Liberty Hill Blog: News from the Frontlines

Los Angeles Needs All Its Young Men

2012-02-07T14:22:14-08:00

Byline: Kafi D. Blumenfield

In coming decades, an increasingly diverse Los Angeles will need its young men – all its young men, not just the most privileged – to take their places in society and work to build the economy, educate the next generations, preserve the environment and improve the lives of all Angelenos. But today low income and young men of color have the lowest life expectancy rates, highest unemployment rates, fewest high school and college graduates and most murder victims of any demographic group in Los Angeles.

Liberty Hill believes that there is a new reality ready to be built, a reality that recognizes the potential of this large percentage of our future adult population.

This week, I will begin to talk to friends, donors, foundation executives and other allies at the Uplifting Change Summit about Brothers, Sons, Selves, our case for Liberty Hill’s stepped-up investment in improving the lives of L.A.’s low income boys and young men of color. We will be posting our new ebooklet Brothers, Sons, Selves in the next few days. Look for it!

As part of this stepped-up investment, Liberty Hill is managing an emerging campaign, co-created in partnership with The California Endowment, of L.A. community organizations. This statewide effort will build local strength and aggregate it for statewide impact. Affiliated campaigns are being led in Oakland and Fresno.

Our Steering Committee so far includes some of L.A.’s strongest community organizations working in communities of color including Brotherhood Crusade, Californians for Justice, Community Coalition, East L.A. YMCA, Gay Straight Alliance Network, InnerCity Struggle, Khmer Girls and Guys in Action, Labor/Community Strategy Center, as well as our smart strategic partners PolicyLink, Movement Strategy Center, Jemmott Rollins Group, Ideate California. Additional organizations may be added in the future.

Our first public campaign event will be a Field Hearing of the California State Assembly Select Committee on the Status of Boys and Men of Color slated for March 2nd from 3-6 pm at the Expo Center across from Manuel Arts High School. If you would like to attend, please email Anthony Foster on our staff. I look forward to being able to report-out our progress over the coming months!

Photo by Christian Santiego, age 18, courtesy of L.A. Youth, the newspaper by and about teens.

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Has 'Occupy' Helped Community Organizers?

2012-01-28T11:15:24-08:00

Byline: Susan LaTempa

At Liberty Hill’s most recent Brown Bag Seminar (one of an occasional series of timely and intriguing discussions held in our conference room/lunchroom—more info below), three community organizers reflected on the Occupy movement, especially Occupy L.A. and how it has affected ongoing economic justice campaigns in L.A County.

Amy Schur of Alliance of California for Community Empowerment (ACCE) , Zach Hoover of L.A. Voice PICO and Paulina Gonzalez of Strategic Actions for a Just Economy (SAJE) gathered at the lunch table with Liberty Hill staffers, grantee group representatives, Liberty Hill Community Funding Board members and Liberty Hill donor-activists. Among the folks who dropped in were former board member and 2011 Founders Award honoree Gary Stewart, CFB members Karen Brodkin and Arline Dillman, and supporter-volunteer Edda Spielman.

Moderator Shane Goldsmith, Liberty Hill’s Vice President/Chief Program Officer asked each of the organizers to talk about how their groups had engaged with Occupy to advance their work.

L.A. Voice is an interfaith, community organization that has members in 20 congregations in Los Angeles and is part of a national network with branches in 150 cities. Zach described how symbiosis between Occupy energy and L.A. Voice’s groundwork resulted in tangible progress. He reported a significant step forward for the Responsible Banking Ordinance, which L.A. Voice had been pushing for from the City Council as a part of a larger bank accountability movement. The ordinance would require banks doing City business to disclose detailed information about their local lending practices to provide a snapshot of how good a neighbor each bank is. In the late fall, as Occupy L.A. captured the city’s attention, supporters on the Council incorporated the Responsible Banking Ordinance into a resolution to support the Occupy movement and —voila!— the ordinance moved on to the budget committee and, in a revised form, has a real chance to succeed.

“I got this phone call telling me what was going to happen,” remembers Zach, “And at first my reaction was, ‘I wish I would have known.' Then I thought, ‘This is awesome!” He credits the Occupy movement with emboldening advocates and government officials working for reform because so many Americans can say “I am one of the 99%.”

SAJE works for economic democracy, neighborhood integrity and tenants’ rights by taking slumlords to court, helping establish land trusts, and helping find positive solutions to conflicts between institutions and low-income city residents. Paulina described how SAJE, as a member of the national Right to the City Alliance, took members last September to Boston for a long-planned march on the Bank of America that as it turned out, occurred just as Occupy Boston began. The result was a 3,000-strong march against foreclosures that was organized and led by people of color and culminated in acts of civil disobedience.

SAJE members came back to L.A. and started looking at how the foreclosure crisis was affecting not only homeowners, but tenants, and have been researching how many bank-owned properties house tenants in slum conditions. Paulina noted that the Occupy movement was “shifting the debate” in national political discussion to focus on income equality, a shift that was apparent now in January as Mitt Romney’s tax returns were being released.

ACCE is a multi-racial, democratic, non-profit community organization building power in low to moderate income neighborhoods to stand and fight for social, economic, and racial justice. The fall Occupy actions, said Amy, occurred just when ACCE was escalating its “Make Banks Pay” campaign. When ACCE member Rose Mary Gudiel, who faced eviction because of a late payment, refused to leave her home, ACCE’s Home Defenders group began to parallel and draw energy from the Occupy movement and a loose-knit confederation of Occupy groups “Occupy Our Homes” began to occupy and hold General Assemblies in foreclosed homes with evicted families.

Amy says, “They helped us and what we did helped Occupy. It’s about them putting themselves on the line in explosive ways that opens up space for the rest of us. It’s helped keep us going and get to the next phase.”

“Occupy did something bold,” Amy said, “Bold, and kind of weird, in a way.”

The discussion began to move around the room, with attendees offering examples of how the Occupy message had captured people’s imagination, discussing connections to global pro-democracy movements, analyzing how effectively some tactics brought injustices into sharp relief in media coverage, and considering how deeply resonant is the idea—and the image—and the reality— of “claiming space.”

When asked whether Occupy is a movement or a moment, Amy responded with a call to action: "It is what we make of it, so let's make it into the movement we have all been waiting for."

And then we folded up our brown bags and went back to our desks and our days.

If you’d like to participate in a future Brown Bag Seminar at Liberty Hill, please email Sabrina Beason at sbeason@libertyhlil.org and ask to be added to our notification list.

Liberty Hill’s commitment to advance movements for social change through grants, leadership training and alliance building requires all sorts of due diligence. Staff members keep abreast of the work of community organization by attending actions and events, doing site visits, conferring with Community Funding Board members—and by availing ourselves of the educational opportunities of an series of occasional Brown Bag Seminar lunches organized by Shane Goldsmith, Liberty Hill’s Vice President/Chief Program Officer.

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Introducing Liberty Hill's 2012 Leaders to Watch

2012-01-19T09:00:00-08:00

Byline: Barbara Osborn

Two years ago we named Liberty Hill's Leaders to Watch for the first time. What we wanted to do was show people how amazing community organizers were, the people behind the strategy, endless meetings, the issues and the victories. Like Cesar Chavez said: "It's never about lettuce or grapes, it's always about people," and I was eager to remind us of the people behind the work.

But in the last year I felt like Liberty Hill had outgrown the focus just on organizing. So this year we've included leaders from across Liberty Hill's work: organizers, donor-activists, coaches from the Leadership Institute and folks who sit on our community braintrust and advise our grants.

You can find more information about each of them on our website. Our 2012 Leaders to Watch are John Manulis, Eileen Ma, Esthephanie Solano, Damon Azali-Rojas and Jan Robinson-Flint. Over the last two months I've gotten to spend a lot of time with them and I hope you find their work as inspiring as I do. 2012 will present lots of opportunities to meet them. If you're not already on our email list and haven't liked us on Facebook, do it now. That's the best way to stay in the know. Here are quick blurbs on each of them. There's lots more including video on our website.

Esthefanie Solano, a student activist with Liberty Hill grantee InnerCity Struggle, is working to change punitive school disciplinary policies that push youth into the “school to prison pipeline.” She's a freshman at Pasadena City College and looks forward in 2012 to see the passage of a Dream Act that would provide a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrant youth.

Eileen Ma, executive director of API Equality-LA is bringing her decades of experience as a labor organizer to the cause of equality for the County’s 52,000 LGBT Asian/Pacific Islanders.

John Bard Manulis is a donor-activist with a 20-year-track record of rolling up his sleeves and investing his time, money and creative chops in campaigns for change.

Janette Robinson-Flint (in pink, right), co-founder of Black Women for Wellness, is a grassroots organization determined to improve Black women’s health and self-esteem.

Damon Azali-Rojas (on right) is a community organizer turned strategist and mentor for campaigns designed to turn the tide for L.A.’s low-income Black, Latino and Asian youth.

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Uplifting Donors

2012-01-18T09:15:00-08:00

Byline: Vincent Jones

In February 2010 Liberty Hill hosted a transformative summit that convened African American donor-activists interested in investing in new solutions, strong leaders and effective organizations. Since that time, more than 100 people have been inspired to become an active part of Liberty Hill’s Uplifting Change community.

Now, we're ready for year three! The Uplifting Change Summit & Luncheon will be held February 13, 2012 at the Center for Healthy Communities.

Uplifting Change was launched to help strengthen the philanthropic power in L.A.’s African American communities. At the Summit, participants will learn practical tools to leverage their giving to develop new leaders in the community and build stronger organizations, and thus, a stronger community.

African Americans have a long tradition of giving through churches, bridge clubs and fraternal organizations. Uplifting Change is about harnessing the philanthropic power we have in our own community and leveraging those resources to solve our problems. Historically, we have been seen as seekers of philanthropic dollars, not as philanthropic investors. But we are now in a position to strengthen our community through strategic philanthropic investment. Uplifting Change is ushering in that change, helping African Americans recognize their potential to strengthen the community through philanthropy.

Through the discussions of the Summit, participants will walk away with increased knowledge and ideas of how to “align with other foundations and their initiatives"; and to effectuate “increased impact” to their particular areas of interest and goals for giving. Participants will be given guidance on how to identify, access, and evaluate potential partnership opportunities.

The Summit program is being finalized. Previous year’s panelists include: Assemblywoman Holly Mitchell, Fran Jemmott (Jemmott-Rollins Group), Dr. Robert Ross (The California Endowment), Susan Batten Taylor (Association of Black Foundation Executives) and Virgil Roberts (The James Foundation & California Foundation Black Men & Boys Initiative).

The Luncheon Session is open to the public. Tickets may be purchased at $100 by contacting Liberty Hill.

And for those of you still unfamiliar with Liberty Hill's groundbreaking work in L.A.'s African American communities, please note: Over the last 35 years, Liberty Hill has invested more than $41 million in community organizing at the frontlines of change in Los Angeles. Early investments include some of South Los Angeles’ most important community organizing and advocacy groups such as; FAME Renaissance, Community Coalition, and SCOPE. Currently Black Women for Wellness, The Black Worker Center, L.A. Community Action Network, and other organizations serving Los Angeles’ African American community are being strengthened by Liberty Hill grants and training.

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2011 Leader Watch: Gloria Walton Reflects

2012-01-11T05:24:00-08:00

Each year, Liberty Hill recognizes members of our extended community as “Leaders to Watch.” In January 2011, we interviewed our 2011 Leaders to Watch about their goals and concerns, then checked in with them throughout the year. In late December, we caught up by phone and email for their year-end reflections.

Our 2011 Leaders to Watch were Tammy Bang Luu of Bus Riders Union/Labor Community Strategy Center (LCSC) Ari Gutierrez and Eddie Martinez of Latino Equality Alliance, Gloria Walton of Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education (SCOPE), Isella Ramirez of East Yard Coalition for Environmental Justice and Xiomara Corpeño of Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA).

Gloria emailed us during a year-end vacation from her first year as Executive Director of SCOPE, which coincided in part with her time as a Leader to Watch.

"Conventional wisdom says, 'It takes a village to raise a child.' In a humorous yet truthful sense, I learned that it takes a movement to support an Executive Director and its organization. If I had to choose one phrase to sum up my first year as the Executive Director of SCOPE, it would be ‘THANK YOU!’

Thank you to Liberty Hill for providing a Leader to Watch platform. Thank you to everyone I reached out to for help and guidance, all of whom without hesitation invested time and energy with me: Anthony Thigpenn, Torie Osborn, Marqueece Harris-Dawson, Michele Prichard, Kafi Blumenfield, Stewart Kwoh, Congresswoman Bass, Latonya Slack. Being an Executive Director is a position that I am not quite convinced anyone can really be prepared for: raising an organizational budget, fiscal oversight and management, board and organizational development (strategic planning), program management, staff management, AND being an internal and external leader. It definitely takes a certain type of person and character, all of which means nothing, without the movement of people and organization to provide support. I am a trained community organizer and one of the first things I learned is that relationships are the cornerstone. Being an E.D. simply reinforces that notion. In 2012, I will continue to walk with energetic integrity, love, self discipline, idealistic vision, intention and will power for my Self, my family, Community.

The following illustrates the breadth and scope of SCOPE’s accomplishments in 2011. During the past year, SCOPE members:

Contacted 11,630 voters in June and identified 8,853 supporters of a Department of Water & Power investment in energy efficiency and contacted 11,335 voters in November and identified 8,854 supportive voters on raising taxes on the very rich to bring balance and fairness to California's tax system.
Coordinated the mobilization of more than 50 organizations and 600 people at a rally at City Hall and 1,500 at the downtown federal building rally about the local impact of HR1 (federal budget cuts).
Held 25 leadership development events that more than 600 members attended, including a Jobs Forum that featured Congresswoman Karen Bass as the speaker and a worker and community panel that reflected key local issues and meaningful solutions for Los Angeles.
Completed a multi-year campaign that resulted in the passage of the Green Retrofit and Workforce ordinance. Steps included (1) securing $26 million to date to implement the retrofit project (2) overseing the implementation of the green jobs pilot program to retrofit 22 city; there are plans to retrofit an additional 55 buildings (3) developing a partnership with LAANE to push for a new energy efficiency program at the DWP that creates jobs accessible to low-income communities of color.
Strengthened the capacity of 13 social justice groups across the nation to build and enhance their civic engagement programs. Provided technical assistance and training to five national social justice groups. Trained SCOPE members in Internet and word-processing skills through the organizations' Computer Grassroots Training Institute.
With Liberty Hill, convened three meetings with more 30 Black organizers in Los Angeles to discuss ways to strengthen black organizing infrastructure and how to create and cultivate a new generation of Black leadership and organizers, as well as how to support and strengthen the capacity of existing leadership."

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