ACHIEVING JUSTICE THROUGH BLACK-LED ORGANIZING Black-led organizing is a powerful driver of social change in Los Angeles. Since its founding, Liberty Hill Foundation has invested in Black-led organizing to build power in communities most impacted by systemic oppression to achieve equity and justice. We know that the people most affected by injustice must be the ones leading the fight and we take our lead from organizers and activists driving the movements for change. Liberty Hill is proud to provide grants, training, and other support to our partners at Black-led organizations winning battles every day on housing and homelessness, jobs and wages, poverty, criminal and juvenile justice, environmental justice, education, health care, policing, LGBTQ justice, and much more. Our Black-led grant recipients: ACCE Institute
Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment
A New Way of Life Anti-Recidivism Coalition Black Women for Wellness Brotherhood Crusade CADRE
Community Asset Development Re-Defining Education
Coalition for Educational Justice Students Deserve
Community Coalition Children’s Defense Fund
Dignity and Power Now Holman United Methodist Church LeadersUp L.A. Community Action Network S.C.O.P.E. Strategic Concepts of Organizing and Policy Education
Social Justice Learning Institute The Community Action League The L.A. Black Worker Center Youth Justice Coalition
B L ACK-L E D PHIL ANTH RO PY POW ERS CH AN G E The movement to expand equity and justice has always been supported by dedicated Black philanthropists who give of their time, energy and money to help fuel progress in Los Angeles. Liberty Hill is proud to be the home to two Black-led Giving Circles: Building Leaders and Cultivating Change (B.L.A.C.C.) Fund and Angelenos for L.A. that specifically raise money in support of initiatives to positively transform the African American community in Los Angeles. By harnessing the collective giving power of Black professionals to support organizations working on the front lines of social justice in Los Angeles, these dedicated donor-activists provide grants to organizations that work to empower the African American community in the areas of education, jobs and leadership development. They also provide member education on everything from integrated voter engagement to progressive ballot initiatives.
The Liberty Hill Foundation also serves as a Southern California Co-Chair for the California Funders for Boys and Men of Color. In this capacity, Liberty Hill pools resources and partners with foundations throughout the state to explicitly prioritize Black and Brown youth. Liberty Hill works in partnership with activists throughout LA County to anchor the My Brother’s Keeper initiative, funded through the Obama Foundation. We launched the Rapid Response Fund for Racial Justice to advance racial justice by uplifting the value of Black lives and addressing police accountability, criminalization, and violence against people of color.
A CO MMIT ME NT TO B L ACK- L E D O R G A NI Z I NG We are committed to pursuing an agenda that advances racial justice through community organizing led by Black activists and people of color. This commitment is deeply embedded in our core programs: grantmaking, training, and campaigns. As a multi-racial, multi-ethnic institution, our competitive grantmaking program prioritizes Black-led organizations and organizations led by people of color explicitly committed to fighting structural racism. Our Community Funding Board, which shapes our grantmaking decisions, has a critical mass of strong Black leaders. Our Wally Marks Leadership Institute is designed by and for those most impacted by systemic oppression, including many Black organizers, trainers, and coaches.
ACHIEVING JUSTICE THROUGH BLACK-LED ORGANIZING AGE N DA F OR A JUST FUTURE: B U IL D IN G POWER IN BL ACK CO MMUNIT I E S Our region has big challenges: • More young people are arrested and incarcerated in Los Angeles than in anywhere else in the United States. • Los Angeles has more homeless people living on the streets than any county in the nation.
Racial justice is a key component in each of these unique challenges because the racial disparities tied to these issues are clear. • 95% of kids in jail in Los Angeles are kids of color, approximately 30% are Black • While just 8% of the Los Angeles County population is African American, Black residents represent 33% of those experiencing homelessness. • 92% of people living within one mile of an oil and gas development are people of color.
• Los Angeles is the country’s largest urban oil field. We can do better. Liberty Hill’s Agenda for a Just Future is laser-focused on campaigns to solve three of L.A.’s most intractable problems, all symptoms of structural racism that disproportionately impact Black people: ending youth incarceration as we know it, fighting for a roof over every head, and eliminating toxic neighborhood oil drilling.
Our Agenda for a Just Future supports Black leaders and organizers to build power and dismantle systemic oppression in Los Angeles through local and statewide policy and systems change campaigns.
GET INVOLVED! For more than 40 years, Liberty Hill has been the Home for Progressive Los Angeles, fueling the frontline work that changes lives and laws across our region. We are committed to fighting for racial justice in everything we do. Your support of our efforts to build power in communities of color, support emerging leadership and change the narrative for Black Angelenos who have been misunderstood, marginalized and minimalized by existing systems enables us to continue to power progress and improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of our fellow Angelenos—which in turn makes Los Angeles more just and equitable for all of us. To learn more about how you can join the movement for change contact advancement@libertyhill.org or visit us at libertyhill.org.