Long Beach families are all smiles at a recent “Census Fiesta” outreach event hosted by a collaborative of community-based organizations, including Community Partners projects Long Beach Forward and Long Beach Immigrant Rights Coalition.

Community-based organizations (CBO’s) across Los Angeles County are playing key roles in preparing Angelenos for the 2020 Census, possibly one of the most crucial – and challenging – in California’s history. Among the 100 or so groups taking on this important work are at least 10 projects of Community Partners.

“The census is part of our organization’s DNA,” explained Tavae Samuelu, executive director of EPIC (Empowering Pacific Island Communities), one of those participating projects. “Many founders (of EPIC) started to participate in census meetings in 2009. They knew how important it was that our communities be counted.”

Under Samuelu’s leadership, EPIC is continuing that tradition by working at the local, state and national levels, in partnership with Asian Americans Advancing Justice, to assure that hard-to-count populations, like Pacific Islander communities, are informed and included in the census. Because the Census Bureau is not translating materials for Pacific Islander communities, one of EPIC’s roles is to translate materials into eight different languages, including basic fact sheets, information about how community-based organizations can get involved, and in-language PSAs.

Nearly half of Los Angeles County residents fall under the Census Bureau’s hard-to-count populations designation, an expansive list that includes children 0-5, underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, non-English speakers, low-income persons, people experiencing homelessness, undocumented immigrants, LGBTQIA+, and persons who do not live in traditional housing. We’re actually home to more of these populations than anywhere else in the country.

Reaching these individuals, many whose identities intersect across multiple designations, requires deep understanding, connections, cultural competence, and the ability to elicit trust. Which is why there is so much focus and funding right now on supporting the work of community- based organizations.

One of the biggest regional funders is the California Community Foundation, appointed by the State of California as the region’s Administrative Community-Based Organization (ACBO). To date, their investment in the census efforts in the region total $12.7 million, which has been directed to 100 community-based partners from every corner of L.A. County. This network has come together as the We Count LA campaign, with an array of partners that includes  Community Partners projects such as Latino Equality Alliance (reaching LGBTQIA+ communities), Los Angeles Black Worker Center (targeting African Americans in South LA and Compton) and California Native Vote Project (reaching Native American and Tribal communities in Inglewood and Hawthorne. (See the end for a complete list of projects.)

“Los Angeles has been undercounted in the past and we’re at risk now, so community-based organizations are our best bet in crossing barriers and developing innovations that reach our hard-to-count populations,” explained James Suazo, associate director of Long Beach Forward, the Community Partners project serving as a regional co-convenor with the Advancement Project in the Long Beach area.

Suazo and his staff have been helping area CBO’s to develop their outreach plans, understand data tracking, and strategize about how to overcome the various challenges posed by the 2020 Census.

“For one, this is the first digital census, and that can be a hurdle to lower-income people who might not have access to the internet in their homes,” he explained. In response, many participating groups, including his, are making their offices available as Community Assistance Centers where individuals can come in, use computers and get help completing their census.

Other major challenges shared by many hard-to-count populations noted by both Suazo and Samuelu relate to a mistrust of government, fear of anti-immigrant attitudes, a general lack of understanding about the census itself and how participation can help marginalized communities.

A hyper-local approach in outreach and messaging is an important way for CBO’s, who best know how to communicate with their bases, to address these and other challenges.

“CBO’s are the trusted messengers who can reach and mobilize their communities,” said Samuelu. “And they have the social and political capital to do so.”

Community Partners projects taking on various aspects of census work include:

Active SGV – providing outreach in English, Spanish, Mandarin and Vietnamese in the San Gabriel Valley

California Native Vote Project – focusing on Native American and Tribal communities in Inglewood and Hawthorne

*El Monte Promise Foundation – Reaching out to Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI), children 0-8, homeless families, people in non-conventional housing, immigrants and refugees, and Latinos in the San Gabriel Valley

Empowering Pacific Islander Communities – county-wide focus on AAPI, immigrant and refugees, LGBTQIA+, Pacific Islanders, seniors/older adults

*Latino Equality Alliance – targeting children 0-8 and Latinos, LGBTQIA+

*Long Beach Forward – In addition to community-based organizations, also reaching Cambodian, Latino, and Filipino communities in Long Beach/San Pedro

Long Beach Immigrant Rights Coalition – Connecting with immigrant communities in Long Beach

*Los Angeles Black Worker Center – Focusing on African Americans in South LA/Compton

API Equality LA – Outreach to Pacific Islander and LGBTQIA+ populations

Mayor’s Fund for Education – Census work is targeting children 0-5 in Long Beach, with outreach to early education centers to encourage families to both participate in the census and to be sure to include their young children

*indicates project is serving as a Community Assistance Center

The digital age has been wreaking havoc on journalism since the first wave of blogs began a democratization of information with which society as a whole continues to grapple. Media consolidation, click-bait ‘journalism,’ content mills, and now the crisis of ‘fake news’ have all been part of the fallout. But there have been successful responses to this massive change, and one is applying a nonprofit business model to journalistic efforts. Community Partners is proud to help sustain nonprofit journalism efforts that champion ethical and inclusive reporting; while our current four journalism-related projects represent different trends in the field, they all aim to train a new generation of journalists in their own unique way.

The 1992 Los Angeles riots left USC Annenberg professors Sandra Ball-Rokeach, PhD, and Michael Parks wondering how communications practices could help empower underserved communities. Their question led to the Metamorphosis Project, a research initiative that studies the intersection between civic engagement and social justice in under-reported communities. Through their research, they found that the city of Alhambra, just south of Pasadena, was quite unique. Not only was the small city under-reported in larger media outlets, it was made up of an ethnically diverse population with low civic engagement. The pair launched ALHAMBRA SOURCE, a new hyper-local and trilingual news source for the community in the same year Alhambra “canceled their local elections because the same candidates were running unopposed,” noted project manager, Evelyn Moreno.

Since its beginnings, Alhambra Source has been for the community written mostly by reporters from the community. Alhambra Source staff hold community workshops regularly at which residents are encouraged to voice their concerns, pitch story ideas and receive guidance on how to proceed. For their next event, Alhambra Source has partnered with Asian Americans Advancing Justice LA to bring communications professionals from USC, LA Times and KPCC to lead a workshop for high school youth.

“We want to combat fake news,” said community outreach coordinator Dominic Tovar. “This workshop is framed to tackle media literacy in mainstream and ethnic media. We’re going to teach students how to fact check and write without bias so that they can not only become better writers, but can also be accurately informed.”

Like Alhambra, low levels of civic engagement have also been documented in the Fresno, Merced, East Coachella and Long Beach communities, along with few opportunities or services for young people. YOUTHWIRE is a network of hyper-local journalism hubs made up of teens and young adults ages 14-24, and who are 70 percent Latinx and over 95 percent people of color. In addition to having an online platform, each hub releases a bilingual paper twice a year, a statewide journal annually, and all maintain relationships with their daily, local newspapers that regularly publish their work. “We see ourselves as part of a youth ecosystem that involves other nonprofits, schools, parents and media outlets that are all contributing to the development of young people,” said program director Tim Haydock.

“The lack of participation doesn’t have to do with apathy, but rather a lack of opportunity for young people. We see our work as a way for them to see themselves as part of their communities where they can influence, serve and lead in those communities.” In the future, YouthWire plans to hold more community events to further empower their youth and champion their voices so that they can tell their own stories to impact change in their communities.

Focusing on another aspect of journalism in the digital age, OPENNEWS supports the ‘journalism code’ community, which includes journalists, developers, designers and editors who explore new ways of storytelling by connecting the best of technology with traditional ways of sharing the news. OpenNews offers the journalism-code community personal and professional development opportunities in order to navigate the systems within newsrooms. “The folks in this community are often the people really pushing (or pulling or dragging, depending on the organization) for change to bring news organizations into the future,” said deputy director Erika Owens. The OpenNews community are experts in visualizing data and presenting information in the most accessible and technologically sound ways. “It’s an ongoing challenge in newsrooms to reflect the communities they serve,” said Owens.

OpenNews hopes to fill this need by offering more convenings and events geared towards supporting and empowering their community of professionals from all kinds of different backgrounds. Recently, they held an un-conference style event, an event which has no planned schedule or speakers, but rather is formed by attendees. “As people were pitching ideas, one person didn’t realize that if they pitched a winning idea, they would then run that session,” said Owens, “It was great to see that folks are willing to jump in on issues that matter to them; and for them to see that they do have expertise to offer.”

And finally, based here in Los Angeles, is WITNESSLA, a criminal justice news site led by editor and founder Celeste Fremon. It’s a happily small effort unafraid of taking on some of the city’s big criminal justice issues, like taking the lead on stories about patterns of abuse and malpractice in the Sheriff’s department that, eventually, led to criminal indictments and then convictions against both Sherriff Lee Baca and Undersheriff Paul Tanaka.

While Celeste continues to focus WitnessLA’s reporting on issues of law enforcement, criminal justice and education policy, she also sees supporting and training the next generation of journalists as an important part of her project’s mission. Interns from the USC Annenberg School of Journalism regularly work at WitnessLA, learning how to report on criminal justice issues. And next up is a youth reporting venture that will work to empower the young people who are often the subjects of stories about the criminal justice system, to tell their stories themselves.

“We want to hear those powerful voices; we think it’s super important to help train a next generation… struggling to make change in the system through use of the written word”: informed citizens, journalists, and the next generation who’ll run for office.

Using the nonprofit fiscal sponsorship model is perfect for WitnessLA, notes Celeste. “We don’t have to be worrying about our bottom line… or advertisers, or shareholders…I think it’s a really important part of the journalistic landscape and we need all these puzzle pieces right now.

Plus, we feel significant, and at Community Partners everyone makes us feel we are too.”

Growing up in Hawaii, Paula Daniels was taught the importance of malama aina – stewardship of the land – by her grandfather, and heard her father’s stories about being raised on a sugar-cane plantation.  After becoming an entertainment attorney, she eventually made her way back to environmental concerns, serving as president of Heal the Bay, as a member of the California Coastal Commission and on the California Bay-Delta Authority, the state water-resources board.

That community work led her to realize how food policies affect agriculture, and to see that in Los Angeles many don’t eat locally grown produce and low-income adults often don’t have access to and can’t afford nutritious food.

To address this issue, Daniels was instrumental in helping former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa create the Los Angeles Food Policy Council in 2010. Two years later, it became a project of Community Partners.

“More and more we’re recognizing that the whole system needs to work better to address the struggling and broken ends ─ both the lower income consumers and small and mid-size farmers,” says Daniels, who currently serves as LAFPC chair.

Already, LAFPC is seen as a model for the approximately 200 food policy councils nationwide, according to Daniels.

Its successes have been significant, including encouraging the Los Angeles Unified School District, the largest food provider in the city, to increase its local purchases of fruit and vegetables from nine percent to 70 percent of its $20-million annual produce budget.

That was achieved through LAFPC’s Good Food Purchasing Program, which asks large institutions to sign a pledge to buy food that supports local economies, is environmentally sustainable, values workers, protects animal welfare and is nutritious. A total of seven institutions have signed on.

Another cutting-edge LAFPC initiative seeks to change fast-food dominated convenience stores into healthy food community markets. Store owners receive technical, financial and community-outreach assistance to transform their businesses.

Through all of LAFPC’s efforts, “Community Partners has given us a lot of guidance in fund development, basic human-resources processes and relationship-building,” Daniels said.

Looking to the future, Daniels sees “food councils linking together nationally to have a significant influence on agricultural policy.”

Project Leader Chrissie Castro (end of the first row, far right) attends the census planning kickoff meeting with the California Indian Manpower Consortium, the California Complete Count Committee and the Tribal Liaisons of the Census Bureau.

The California Native Vote Project in 2016 set out to create ‘historic advancements’ in the fight for greater equity and political participation for Native people. In just this past year, their achievements have been nothing short of that ambitious goal.

That all California tribes received a total of only $16,500 to conduct outreach during the last US Census was just another glaring example of the stark inequities faced by Native communities, especially where participation and representation are concerned, according to Chrissie Castro, the founder of CA Native Vote Project.

“It was an insult to assume that a tribe would do all of this paperwork and outreach, and be accountable to the conditions of the contract with the state for that sum of money,” she said.

In preparation for the 2020 Census, Castro made it her project’s mission to ensure greater equity in the process for Native peoples through advocacy and education. They focused on political influencers by attending meetings with budget committees, the Complete Count Committees and with the Governor’s Tribal Liaison to advocate for more census outreach funding for Native communities. The group also sent out an advocacy letter detailing why Native communities should be counted by population size rather than housing units, and why more resources are needed to reach and count Native Americans.

Their efforts resulted in a monumental funding increase: $2 million dollars in funding was awarded to be split among California’s Tribal Governments, with a minimum of $5,000 for smaller tribes with 50 or less community members. “To their credit, when we spoke to policymakers about (past inequities in funding), they knew that it was wrong,” Castro noted. “But if we had not spoken up, I don’t know if anything would have been done about it.”

With that win under the belt, CA Native Vote Project applied for a grant with the 2020 Census and was awarded $400,000 in funding to work with fellow Native organizations to encourage, activate and educate Native populations who are least likely to be reached in the counting process. They also received another $120,000 from the California Community Foundation. This major new Census funding has enabled the project to expand into Northern, Central, and Southern California with three new program managers who each oversee a team of 10-25 outreach workers experienced in Native engagement efforts.

“It is so important to have Native people involved in processes that affect our community,” said Castro, “the decision-maker who allocated only $16,500 to an entire state didn’t know Native communities. But we do, and our involvement in this process is a huge win for us.”

Castro herself is a longtime advocate for social justice generally and Native communities specifically. She not only started CA Native Vote Project, which she brought to Community Partners in 2018, but she also founded a national organization, Advance Native Political Leadership, and is the chair of the Los Angeles City-County Native American Indian Commission, among numerous other accomplishments.

Castro stresses that fiscal sponsorship has been integral to her project’s success in managing their rapid growth and expansion of their services. “I’ve worked with many (sponsors) in the past, and without Community Partners, we wouldn’t have been able to grow as large as we have in such a short time. From the support that we get from the finance team around cash flow analysis to training us on how to read financial statements, to our program liaison organizing internally to help us gather materials for a big grant, and the availability of the HR director to have consultations with us whenever we’re in need of advice, I recognize that Community Partners’ services have benefited us tremendously.”

With their new funding in tow, CA Native Vote Project has been building a foundation for their outreach efforts. They want to ensure Native communities are counted in the 2020 Census, are informed of their right to vote and know whom they can contact should they experience voter suppression in the upcoming 2020 presidential election.

“We’re trying to transform the way our community sees civic engagement,” Castro explains. “We need them to see it also as voter engagement, and that voting is for us and that our vote counts.”

When the relatively newly organized Arts for Incarcerated Youth Network (AIYN) forged a partnership with the Los Angeles County Probation Department in 2015, it was both a coup, and a challenge. Instead of diving right into bringing arts programming to the youth they were contracted to serve, the six founding member organizations of the network decided it would be crucial to bring an understanding to the staff members themselves, of how arts education could prove transformative to the young people caught up in the country’s largest juvenile justice system.

A full day of drum circles, theater exercises, music instruction, writing workshops and reflections was their creative solution, one eventful experimental day curated by all six founding member organizations that incorporated each of their creative disciplines.

To say the event was ambitious is an understatement, reflects AIYN executive director Kaile Shilling. “When (we all) met to debrief after the training, one of our members said, ‘No one of us could have done this by ourselves.’ We really had to do this together in order to rise to the challenge of partnering within an agency as large and overwhelming as LA County Probation.” And that spirit of collaboration still remains within the network, a fiscally sponsored project of Community Partners that is now home to a total of nine arts education organizations. Members include Community Partners projects WriteGirl and Rhythm Arts Alliance, along with Street Poets Inc., the Unusual Suspects Theatre Company, Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles, The Actors’ Gang, Armory Center for the Arts, Artworx LA, and Jail Guitar Doors.

Although each of these organizations engage in the arts through different forms of expression, all unite under the network’s collective vision of a society that includes the arts as an essential part of civic life and healing, and not as a last resort for rehabilitation. The network ultimately strives to create a pathway into the creative economy for young people of color, a population that is often overrepresented in juvenile detention and underrepresented in the arts.

“Our members were intentional from the beginning that we would not create an organization whose business model is dependent on young people being locked up,” says Shilling.

Rather, the hope is that kids who write, direct and perform their own plays in the Unusual Suspects’ theater workshops, or learn how to pound their emotions—happy or not—into a drum thanks to Rhythm Arts Alliance’s drumming workshops will walk away with a feeling of accomplishment and value. “It’s that self-worth that will lead kids down a path they thought was out of reach. If we can highlight our success in creating pathways, that’ll help strengthen the case for the investment in the arts in schools and cultural engagement in local communities. Those things can serve as a way to keep kids out of the system in the first place,” she added. The network’s programming has been well received by youth in probation camps and AIYN has secured a multi-year partnership with the LA County Probation Department—making arts education a foundational aspect of probation camp programming.

AIYN facilitates conversation among the nine member organizations, acquires partnerships with public agencies and attracts funding to help members’ arts programming to thrive. Collaborative leadership within a collective of arts-minded organizations is the driving force behind the AIYN and differs significantly from the hierarchal leadership formula that is typical of most nonprofits. It’s a distinction Shilling learned a lot about while she headed up the Violence Prevention Coaliton of Greater Los Angeles, a long-time network organization and Community Partners project.

Community Partners has extensive expertise in models of network management and is currently home to 17 nonprofit network efforts. Having witnessed too many networks form and ultimately fail, Co-founder and CEO Paul Vandeventer scribed Networks that Work, regarded as an “indispensable playbook” for anyone interested or involved in harnessing the power of many groups to achieve a shared social or civic purpose.

Shilling spent five years at VPC learning how to navigate leadership among a collective of leaders. “I can’t express enough how valuable it was to have the years that I did at VPCGLA. Community Partners facilitated a peer learning network for network leaders, and to have that support and guidance was hugely valuable. It’s something I draw on all the time now.”

Five years ago there was no funding in sight and little promise for easing Los Angeles’ traffic-clogged streets and freeways. Today we’re in the midst of a kind of transportation renaissance, with more than a dozen, fully-funded mass transit projects now in the works, including the recently approved Crenshaw/LAX Line.

Instrumental in the ongoing effort to improve public transportation in Los Angeles is Move LA, a project of Community Partners since 2008. Move LA was started by Denny Zane, a former mayor of Santa Monica, with the mission of developing broad support and new funding for a more robust, financially sound, and more equitable public transportation system.

The group’s major contribution has been in pulling together a coalition of labor, business, and environmental groups to work with Metro and then- Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in support of transit. Says Beth Steckler, Move LA’s deputy director, “MoveLA had the ability to [bring everyone together] and find common ground and meaningful solutions.”

Zane emphatically credits MoveLA’s success to his partnership with Gloria Ohland, his policy and communications director, and Steckler.

One significant solution was Measure R, which was a 30-year half-cent sales tax approved by voters in 2008. Measure R provides more than $25 billion for new mass transit projects. “Measure R is our big win,” says Steckler.

As Move LA works to maintain LA’s transit momentum, the group is next focused on building support to reduce the percentage of voters required to approve sales tax increases from two-thirds to 55 percent. Measure J, a ballot effort to extend the half-cent sales tax approved by Measure R for an 30 additional years, fell just 0.56 percent, or 14,000, votes shy of approval. “By getting 66.11 percent of the vote, we know we have the support of the people,” says Steckler. “I am hopeful we will have a measure to reduce the threshold to 55 percent on the ballot in 2014.”

Steckler credits Community Partners with helping MoveLA to stay on target with their goals. “Community Partners takes care of the structure and details and allows us to focus on our work,” she said. “We’re not bogged down by running an organization.”

Standing Together On New Ground

As the child of a Jewish father and a Catholic mother who converted to Judaism, Rabbi Sarah Bassin developed a deep interest in interfaith relations. During rabbinical school, that interest translated into an internship in Jewish-Muslim relations. “I felt that the conversation between those communities had never really started,” she said.

Meanwhile, Edina Lekovic grew up in a culturally Muslim home, had Jewish friends in high school, but was troubled by interactions between Muslims and Jews in college. “At UCLA, I felt tension with the Jewish community, and later watched as the Muslim-Jewish relationship was largely defined by overseas conflict rather than local shared interests,” said Lekovic, who is now director of policy and programming for the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles.

Today, Bassin, Lekovic, and a growing number of others in the Muslim and Jewish communities are enlightening each other and working together through NewGround, an organization that fosters healthy dialogue and social change between the two groups. Bassin serves as the organization’s executive director and Lekovic is chair of the board.

Founded in 2006, New Ground has developed innovative programs embraced by both communities. Its work has flourished and expanded under the fiscal sponsorship of Community Partners.

“Joining with Community Partners gave us a seal of approval,” said Bassin, who began leading New Ground in 2011, when the sponsorship began.  “And with Community Partners taking care of finances, legal matters, and insurance, I’m able to focus on fundraising and programs.”

NewGround’s core program is the Emerging Leaders Fellowship. Each year, a diverse group of 20 Muslim and Jewish young professionals learn conflict-resolution skills and how to apply them to discussions about Israeli-Palestinian relations, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and more.

“We create a space for people to build trusting relationships, treating conflict as a natural part of any relationship,” Bassin said. “Some of the methodologies are based on marriage counseling, where being in a committed relationship is not a matter of whether you fight, but how.”

New Ground engages high-school students through its MAJIC program (Muslims and Jews Inspiring Change) and was named by the Office of the Governor of California as “California’s 2013 Faith-based Organization of the Year.” Another recognition of the organization’s expanding role and impact was an invitation to last year’s White House Hanukah celebration.

“In the Muslim community, they used to call us naïve and idealistic,” said Lekovic. “We have a record number of Muslims signing up for NewGround programs now. Personally, having to face others and ourselves in all our nuances and contradictions is mind-opening and possibly heart-opening. The world is changing and we [Muslims] have to be a part of that.”

On the heels of Greta Thunberg’s recent testimony to the United Nations Climate Action Summit and the growing wave of climate protests around the world, we want to highlight the Community Partners projects addressing the issue of climate change here in LA with an array of approaches. Whether it’s advocating for new legislation, planting trees, bringing sustainability practices to new sectors, or encouraging a next generation of young people to connect and appreciate the natural world, the projects below embody the mandate: think globally, act locally.

Using advocacy and education…

Nature for All

Formerly the San Gabriel Mountains Conservancy, Natural for All knows well the power of advocacy. The San Gabriel Mountains were granted national monument status in 2014, thanks to long-time efforts by the project and its many partners. Now, to help nurture a next generation of advocates, Nature for All offers a highly-acclaimed Leadership Academy targeting low-income and underserved communities that is designed to develop a more diverse group of environmental leaders.

WELL (Water Education for Latino Leaders)

A greater understanding of environmental issues and inclusivity are also key to the work of WELL, the Water Education for Latino Leaders. They’re working to educate local Latino elected officials – including anyone who represents a Latino community – about water management strategies for the 21st century. Their goal is to bring greater diversity and more sustainable practices to policy-making circles.

The City Project

Civil rights lawyer Robert Garcia saw the lack of greenspace in LA’s poorest neighborhoods as an environmental and health justice issue, and founded The City Project to advocate for change. A project of Community Partners since 2006, The City Project has helped to create or preserve more than 1,000 acres of park space in Los Angeles County. Their flagship project was the creation of the Los Angeles State Historic Park, but they’ve also worked with residents to stop the creation of a power plant on in South LA, a garbage dump near the Baldwin Hills Park, and much more.

Wildwoods Foundation

Promoting ecoliteracy in schools is how this long-time project is working to ensure a next generation that is knowledgeable about and mindful of their impact on their surrounding environment. Through a wide range of programming targeting youth from K-12 as well as families and community groups, Wildwoods Foundation brings an appreciation for the natural world and the interconnected systems that govern it. Their motto: building community by exploring nature.

Focusing on transportation…

Active SGV

Active SGV works to support a sustainable, equitable and livable San Gabriel Valley. The group is known for launching one of the first ‘traffic school for bikes’ programs at their bike education center in El Monte and for organizing one of the longest Open Streets events in California at 17+ miles. Active SGV has also spearheaded a five-city regional bicycle master plan with the cities of Baldwin Park, El Monte, South El Monte, San Gabriel and Monterey Park. On November 14 they will host their annual Noche De Las Luminarias, an awards celebration that honors cities, individuals and community organizations that have made strides in supporting a sustainable, equitable and livable San Gabriel Valley.

People for Mobility Justice (PMJ)

PMJ acts as a bridge to connect community expertise with urban planning, policy and advocacy, educational and safe learning environments, and community leadership development around transportation equity. PMJ’s vision of transportation equity refers to correcting past discriminatory practices that influenced the how public transportation is allocated, maintained and developed. The group celebrated its tenth anniversary this October at City Libre in Boyle Heights.

Greening neighborhoods…

Industrial District Green

Industrial District Green works to implement community-based green space and open space projects in the Industrial District of Downtown Los Angeles while engaging under-served members of the community. The group has planted and cares for 230 trees in the Industrial District.

City Plants

City Plants sits at the nexus of a collaboration between the City of Los Angeles, seven other nonprofit organizations, Los Angeles’ business community and community members throughout LA which each year distributes about 20,000 trees a year around the city. Their priorities are to plant in low canopy neighborhoods, create jobs in tree planting and care, and to promote sustainable canopy energy efficiency and climate adaptation benefits. If you live or own property in the City of LA, you’re eligible to receive trees for your yard and/or your street. Go here to learn more.

Promoting sustainability/sustainable practices…

Green Camps Initiative

Green Camps Initiative educates campgrounds, nature and retreat centers, and RV parks all over the country on ways they can reduce their environmental impact. They teach camps how to ensure their facilities are energy and water efficient and how they can operate with sustainability in mind through policy, procurement and everyday practice. The project also hopes to inspire the next generation of eco-leaders through fun activities and educational programs.

Sustainable Works

Sustainable Works aims to ensure that the concepts and intentions of sustainability and living a sustainable lifestyle are in tune with the daily activities of individuals, institutions and businesses. They provide hands-on interactive educational experiences through their events and programming. The group also serves as a liaison between governments, institutions, businesses and individuals fostering community development. The group is hosting a Rain Barrel Fundraiser this weekend, offering recycled food grade plastic barrels that are eligible for a city rebate! Learn more here.

June issues in a month of LGBTQ Pride – marches, festivals, and the recognition of the history, contributions and continuing challenges faced by people in these often marginalized communities. At Community Partners, we’re proud to be supporting several projects and partnerships working to pave the way for greater equality and understanding of LGBTQ people. Here’s a look at what’s happening with some of them this month:

In their continuing efforts to advance the future of LGBTQ heritage and culture, The Lavender Effect has launched its very own LGBTQ-history themed walking tour app. Called Pride Explorer, the app guides users on interactive walking tours around LA. It kicks off with its first journey, a new look at Hollywood history called “LGBTinsel Town, which moves from the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, along the famed boulevard, arriving at the renowned intersection at Hollywood and Vine.

“Our goal in creating this first-of-a-kind app was to offer something both educational and entertaining,” said project leader Andy Sacher. “It was created with both locals and tourists in mind – everyone can learn something new about LA’s now uncloseted history.”

For eight years, the Latino Equality Alliance (LEA) has promoted liberty, equality and justice for the Latinx LGBTQ communities through a strong focus on family acceptance, LGBTQ equality and immigration reform. In honor of Pride Month, LEA hosted its second annual “Purple Lily Awards.” The event honors unsung community leaders who dedicated their passion and time to LEA when the communities they serve were most in need. This year’s honorees are Gizella Czene of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, Mario Ceballos of ¡Que Viva! and HONOR PAC and Al Ballesteros of Adelante Magazine and JWCH. The ceremony is particularly meaningful in light of the changing policies around immigration and the fear that imposes on these communities.

“This event is a time to highlight the work that’s being done and the work that still needs to be done,” said LEA’s advisory board president Ari Gutierrez. “This is a time to recharge, not retire.”

#StillBisexual, one of our newer projects,  addresses the lack of support and dismissal of bisexuality from both the LGBTQ and heterosexual communities through an online awareness campaign. Project leader Nicole Kristal has made it her mission to address misconceptions about bisexuality and close the gap in acceptance within the larger LGBTQ community.

“What makes me the proudest is that a resource now exists online for bisexuals who cannot find acceptance at their local gay bar or college LGBTQ group. They can watch other bisexuals who are experiencing biphobia talk about their struggles and how they overcame them to reach self-acceptance and find love,” she said. “And that’s something that would have really helped my own mental health as a bi youth.”

And also this month, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (DPH), with the support of Community Partners and Southern California Grantmakers will address the need to bring greater diversity to its ongoing efforts to build community resilience across the county. Funders, civic leaders and nonprofit organizations will convene with 25 LA County-based LGBTQ leaders of color to learn about the role community allies can play to support LGBTQ communities of color in times of need. Since 2002, Community Partners has supported the Los Angeles County DPH in building and fostering community resilience in the county.

High School students around the country are back to school and youth voter access project The Civics Center is commemorating the occasion with their first-ever High School Voter Registration Week (HSVRW). The campaign, set for  September 23-27, relies on students themselves to host voter registration drives at their schools to inform, encourage and support their fellow classmates of their right and ability to pre-register to vote. The Civics Center has enlisted 25 fellow voter access organizations committed to this effort to form a HSVRW coalition. Members of the coalition include March for Our Lives, the YMCA, and Issue Voter, a fellow project of Community Partners.

Executive Director Laura Brill recognized the need to educate schools and students of the relatively new (2014) pre-registration law when she stumbled upon it herself after the 2016 presidential elections. Now, The Civics Center has just celebrated its one-year anniversary and trained over 100 students and their teachers to host registration drives, leading to an abundance of events scheduled in 20 different states (and counting!).

So how do you recruit and impassion young people who are notoriously bad at showing up to the polls? “Young people are not as self-centered as you think they are! They have a voice and they want their voices to be heard,” shared Brill. “We help them feel a part of something larger than themselves.”

The Civics Center was savvy in their initial outreach strategy, embracing social media with a  focus on Instagram, used by 85% of America’s teenagers. In fact, most of the students around the country who found The Civics Center did so on Instagram. Through their profile, students enlisted in online trainings and received toolkits and voter drive swag to host their events or even start a voter engagement club at their school. Brill has been thrilled with the response, noting that teachers as well as students are enthusiastic about High School Voter Registration Week.

“We recently did a training in Orange County and there was a teacher in Compton who found out about us on Instagram,” Brill said. “She invited her class and picked up five of her students and drove them to Orange County on a Saturday.”

The scope that The Civics Center has managed to reach in just a year is a testament to a growing political and civic awareness among the nation’s young people. Brill insists if not for fiscal sponsorship, her work would have had a much slower start. “Joining Community Partners has been incredible. We were able to launch in time for the midterm elections with our programs and infrastructure in place. It’s been an ideal structure for us.”

Have a high school student at home or know a colleague who does? Be sure to share details about High School Voter Registration Week and follow @TheCivicsCenter on Instagram for upcoming trainings in your region.