of Torres High School (opened 2011), the school that community activism not only built but runs. Read about the community school model, the student-founded mentorship program and other innovations.

January 29

Some members of Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles went in caravan to Nevada at the invitation of the White House to hear President Barack Obama’s presentation of proposals for immigration reform; some stayed in L.A. and held a viewing event and rally.  Local CBS was on hand for the latter.

January 28

“Progressives have achieved the impossible” in California, says The New Republic in this analysis of the passage of Prop.30 due to the “massive increase in political participation.” California Calls and the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) are among the Liberty Hill allies and grantees in the successful “Reclaiming California’s Future” coalition.   

January 25

The Press Enterprise reports on a coalition including Pomona Economic Opportunity Center that protests the targeting of day laborers in border patrol roundups.

Here’s an in-depth report on Youth Justice Coalition’s alternative high school with students, experts and Liberty Hill 2013 Leader to Watch Kruti Parekh contributing to the discussion.

January 17

In a series of comments to reporters including this one to L.A. Weekly’s Patrick Range McDonald, Coalition for Economic Survival challenges mayoral candidates to address housing issues.

January 15

In its highlight of a partner organization, the “Fix School Discipline” blog from Public Counsel interviews Executive Director and Founder of CADRE, Maisie Chin, who emphasizes parent organizing and empowerment as strategies for change.

January 11

Liberty Hill is facilitating the “Building a Lifetime of Options and Opportunities for Men” (BLOOM) initiative, which launched an online community for the youth participants, described in an item on the blog “Black
Gives Back.”

January 2

New Year, New Laws: Southern California Public radio’s “Multiamerican” blog untangles the technicalities of the law allowing the DMV to accept license application paperwork from young people who have signed up for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) immigration status, with comments from Jorge Mario Cabrera of Coalition for Humane Immigrant Right in Los Angeles. Meanwhile, Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment and other advocates are excited about the passage of the California Homeowners Bill of Rights, described in this blog by Southern California Public Radio’s Frank Stoltze.

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Announcing 2012 Fund for Change Grants

Byline: Shane Goldsmith

We’ve just announced $716,500 in grants through our Fund for Change. These grants are informed by Liberty Hill’s Community Funding Board braintrust. (If you haven’t seen our fabulous video about how the grant process works, watch it below. We use a grant decision process very different from many other funders.)

Of all the exciting things that I see among this year’s grantees, the thing I’m most excited to share is the opportunity around the mayor’s race. If organizers do a good job now of getting candidates to commit, and then once they are elected, hold them accountable, there is tremendous opportunity to leverage power and win real change for the millions of Angelenos who need better schools, better wages, homes they can afford, and healthier
communities. The opportunity for change exists right now and our grantees
are figuring out how to take advantage of that. And they’ve got more fire-power than ever: This year, Liberty Hill grantees counted twice as many leaders – 32,000! – within their organizations than last year. That’s a tribute to the success of the Wally Marks Leadership Institute!

Here’s the list of just-announced grants, hot off the press.

2012 Fund for Change

ACCE Institute $50,000
Asians and Pacific Islanders for LGBT Equality (API Equality-LA)  $10,000
Black Women for Wellness $25,000
Californians for Justice Education Fund $18,000
Coalition for Economic Survival $30,000
Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA) $30,000
CADRE   $20,000
FTM Alliance/Gender Justice LA  $38,000
Gay Straight Alliance Network LA  $10,000
Housing Long Beach  $30,000
InnerCity Struggle $10,000
Instituto de Educacion Popular del Sur de California (IDEPSCA)  $25,000
Jordan/Rustin Coalition  $10,000
Khmer Girls in Action $5,500
Korean Resource Center  $10,000.00
Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance  $35,000
L.A. Voice PICO   $25,000
Labor Community Strategy Center  $50,000
Latino Equality Alliance  $10,000
Los Angeles Black Worker Center $20,000
Los Angeles Community Action Network (L.A. CAN) $35,000
Los Angeles Youth Justice Coalition $25,000
People Organized for Westside Renewal$50,000
Pilipino Workers Center  $28,500
Pomona Economic Opportunity Center $10,000
Restaurant Opportunities Centers United Los Angeles (ROC-LA)  $25,000
Southern California Education Fund  $13,000
Strategic Actions for a Just Economy $30,000
Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education $10,000
TRUST-South LA  $18,000
Union De Vecinos $10,000

TOTAL: 31 organizations    $716,000

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Liberty Hill Announces Fund for Change Grants

  Byline: Shane Goldsmith

In 2011-12, Liberty Hill's  Fund for Change is investing $859,000 in grassroots leaders who are organizing communities to build power and win systemic change to advance economic, racial, and LGBTQ justice. We received applications from 40 organizations requesting more than $1.8 million and provided grants ranging from $10,000 to $50,000 to 30 organizations.

Our funding is accelerating concrete social change led by the people impacted by injustice. Here are just a few examples of campaigns:  

Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment ACCE Institute), L.A. Voice PICO, and Southern California Education Fund are saving people's homes through innovative programs that bring banks and homeowners to the table to compromise on foreclosures.  

People Organized for Westside Renewal (POWER),TRUST South L.A., Housing Long Beach, Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance (KIWA), Korean Resource Center (KRC), Strategic Actions for a Just Economy (SAJE), Los Angeles Black Worker Center, L.A. Community Action Network (L.A. CAN) and Coalition for Economic Survival are building homes and creating jobs by ensuring that major developments in Koreatown, South LA, Downtown, West LA, and Long Beach include affordable homes and health clinics, and create living wage jobs and job training programs.

Labor Community Strategy Center, Youth Justice Coalition, Community Asset Development Re-defining Education, InnerCity Struggle, Gay-Straight Alliance Network, and Californians for Justice Education Fund are protecting youth by ending the “school to prison pipeline” and increasing graduation rates of low-income students of color through changes in punitive school disciplinary policies; by eliminating discrimination and harassment based on sexual orientation, gender identity, race and ethnicity; by making healthy foods more accessible in schools; and by creating health clinics and support services at schools.

Black Women for Wellness, Gender Justice L.A. and Special Needs Network are improving healthcare for Black women, transgendered people, and children with developmental disabilities by changing the policies and practices of government and healthcare agencies.

Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, Restaurant Opportunities Center United-L.A., Pilipino Workers Center, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), Instituto de Educación Popular del Sur de California (IDEPSCA) and Pomona Economic Opportunity Center are protecting low-wage workers and putting millions of dollars in their hands by making “wage theft” a crime in Los Angeles; by winning basic protections for restaurant, car wash and domestic workers; and by operating worker-led job centers and co-ops. Wage theft laws provide a way to collect unpaid wages from exploitative employers who routinely escape consequences of breaking laws meant to protect vulnerable workers. The Domestic Workers Bill of Rights would give these workers the same rights that most American workers enjoy to meal and rest breaks, overtime pay, eight hours of rest between shifts, health and safety standards, workers compensation and protections against discrimination.

Jordan Rustin Coalition, Asian and Pacific Island Equality-L.A., and Latino Equality Alliance are increasing support for marriage equality among African Americans, Asian & Pacific Islanders and Latinos.

All together, more than 18,000 people in low-income communities of color who are members of grantee organizations will lead these and other campaigns to win social change in Los Angeles and more than 900 leaders will be trained through rigorous leadership development programs at grantee organizations.

For a complete list of 2011 Fund for Change grants awarded, please go to the Liberty Hill website. 

Liberty Hill is committed to advancing racial justice, and so we track ethnic and racial diversity indicators of our grantmaking. Of the 2011 Fund for Change grantees, 79% are led by people of color. This is a significant number because we have a very high standard, defining an organization as “led by” people of color, or a particular racial or ethnic group, if (1)the group's mission and programs aim to serve and empower  a community/communities of color; (2) a majority of the individuals with governance and decision-making power (e.g., executive director, board members, staff) are people of color or members of the specific racial or ethnic group; and (3) the base of members is mostly people of color or members of the specific group.

Liberty Hill is also committed to supporting a geographically diverse group of L.A.-area community organizers. Grants have been awarded to organizations in the following neighborhoods: East L.A., Downtown, Koreatown, South L.A., Long Beach, San Pedro, Pomona, Pacoima, Venice and West L.A.

Decision-making strategy

Liberty Hill's staff worked with our brain trust, the Community Funding Board (CFB), to do a thorough assessment of applicants and to analyze the socio-political landscape within which these organizations operate.  This brain trust is made up of organizers, academics, donors, and other experts representing the great diversity of Los Angeles. Our goal was to invest in community organizing that is building power and winning systemic change in the areas of economic and LGBTQ justice. We are confident that we achieved this goal. We were looking for organizations that:

• engage a broad and growing base of people impacted by injustice and systematically develop leaders from that base.
• have a clear plan to win concrete systemic changes to policies and practices.
• advance racial justice by addressing inequalities in institutional policies and practices that cause racial disparity.

We also considered seed and service organizations that are doing innovative community organizing in underrepresented communities.

Leadership Institute

Fourteen of these 30 organizations participated in Liberty Hill's 2011 Leadership Institute, where they strengthened their skills and organizational infrastructures in the areas of fundraising, board development, base-building and membership, leadership development, and communications. We are now developing the program for the 2012 Leadership Institute based on the capacity-building needs and goals of this year’s grantees.

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Friday’s Vote on Rent Increase Moratorium

Byline: Rebecca Rona-Tuttle

If you live anywhere in Los Angeles, you can assist hundreds of thousands of low-income people who live in rent-controlled apartments to avoid rent increases. Contact your city councilmember! The need is urgent!

“We need immediate action to protect tenants from unfair rent increases!” Chris Gabriele, executive director of People Organized for Westside Renewal (POWER), told Liberty Hill.  “The LA City Council will vote this Friday, May 7.” So far, only three city councilmen are on record as supporting a proposed moratorium on rent increases: Herb Wesson, Richard Alarcon and Ed Reyes.

Affordable housing activists are asking LA residents to do any or all of the following:  phone or e-mail their own city councilmember, contact more than one city councilmember, regardless of district, and attend the city council meeting Friday at 10 a.m., LA City Hall, 200 N. Spring St., LA CA 90012, 3rd Floor. “Show your support of affordable housing!” Gabriele urged.

Click here for a list of city councilmembers and their contact information.

The council’s Housing, Community and Economic Development Committee voted Wednesday 3-1 in favor of a moratorium that would bar owners from raising the rents on 630,000 units of rent-controlled housing. Otherwise, rents will increase July 1, some by as much as five percent.

That’s 630,000 apartments, and conceivably more than a million low-income individuals who are struggling mightily during our economic downturn and need their remaining dollars for food and medicine here in L.A., the nation’s housing UN-affordability capital.

Councilman Herb Wesson favors the moratorium in part because it would give the city council time to consider various proposals, such as one to tie any future rent increases to the inflation rate. Meanwhile, the fight between rent control advocates and landlords is heating up. Read details in today’s LA Times.

Two of the organizations broadcasting an urgent call for action are POWER and Coalition for Economic Survival (CES), each supported for many years by Liberty Hill.

Seniors surviving on Social Security payments, single moms who have lost their jobs and folks who simply don’t earn much will be grateful for your support.

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