Bosborn's blog

Five Things Would-Be Commissioners Ought to Know

Bob Blumenfield/  photo by Warren Hill

By Bob Blumenfield, Los Angeles City Councilmember

Councilmember Bob Blumenfield addressed the Liberty Hill Commissions Training program offered by our Wally Mark Leadership Institute in June 2013 and offered five pithy pieces of advice to would-be commissioners. He covered everything from "Do commissions matter?" to "How do you get appointed?" Here’s an edited version of his remarks.

1. Do commissions matter? Yes! Elected officials need to harness the power and expertise of labor and community leaders to help make things happen. Force multiplying is a necessity. In LA alone we have more than 50 part time boards and commissions dealing with everything from our Harbors to our Parks to our Convention Center to cultural heritage.

2. What’s the role of a commissioner? Commissioners are not rock throwers. It’s a different role. Your charge is to help government. You are there as partners - to exercise judgment, make decisions and be accountable. Most commissions are a voluntary delegation of authority by elected officials. A good commissioner is one who wants to help elected officials succeed in solving problems.

3. Who serves on a commission? A small-d democrat. People who want to participate in democracy and see a better process in place. I look for people who can do the job but also someone who will be a partner with me who are true to a set of values and beliefs.

4. How do you get appointed? It’s not a straight meritocracy. You’re not being chosen because you’re the best functionary. You’re being chosen because you reflect the ideals and the goals of your appointing authority and because you can get the job done and you’re going to be working in partnership with them. You are more likely to be appointed with commissions if you get involved with your local elected officials. They not only create their own commissions, appoint and suggest appointees to commissions, but they are often the ones who rely on these commissions. I’ve helped many people get appointed to commissions and they were people I’ve come across who had particular knowledge, expertise, or experience in certain areas. Yes, the appointing authorities of any particular commission take resumes over the transom and some people get appointed this way. But, commissioners are not employees in the traditional sense – they are not supposed to be hired and chosen based on merit alone. They are being chosen to provide advice and judgment and to be an extension of elected officials. They are therefore chosen in a much more discretionary manner.

5. Why do it? Most commissioners only receive bad coffee and danishes for their efforts. It often takes time, money and effort just to get the post, and all that work is just to have the privilege of working your tail off. You are a lightning rod for the public’s anger or concern on an issue. There’s little glory and it doesn’t make up for the many hours you put into the work. All that said, you’re helping make our democratic system work and it’s something that can be enormously gratifying.

Five of the people who participated in Liberty Hill's June Commissions Training program have been appointed to city, county or state commissions or boards: Joe Bernardo to El Pueblo Monument Authority, Adine Foreman to County Workforce Investment Board, Tai Glenn to City Rent Adjustment Commission, Shawn Landres to County Quality and Productivity Commission and Effie Turnbull Sanders to California Coastal Commission. We will be hearing from these new comissioners in an upcoming blog post.

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33 Grants Advance Social Justice

Byline: Margarita Ramirez, Deputy Director of Grantmaking

This year a total of $984,000 was allocated to 33 outstanding community organizing groups working on economic, environmental and LGBT justice. Please join us in celebrating the great accomplishments, past and future, of these community organizers! (The grantees appear in alphabetical order.)

 

ACCE Institute - $100,000 (two-year grant)

To lead organizing among low income, senior and working class homeowners and tenants who are impacted by the foreclosure crisis. 

Asian Pacific Islander Equality-LA (API Equality-LA) – $35,000

To positively engage API Angelenos on LGBT issues, particularly marriage equality and immigration reform. (Fiscal sponsor: Asian Pacific American Legal Center) 

Black Women for Wellness - $15,000 

For its Sisters@Eight program and to develop grassroots leadership to advocate for eliminating racial and gender health disparities.

Californians for Justice Education Fund - $18,000  

To ensure successful implementation of its “Healthy Schools Zones” resolution for the Long Beach Unified School District, and to improve diversity awareness and alternatives to violence.

 

CLEAN Carwash Initiative - $12,500

To support workers' rights for 10,000 carwash workers with a focus on campaigns in South Los Angeles. (Fiscal sponsor: Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance) 

Coalition for Economic Survival - $30,000

To support community organizing and advocacy activities with low income tenants to build tenant leadership and preserve affordable housing. (Fiscal sponsor: Los Angeles Center for Economic Survival)

Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles - $100,000 (two-year grant)

For its Los Angeles-based work on protecting and empowering immigrant workers and their families through community organizing, civic engagement, and education.

Community Asset Development Re-Defining Education - $20,000

To support South L.A. parents in breaking the school-to-prison pipeline by reducing push-out through school discipline and implementing alternatives to suspension and zero tolerance.

East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice - $15,000

To support its work towards a healthy environment for communities that are disproportionately suffering the negative impacts of industrial pollution. (Fiscal sponsor: Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs)

Filipino Migrant Center - $10,000

To support efforts among immigrants and youth in the Carson area around immigration reform and rights for domestic workers. 

Gay-Straight Alliance Network - $35,000

To support three youth-led campaigns for district-level changes in policies to make high schools free from violence, name-calling, and harassment on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

Gender Justice LA - $30,000

To improve health care access in the transgender community and to improve the critical relationship between the transgender community and the Los Angeles Police Department. 

Housing Long Beach - $20,000

To change the existing imbalance of power in Long Beach by promoting policies that assure housing preservation, affordable housing, and living wage jobs.

InnerCity Struggle - $80,000 (two-year grant) 

For general operating support of its work to ensure education and economic justice for the communities of East Los Angeles. 

Instituto de Educación Popular del Sur de California - $25,000

To carry out its movement building strategies with low-wage working communities particularly in the areas of day laborer and economic development among its six community job centers.

Khmer Girls in Action - $20,000

To support campaigns to challenge punishments-based school policies and practices currently operating to push low income youth of color out of school.

Korean Resource Center - $10,000

To encourage civic participation of the Korean American community to support the state revenue increase policy to protect affordable housing and health and human services.

Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance - $35,000

To support organizing campaigns to build its base and leadership as a community union with the power to set standards for equitable development in Koreatown.  

Labor Community Strategy Center – $45,000

For the No-to-Pre-Prison campaign to challenge zero-tolerance policies, truancy/tardy tickets, police misconduct, and other practices that fuel push-out by low income Black and Latino high school students in L.A.

LA Voice - $25,000 

To train hundreds of leaders throughout Los Angeles in the skills of community organizing in order to promote public policy that advances equity in health, education, immigration and housing.  

Los Angeles Black Worker Center - $20,000

To support its work on policies and practices that impact quality workforce development in the African American community. (Fiscal sponsor: UC Regents)

Los Angeles Community Action Network - $36,000

For its economic and racial justice work, including community organizing and leadership development in the areas of tenant rights, housing preservation, civil rights, economic development, and healthy food access. 

People Organized for Westside Renewal - $36,000

To develop leaders in low income communities in Pacoima, Westside LA, and San Pedro to preserve public housing stock; enforce the Mello Act; and protect neighborhood public schools from privatization.  

Pilipino Workers Center of Southern California - $28,500

To clean up the private care giving industry and support local organizing work of the Los Angeles Workers in Action (LAWIA).

Pomona Economic Opportunity Center - $20,000

To support its Anti-Impounds Campaign to change discriminatory traffic enforcement and impound policies that use racial profiling to target immigrant drivers.

Restaurant Opportunities Center of Los Angeles  - $20,000

To launch workplace justice campaigns against low-road employers engaged in discrimination, exploitation, and abuse in the L.A. restaurant industry.(Fiscal sponsor: Restaurant Opportunities Center United) 

Southeast Asian Community Alliance - $10,000

To build power among Southeast Asian youth and their communities by fighting for equitable economic development. 

Southern California Education Fund - $20,000

To support a strategy aimed at making strong and specific wins around health enrollment, affordable housing, and public education.

Strategic Actions for a Just Economy - $30,000

To support efforts to eliminate slum housing, expand tenants’ rights, reform redevelopment, build community capacity and vision in land-use planning, and improve jobs and income in the Figueroa Corridor.

Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education - $30,000

To build a power base that will hold the city accountable to building a health public sector with the capacity to invest in the safety net and employment of low income communities of color.

Tenemos que Reclamar y Unidos Salvar la Tierra-South L.A. (T.R.U.S.T-South LA) - $18,000

To support organizing campaigns to revitalize the surrounding neighborhood with transportation, recreation, and food access to promote healthy living and economic vitality.

Unión de Vecinos - $15,000

To support its work on the preservation of affordable housing across the cities of Los Angeles and Maywood.

Youth Justice Coalition - $20,000

For its campaign against the use of gang databases and gang injunctions; reduce L.A. County’s over-reliance on incarceration; impact California’s extreme sentencing of youth; and challenge L.A.’s School-to-Jail Track.

 

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Frontlines to Headlines August

Emeritus drummers for immigration reform  from Korean Resource Center

Here’s the monthly round-up of links to some of the news media stories about Liberty Hill and our grantees that appeared last month: From Frontlines to Headlines!

There was no vacation hiatus for Liberty Hill partners whose work on the major issues of the day continued through August as they pressed for progress on many fronts, notably immigration reform, environmental justice, LGBTQ equality issues and economic issues including housing..

August 27

West Hollywood Patch highlighted an upcoming screening of the documentary “A Fierce Green Fire” on 50 years of the environmental movement. Michele Prichard, Liberty Hill’s Director, Common Agenda, will lead a post-screening discussion with panelists including Angelo Logan of East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice.

August 22

Liberty Hill’s Queer Youth Fund grantee group Make the Road New York has been part of a successful coalition to end Stop and Frisk policy that disproportionately targeted youth of color and LGBTQ youth (especially homeless youth) and was recently been declared unconstitutional by the courts and unlawful by the city council The campaign by grassroots organizations proved that 90% of the stops did not result in arrests.  In These Times describes the City Council legislation and the police policy history; the New York Times describes the community-based campaign.

August 21

The LA Daily News and Southern California Public Radio (KPCC) covered the controversy around the proposed gang injunction for Echo Park, quoting Youth Justice Coalition’s Kim McGill and Kruti Parekh (a Liberty Hill 2013 Leader to Watch) about the negative impacts of the use of injunctions.

August 20

The Inquirer reported on the Long Beach city council decision to adopt a language policy to aid non-English speakers in accessing city services. The change is thanks to a two year campaign by a coalition that includes East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, Housing Long Beach, and Khmer Girls in Action.

August 15

In a supportive Op-Ed piece, Los Angeles Wave columnist Betty Pleasants describes how Coalition for Economic Survival has stepped up its tenant-organizing efforts throughout Los Angeles in the wake of the closure of many courthouses where landlord-tenant disputes were heard.

The Massachusetts-based Rainbow Times reported on the lawsuit against Springfield, Mass. extremist Scott Lively for his role in Uganda’s “Kill the Gays” legislation. Holly Richardson, from Springfield’s only LGBTQ youth organization, Out Now (A Queer Youth Fund grantee) describes the need for the Stop the Hate and Homophobia Coalition formed to counter Lively’s teaching in Springfield.

August 14

LA Streets Blog discussed the several proposals for the expansion of Interstate-710 including “Community Alternatve 7,” drafted by East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice and Communities for a Better Environment, which offers a zero-emissions design, to protect local communities from increased air pollution.

August 13 

According to Long Beach Business Journal, six environmental-impact lawsuits against the City of Los Angeles and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Co. (BNSF)’s proposed Southern California International Gateway (SCIG) railyard, including one by East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice and Coalition for a Safe Environment, have been consolidated.

Throughout August, national immigrant advocacy coalitions staged actions demanding the House of Representatives to support comprehensive reform. The Washington Post, the LA Times and CBS discussed the Caravan for Citizenship, a rally in Bakersfield and other demonstrations, highlighting the role of Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA)

August 13

“Corporate tax avoidance” by just one mall developer, Westfield, resulted in $41.2 million in lost tax revenues to California in just one year, according to a new study by Refund LA Coalition, whose members include Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), InnerCity Struggle, Community Coalition, LA Voice, People Organized for Westside Renewal (POWER).

August 2

Korean Resource Center is one of many Asian-American groups raising their voices for immigration reform, according to a recent story by Southern California Public Radio (KPCC). Dayne Lee, a civic engagement coordinator with the Korean Resource Center, describes outreach efforts.

August 1 

A letter to the editor in the LA Times demonstrated how Communities for a Better Environment’s “toxic tour” has exposed the realities of environmental injustice and led to critical policy changes.

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A Neighborhood Champion

 

By volunteer contributing writer Rebecca Koppenhaver

David Mosley has a view of his apartment’s courtyard from his front porch: a lush green lawn, blossoming trees and bushes, a colorful children’s slide, and a meandering concrete path where kids ride their scooters from building to building. This Rolland Curtis Garden Apartments complex is in a bustling neighborhood—the Expo Line speeds by at regular intervals and bikers and pedestrians travel to and from nearby USC.

David, 73, is an artist and an active leader with T.R.U.S.T. South L.A., a Liberty Hill partner. He smiles when he talks about the sights and sounds of his neighborhood. “This place is a breath of fresh air. I like it here! I like raising my daughter here, and I get to meet a lot of interesting people.”  But this positive environment only exists here because Mosely and his neighbors fought a long, intensive community campaign to preserve the complex’s long-held status as affordable housing when a developer tried to force tenants out and convert to market-rate student housing.

Two years ago, David, who lives with his teenage daughter, and the rest of the tenants at Rolland Curtis Gardens were faced with the looming threat of eviction from the apartment complex, which had been purposefully neglected and allowed to fall into disrepair.

David is a soft-spoken man, with piercing hazel eyes and an air of wisdom that floats through his words. Inside his tidy second floor apartment, the white walls are hung with his colorful drawings and paintings, a testament to his intriguing history of 50-plus years traveling the country as an artist, painting portraits of the likes of Angela Davis and Malcom X, working for The Brotherhood Crusade, and designing posters and album covers for boxing promoter Don King, Bob Marley and other high-profile personalities.

David’s base was Watts, where he had lived most of his life, but in 1997, looking for a good place to raise his daughter, he moved to Rolland Curtis Gardens. He quickly got to know his neighbors, mostly families trying to make ends meet, in the 48-unit complex. Many relied on Section 8 subsidies. The 1981 complex had been built with Community Redevelopment Agency and HUD funds and therefore carried the responsibility of being low-income housing until 2011. Tenants enjoyed spacious apartments in a secured complex with plenty of room for kids to play outdoors and parking.

In 2004 Rolland Gardens was sold to a real estate developer. When the low-income covenant expired in 2011, tenants immediately received 90-day eviction notices. Meanwhile, the owner had already begun a campaign of neglect to the building and the grounds, hoping tenants would move. Maintenance stopped, trash pickup was irregular, and tenants often went without hot water and electricity.

“We had heard the owner had big plans for the property. He wanted to make it housing for students, and he was hoping we would all just leave,” says David, adding that many residents were scared and confused, and didn’t want to leave. “There were families here that had been here for a long time. They liked it here. They watched their kids grow up here, like me.

 “I saw these poor families that didn’t know how to come together and make their voices heard.”  

David says that back then, he didn’t know what, if anything, could be done, but he sensed that as tenants they had rights, and they were being ignored.

T.R.U.S.T South L.A., a community land trust organization dedicated to preserving affordable housing and a grantee of Liberty Hill, began organizing tenants with the ultimate goal of acquiring the 2.3 acres of Rolland Curtis Gardens and preserving it for permanent affordable housing. David’s respected presence among tenants immediately made him a leader at their weekly meetings at a nearby church.

Sandra McNeill, Executive Director of T.R.U.S.T South L.A., says, “David quickly materialized as a respected voice in the room at our meetings. He has a strong capacity for articulating the tenants’ concerns and also has the ability to rally people.”

McNeill describes how Mosley brought people to meetings, made media contacts, and did his own research. He was successful in getting a letter from the tenants published in The Los Angeles Sentinel, which resulted in a previously unresponsive city council member finally offering his assistance to the group.  

Tafarai Bayne, Director of Mobility and Recreational Programs at T.R.U.S.T South L.A., says the process of organizing and working to purchase the Rolland Curtis Gardens was a long journey. “Our course shifted and stopped and started many times within the long process,” says Bayne. “David really helped tenants work through their concerns and fears about a process that is never easy.”  

The process of preserving the affordable housing status of the complex began with the tenants countering the purposeful neglect of the buildings and grounds by reporting code violations. Citations for more than 300 violations including electrical, plumbing, and safety hazards were issued as T.R.U.S.T South and its partner Abode Communities sought funding to buy the property. Negotiations stalled numerous times.  During  that time of uncertainty, about half of the families at Rolland Gardens moved out.

David had decided early on that in spite of the problems, he would see it the fight through to the end and encourage his neighbors to do the same, but privately he was sometimes unsure. “I would have my doubts,” he remembers, “but Sandra opened my mind and gave me strength and encouragement. She was very dedicated.”  

Mosley credits his art with him helping survive the turbulence of his early years in Watts and McNeill suspects it is Mosley’s progressive political nature and his ability to overcome an oppressive background that has made him an optimistic and powerful force in the Rolland Curtis Gardens saga. “David understands the need for solidarity and organization when you are working towards a goal,” she says. “He is also a fundamentally hopeful and faithful person.”

In July 2012, a purchase offer from T.R.U.S.T South LA and Abode Communities  for Rolland Curtis Gardens was accepted, and the deal closed later that month. David and the other tenants continue to meet monthly through T.R.U.S.T South LA and Abode Communities to to participate in the planning process for rebuilding the site with permanently affordable housing, for these and future families.   

David is proud of the tenants’ achievement and shares the Rolland Curtis Gardens story with new tenants who move in. But most of all, he likes that his teenage daughter is mindful of what has happened. “She understands what it took to get where we are, and that is what I want for her: to learn to be right and fair with people—and to do some good in the world.”  

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No, You're Not Imagining Things: You did just hear Liberty Hill on KPCC 89.3!

No, You're not imagining things: You did just hear Liberty Hill on KPCC 89.3 FM!

As always, we are eager to spread the word about social justice, and we are hoping that these provocative shorts on KPCC will help us do it. 

So tell us: Could your mother move a concrete mountain? Meet the moms who did! 

 And if you haven't already like us on Facebook and sign up for our monthly updates! 

 

Download the audio: Can your mom move a concrete mountain?

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Meet our "Change L.A." Honorees

 

Liberty Hill's September 8, 2013 "Change L.A." party with a purpose is right around the corner.

Buy your tickets now and join us for an afternoon of inspiration and celebration as we honor some of L.A.'s most effective social justice activists.

Shawn Landres will receive Liberty Hill's NextGen Award, given each year to an inspirational leader who invests time and raises funds to advance social justice in Los Angeles. Shawn, Co-founder & CEO of Jumpstart, is an entrepreneur who connects people, ideas, and resources at the intersection of innovation and social good. Tammy Bang Luu will receive Liberty Hill’s Wally Marks Changemaker Award, given each year to an individual whose work in the community illustrates Dr. King’s insight that while “the arc of history is long, it bends toward justice.” Tammy, Associate Director of The Labor/Community Strategy Center, is a much-admired community organizer and has been the co-host of the weekly one-hour radio show called Voices from the Frontlines on KPFK 90.7FM.

Since 2008, Jumpstart has harnessed research & publishing, convenings & education, and innovative funding vehicles to connect, inform, and empower more than 3,000 community leaders and more than 150 Jewish and interreligious initiatives around the world. Jumpstart’s latest initiative exemplifies its mission, under his and co-founder Joshua Avedon’s leadership, to help community leaders expand what they know, adapt how they think, and redefine what is possible: a groundbreaking series of research reports that highlights how the charitable contributions of American Jews, Protestants, Catholics, members of other religious communities advance the common good through poverty relief, health care, education, the arts, and civic & social advocacy.

Shawn is a Los Angeles County Commissioner, appointed by Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky to serve on the Quality and Productivity Commission. He co-chairs the Clinton Foundation Millennium Network Leadership Council, which inspires the next generation to address global challenges. Shawn pursues his commitments to social enterprise as a founding member of and advisor to The HUB LA and as an advisor to The Mother Company and InVenture. An inaugural Ariane de Rothschild Fellow, he is a member of the ROI Community and Bend the Arc’s Selah Leadership Network, and an alumnus of the New Leaders Project, which trains young Jewish professionals for civic service in Los Angeles.

Shawn’s commitment to social, cultural, and civic engagement was forged before he was born. Italian Catholic nuns reached across the religious divide during World War II to save the lives of his mother and her family, Jewish refugees from Czechoslovakia. Shawn’s late father, a child and adolescent psychoanalyst whose work took him from Reiss-Davis to the LA County Men’s Central Jail, dedicated his career to engaging with people beyond categories and labels. Family history taught Shawn that we must know the cultures in which and with which we live, and we must create relationships with people across sociocultural boundaries.

The past 25 years are testimony to that lesson: in the 1980s, Shawn started by organizing performances by Harvard and Westlake student musicians for seniors, cancer patients, and shelter residents. He spent his undergraduate years at Columbia testifying in Congress for student aid and debt relief for Gulf War veterans, shaping the youth message for Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign. It was Shawn who suggested to Bill Clinton that he use the Fleetwood Mac song “Don’t Stop,” as the campaign’s theme song. Later, he worked as a White House intern on policy planning for the Administration’s “Reinventing Government” initiative.

During graduate school, Shawn combined social anthropology postgraduate research at Oxford with civic renewal work with Jewish communities and Rotary Clubs in postsocialist Slovakia, and advocated for student voting rights while president of the UC Santa Barbara Graduate Students Association. He has co-edited four books and published award-winning articles and essays that advance intergroup understanding.

In the 2000s, Shawn’s work continued, connecting progressive evangelicals and Emerging Church leaders with innovative Jewish partners; fostering Muslim-Jewish solidarity at the Progressive Jewish Alliance, Abrahamic Faiths Peacemaking Initiative, and NewGround; helping build IKAR, a social justice-infused Jewish spiritual community in Los Angeles; and advancing the dignity and equality of LGBT people in Jewish community and religious life through board leadership at Jewish Mosaic and Keshet. Shawn’s leadership was instrumental in effecting the merger of those two organizations, forming the central address for LGBT inclusion within the American Jewish community.

Today Shawn works to facilitate effective conversations and strengthen networks to address questions of intellectual, political, and moral urgency, and generate collaborative solutions that help repair the world. His faith-based social innovation work has earned extensive media attention, from The New York Times and Chronicle of Philanthropy to GOOD.is and FastCo.EXIST. Just a year after Jumpstart’s launch, the Forward named Shawn one of America’s 50 most influential Jewish leaders.

Shawn and his wife Zuzana Riemer Landres live in Santa Monica, where they are being raised by their two young daughters. They are proud to be joining the Liberty Hill Advisory Committee, where they look forward to helping Los Angeles find creative ways to achieve ever greater equity for all.

Tammy Bang Luu is the Associate Director of the Labor/Community Strategy Center (LCSC), a multiracial, intergenerational “think tank/act tank” based in Los Angeles. LCSC is home to the Bus Riders Union, building a vibrant mass movement of thousands of low-income bus riders advancing transportation justice from LA to DC; the Community Rights Campaign, addressing the school-to-prison pipeline and schools-as-jails culture in favor of building a positive, empowered learning environment; and the National School for Strategic Organizing, training new generations of conscious organizers. She has been a co-host on the Strategy Center's weekly one-hour radio show called Voices from the Frontlines on KPFK 90.7FM, the Pacifica Station for Southern California. She served on the National Planning Committee for the US Social Forum in Atlanta 2007 and Detroit 2010. Tammy is also on the Coordinating Committee of the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, advancing trans-local organizing and building grassroots internationalism. Tammy was named a “2011 Leader to Watch” by the Liberty Hill Foundation.

Buy your tickets now and join in toating these two amazing leaders!

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An Exhaltation of Summer Interns

 

Interns (top l to r) Allison Goldberg Brinton Williams, Nichole Klein; (bottom l to r) Liora Ziv, Joanna Kabat.Not pictured: Olivia Stutman.

By volunteer contributing writer Mark Bizzell

Liberty Hill’s internship program allows us to tap into the talent, energy, and insight of students from around the country. Three years ago, Board member and volunteer Paula Litt took on the task to expand the program.  For summer internships, she starts getting emails in January from interested students.  

This summer, we have had a full complement of six students working with us for three to five days per week for eight or more weeks between June and September. It’s been an exciting season, with students from a range of institutions, including Ivy League schools and a charter high school, working on often-challenging projects as they joined our efforts to advance environmental and economic justice, to expand LGBTQ rights, and to combat poverty.

Joanna Kabat describes herself as being a bookish kid and volunteering for local organizations at an early age. “Both of my parents were involved with local shelters, schools, religious institutions and health advocacy groups; that really rubbed off on me,” she says. Joanna grew up in the San Fernando Valley, attended Barnard College, and worked for American Jewish World Service and Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society in New York. She returned to L.A. to pursue a master of public affairs degree from the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy.  Her research is on the capacity demands that immigration reform could make on L.A.’s community-based organizations.

Among the highlights of her summer at Liberty Hill were accompanying Community Funding Board (CFB) members on site visits to Black Women for Wellness, Coalition for Economic Survival, and InnerCity Struggle. Under the mentorship of Margarita Rameriz, Joanna took notes as the community funding board met and she helped develop landscape analysis summaries for the Education, Housing and Land Use, and Workers Rights focus areas of the Fund for Change. Joanna also worked with Liberty Hill’s communications team on a usability analysis of the website, on the monthly round-up of grantee news articles ("From Frontlines to Headlines") and on social media marketing.

Liora Ziv has a unique perspective on the world. Her father was raised in a Yemenite slum in Israel while her mother grew up comfortably in Los Angeles. The family moved to Malibu when Liora was just a baby. Growing up, her parents taught her a passion for human and civil rights and to look at the world with a tolerant but critical perspective. She attended Georgetown University, majoring in social justice analysis and spent a semester in Santiago, Chile with a nonprofit called Proyecto Propio that developed grassroots organizing in low-income communities. She is currently pursuing a master’s degree in public policy at UCLA where she also works as a research assistant on immigrant reform projects. Through her previous employment with Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs, she discovered Liberty Hill’s intern program.

“Liberty Hill has opened my eyes to the world of philanthropy and I want to explore working at a foundation when I graduate,” she says.  Working alongside program department staff members, Liora contributed to the Wally Marks Leadership Institute’s new Commissions Track program by doggedly hunting down minutes from meetings of the more than 50 boards and commissions in L.A. Her research will be used for training materials to prepare individuals from different communities to apply to serve as commissioners. She says that in school the focus of political studies is often on state and federal policies, but her time at Liberty Hills has taught her how local politics have an impact.

Allison Goldberg, from Columbia, Maryland, is proud of her hometown, because Columbia is considered a model of mixed-income housing for the country.  A recent graduate of Loyola Marymount University, she majored in political science with a focus on socioeconomic inequalities in the U.S.  She worked this summer on compiling marketing research for the Wally Marks Leadership Institute, and she also worked on social media and multi-media projects.

“I hope to pursue a public policy career in education and criminal justice reform, and earn a master’s in public policy,” she says.  “In college, I took courses on criminal justice policy, and completed my thesis on the school-to-prison pipeline.”  That is why she is passionate about Liberty Hill’s “Brothers, Son, Selves” initiative, which has made strides in reforming school discipline policy.  Allison, who has been a volunteer at a Boyle Heights nonprofit for the past four years, is also inspired to see how the Liberty Hill-supported “Clean Up Green Up” environmental policy initiative has the potential to improve air quality in some of L.A.’s most polluted neighborhoods.

Nicole Klein grew up in Los Angeles and is entering her senior year at Barnard College, where she is a political science major.  At Liberty Hill this summer, Nichole worked with Barbara Osborn to explore how to best increase Liberty Hill’s and its grantee’s visibility using the social media site Pinterest.  With staff member Blanch Ross, she did research for donor-advised funds, and on event venues for our outreach and campaign work.  Nichole aspires to a career in health advocacy. “The inequality of our health care system is pervasive,” she says, “Public health and the right to health care is an important part of the social justice dynamic.” Her time at Liberty Hill, she says, gave her insights into how local governments, nonprofit organizations, and community leaders work together for real change.

Brinton Williams is interested in politics, and he volunteered with President Obama’s second presidential campaign during the summers of 2011 and 2012 while a student at Flintridge Preparatory School in La Cañada Flintridge, California.  He grew up in Pasadena, and starts his second year at Yale University this fall.  Friends and family recommended Liberty Hill’s internship program after Brinton expressed interest in progressive issues.  Over the summer, Brinton worked with staff member Cassie Gardner on a project with East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, conducting outreach to create a database of business owners and citizens in Commerce which will be used to do a survey on the environmental situation in the community.

“This summer has been an excellent opportunity to see the fruition of years of effort by Liberty Hill in the fight for environmental justice, with the City Council voting to develop the “Clean Up Green Up” policy,” Brinton says. The post for Liberty Hill’s blog that he contributed about that important step in the campaign was a surprise assignment, but when asked, he gamely wrote up an informative on-the-scene article. Brinton wants to pursue a career in public policy, perhaps becoming a community organizer or working for an organization like Liberty Hill.

Olivia Stutman enters her sophomore year this fall at Palisades Charter High School in Los Angeles.  She is a member of YMCA's Youth and Government Organization, which emulates governmental processes for students.  There she debated a prison reform bill which was before Congress in a mock-government setting.  It’s one of the activities that she has pursued because of her interest in social justice. Olivia worked this summer with staff members Adrine Akopyan and Carol Lee, updating the Liberty Hill database and inputting events and contacts.  

“Interning at Liberty Hill enabled me to see how a foundation operates and my work this summer exposed me to the many donors that make equality a reality,” she notes.  Olivia aspires to attend an Ivy League school, majoring in political science and business.  She is currently in the process of developing an organization that assists families with a loved one in the hospital by providing them with essential services.

Liberty Hill’s 2013 summer internship experience was anchored by six “brown bag” education sessions during which staff members made “101” style presentations on Liberty Hill’s history, social justice communications and fundraising, grassroots organizing, grassroots leadership development and training and the Clean Up Green Up campaign. The special educational opportunities are a highlight of the summer, but Liberty Hill’s internship program runs year-round.

 “We advertise online, but get a lot of interest word-of-mouth based on Liberty Hill’s reputation,” says Paula Litt.  “In addition to undergraduate and graduate students, there are opportunities for high school students.”  Some obtain school credit for their internships, and the program is structured so that participants get hands-on experience in meaningful projects. 

For postings of current internship opportunities, please go to https://www.libertyhill.org/aboutus/jobopportunities, and to apply for these or inquire about future opportunities, please send a cover letter and resume to Paula Litt at [email protected].

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Look Who's Helping Change L.A.

 

It takes a village to advance movements for change, and Liberty Hill's Community Media Partners and our Leader Sponsors are an integral part of our work to support grassroots organizing in L.A. As supporters of September 8's "Change L.A." party with a purpose, these businesses and organizations are helping get the word out about this terrific event. Get your tickets now, and invite your friends by sharing our Facebook Event Page!

Join us as we toast a new generation of social justice activists, network with friends and must-meet Angelenos, and work together to get involved in making our city even better!

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Liberty Hill's Award-Winning Website

I’m pleased to announce that our new website won a Silver award in the Interactive category from the International Academy of the Visual Arts (IAVA).

Woo-hoo! Liberty Hill's new website won a Silver Award in the International Academy of the Visual Arts (IAVA) competition.