Social Justice Learning Institute →

At the Social Justice Learning Institute, we are dedicated to improving the education, health, and well being of youth and communities of color by empowering them to enact social change through research, training, and community mobilization.

We envision communities where education empowers individuals to use their agency for the purpose of improving each other’s lives.

SJLI Core Values

1. We privilege the ideas, voice, and leadership of our youth and community members.
2. Everyone must be afforded equal opportunity in order to achieve equitable treatment.
3. We do all things in love.
4. No one is hopeless.

Our Goals

Our goals are simple. We work to:

• build capacity for individuals and communities to advocate for their needs
• train and build leaders
• educate and empower youth and community members to identify and rectify injustice; and to
• deliver effective programs, resources and support that help advance our mission

To meet these goals, we work with youth, residents, local schools, districts and city officials to increase educational opportunities through innovative programs and sustainable practices. We also develop and manage programs that advance academic, food, and environmental justice.

Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust →

Our mission is to grow healthier, safer, and stronger communities by creating urban parks and community gardens that remedy the critical lack of green and recreational spaces in greater Los Angeles' underserved neighborhoods.

The Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust was founded in 2002 to address LA's park inequities. We focus our efforts exclusively in communities of color that have little to no access to green space.

Less than one acre of green space is available for every 1,000 residents in the communities we serve. In stark contrast, the citywide average is over four acres and the countywide average is over three acres. For 15 years we have aimed to change this dynamic and have added nearly eight acres of accessible green space to LA by helping create 25 parks and gardens. These neighborhood assets serve 195,000 Angelenos annually. By 2019, we will complete five additional parks and gardens, adding nearly 15 additional acres of green space to LA County.

Our successful greenspace development model engages residents from the beginning of our design process, through construction and ultimately the stewardship of the parks and gardens we create. To ensure the long-term impact of our efforts, we are working towards equitable greenspace development in LA through grassroots policy reform.

LA Food Policy Council →

MISSION

The Los Angeles Food Policy Council (LAFPC) is a collective impact initiative, working to make Southern California a Good Food region for everyone—where food is healthy, affordable, fair and sustainable.

Through policy creation and cooperative relationships, our goals are to reduce hunger, improve public health, increase equity in our communities, create good jobs, stimulate local economic activity, and foster environmental stewardship.  In particular, the LAFPC aims to connect environmental sustainability and local agriculture with efforts to expand access to healthy food in historically disenfranchised communities.

The Los Angeles Food Policy Council, a project of Community Partners, was created in January 2011 by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to advance the mission of building a Good Food system for all of Los Angeles.  We bring together leaders and experts from across sectors, geographies, and socio-economic communities to strengthen connections throughout the food system, and to facilitate and coordinate systemic change.

LAFPC leverages its unique structure and placement as an independent multi-stakeholder initiative to advance innovative food policies.  The 40-member Food Policy Council and its staff serve as the “backbone” organization for the initiative. Additionally, 1,000 individual stakeholders and over 300 organizations from the public, private, nonprofit and academic sectors extend the reach of LAFPC in the greater Los Angeles community.

Catalyze, Coordinate, Connect

LAFPC operates as a network to build connections, catalyze opportunities, and coordinate activities toward building a sustainable and equitable regional food system for all Angelenos.

Our Role:

• Identify and develop best practices through research and policy analysis;
• Provide a forum for discussing food-related problems and opportunities;
• Engage key stakeholders through working groups and other civic engagement strategies;
• Serve as an information resource;
• Provide recommendations to policy makers and key food system stakeholders;
• Provide support for the ongoing work of its members and partners;
• Facilitate collaboration in the development of more coherent, systemic change;
• Incubate projects and programs, which are strategically identified through our stakeholder process as needed;
• Build individual and collective food systems’ leadership capacity.

OUR STRUCTURE

Leadership Board

The Los Angeles Food Policy Council is guided by a 40-member Leadership Board. Comprised of a diversity of seasoned experts representing every sector of the food system, the Leadership Board determines the priorities of the LAFPC, provides leadership in our network and works collaboratively to create systemic change.

Working Groups

The Los Angeles Food Policy Council facilitates six to eight Working Groups which act as participatory policy collaboratives.  The Working Groups meet at least every other month to discuss current issues and develop new projects, events and policy recommendations.  Each Working Group elects a chair to facilitate the process, and Leadership Board members also participate in the Working Groups.

To learn more about the LAFPC Working Groups, please click here.

Network

The LA Food Policy Council hosts “Network” meetings on a quarterly basis to convene change makers for networking, leadership development and movement building. Combining dynamic presentations, collaborative activities and networking, the Network connects the larger community of advocates, entrepreneurs, community members, and policy makers to help coordinate the activities and policy initiatives of LA’s Good Food movement.