South LA and West Adams to receive improvement funding

Six neighborhoods in the city of Los Angeles will receive a total of $5.4 million to fund various community improvement proposals approved by residents.
The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to approve the funding as part of the Civil + Human Rights and Equity Department’s first-ever participatory budgeting pilot program, known as Los Angeles Reforms for Equity and Public Acknowledgement of Institutional Racism, or L.A. REPAIR. Last year, the city allocated $3.1 million to three other neighborhoods as part of the program.
More than 1,000 ideas were generated by residents in the second group of neighborhood recipients — Arleta-Pacoima, Harbor Gateway-Wilmington-Harbor City, Skid Row, South Los Angeles, West Adams-Baldwin Village-Leimert Park, and Westlake.
“L.A. REPAIR Participatory Budgeting represents a direct investment in Los Angeles’ most underserved communities, empowering them with real decision-making power over significant funds,” Capri Maddox, general manager of LA Civil Rights, said in a statement. “We are grateful to the City Council for supporting this innovative approach to budgeting and advancing direct democracy in our city.”
Participatory budgeting is a process that has been implemented in more than 7,000 global cities, including New York City and Porto Alegre, Brazil. Participatory budgeting allows community members to decide how part of a public budget may be spent on services or programs.
City officials said L.A. REPAIR is community-led from start to finish, with advisory committees guiding the process in each REPAIR Zone, gathering ideas, and administering the vote, which was open to anyone over 15 years old who lived, worked, studied, or was the parent or guardian of a student in the zone. Winning proposals will be implemented by local community-based organizations, ensuring allotted funding stays within REPAIR Zones, according to the department.
“I’m grateful to Capri Maddox and the Civil, Human Rights and Equity Department for helping make this community reinvestment idea into a reality,” Councilman Bob Blumenfield, who chairs council’s Budget, Finance and Innovation Committee, said in a statement. “This program helps build a critical bridge between government and underserved communities throughout Los Angeles and I’m excited to see how we can create more positive change together.”
Councilman Hugo Soto-Martinez, who chairs the council’s civil rights committee, added “This landmark program should serve as a model for how we allocate resources to benefit our city and stop our decades-long neglect of working class communities of color.”
The following proposals received the most votes and funding:
— Arleta-Pacoima: El Nido Family Centers, providing access to affordable and fresh food, and YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles, offering weekend family camping trips in Big Bear or other monthly nature and cultural excursions;
— Harbor Gateway-Wilmington-Harbor City: Boys & Girls Club of the Los Angeles Harbor, providing youth with college counseling or other services to prepare them for the workforce, and the Harbor Community Development Foundation, which also provides education and employment services for at least 70 youth ages 10-25;
— Skid Row: Chrysalis, an organization that offers job readiness training and transitional job opportunities for at least 110 residents, and the Downtown Women’s center, providing health services for 2,000 women in need;
— South Los Angeles: Girls Club of Los Angeles, which provides health services and case management for 450 individuals and families; the Los Angeles Urban League, offering job readiness services for 200 people from ages 16-35; Social Justice Learning Institute, providing college and career assistance for youth; and the South Los Angeles Community Foundation, an on-the-job training program for up to 56 youth;
— West Adams-Baldwin Village-Leimert Park: the National Diversity and Inclusion Cannabis Alliance will provide filmmaking vocational training for 100 at-risk, justice-involved youth, and the Teapot Gardens, a project to create an herb garden and free after-school garden and art education to residents; and
— Westlake: Communities in Schools of Los Angeles, an organization that offers school programming for 1,400 middle and high school students, and New Economic for Women, homeless and housing intervention services for 500 participants in need of assistance.