Agenda for a Just Future

Earlier this month, Liberty Hill Senior Director of Environmental & Climate Justice Angelo Logan joined White House officials, Federal agency representatives and others at a webinar celebrating the first anniversary of Executive Order 14096, Revitalizing Our Nation’s Commitment to Environmental Justice for All.

Environmental Justice organizers and frontline community members, including Liberty Hill partners at STAND-L.A., gathered at Kenneth Hahn Park last month to help launch the “California vs Big Oil” campaign against toxic oil drilling.

Watch the world premiere of our “On the Road to Change” short film, detailing the extraordinary journey of L.A. organizers in the fight for social change and the progress we’ve made together to ensure a just future for all.

The Liberty Hill Community came out in full force at our 41st Annual Upton Sinclair Celebration to celebrate frontline organizers, community leaders, and donor activists who contribute to the progressive victories that power social change in Los Angeles!

Our hit podcast Conversations from the Frontlines is coming back for another season! And this year, we’re kicking off the conversation with two very special Preseason Episodes—coming this week! Our “The Best of Season 2” episode is out May 1st and “Liberation & Progress: Ending Girls Incarceration” episode on May 15th.

Los Angeles Youth & Transformative Justice organizers and advocates joined the recent Free the Youth press conference to call upon the LA County Board of Supervisors to demand the closure of all youth detention facilities in L.A. County.

Over the past year, the Liberty Hill community has helped create lasting change and progress that has impacted the lives of community members throughout Los Angeles. From fighting for a roof over every head, to working to end youth incarceration as we know it, and eliminating toxic neighborhood oil drilling, our work has reached communities in every corner of L.A.

Be sure to catch up on Season 2 before our final episodes drop in July! Episodes 1 through 5 are available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any of your favorite podcast streaming services.

The event was moderated by Liberty Hill President and CEO Shane Murphy Goldsmith and featured a dynamic panel of housing justice specialists including Almas Sayeed (Vice President of Public Partnerships, Liberty Hill), Joel John Roberts (Chief Executive Officer, PATH Ventures), Mary Lee (Affordable Housing Policy Consultant), and Peter Dreier (E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics, Occidental College).

This past month, Liberty Hill’s Senior Director of Environmental & Climate Justice Angelo Logan— who is also a member of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council—joined a special event at The White House to witness President Biden’s signing of an Environmental Justice Executive Order which will expand the administration’s climate and environmental justice efforts nationwide.

This past January, Liberty Hill announced its solicitation for applications for the new Liberation Fund Planning Grants—a new initiative that aims to end the incarceration of girls and gender-expansive youth in the Los Angeles County criminal legal system and build liberatory pathways for these young people.

Los Angeles has one of the highest youth incarceration rates in the country, disproportionately impacting black, brown, and indigenous people and their communities. Through a collaborative partnership, our Youth & Transformative Justice team worked with PDG Consulting to create an in-depth data visualization tool that could be used to find, collect, and curate LA police arrest data to tell data-driven stories about these marginalized communities.

Last month, our Housing Justice team joined Stay Housed L.A. community partners LiBRE, Communities for a Better Environment (CBE), East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice (EYCEJ) and the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, for another great Stay Housed L.A. Tenant Rights event at Martin Luther King Jr. Park in Long Beach.

In March, co-hosts Liberty Hill and Resources Legacy Fund convened environmental justice leaders, local government, and diverse community organizations to learn about new federal funding programs and Justice40 Initiative opportunities for L.A. based communities.

This past year’s election produced an historic crop of victories. The Los Angeles political landscape has seen changes big and small that will shape policy for years to come.

The newly released toolkit titled “Addressing Legal Issues in Youth Diversion,” was authored by the Criminal Justice Program at the UCLA School of Law and helps jurisdictions create and implement youth diversion programs — approaches that steer youth away from the legal system and into community-based, supportive services in lieu of formal court processing.

We’re so excited to share a new bonus episode of Season 1 of Conversation from the Frontlines: Real Talk, Real Change! In this episode, Mayor Karen Bass joins the Liberty Hill community on the eve of her inauguration to discuss her plans to address pressing issues facing the City of L.A.

The Liberty Hill Community is devastated by the recent, tragic murders of Black men at the hands of police violence. It’s hard to find the right words to express the outrage and sadness we are feeling at this moment.

Thanks to the tireless work of our dedicated frontline partners and the support of our growing community of donor activists, we can and will continue to drive progress toward a just and equal L.A. County for all. We can’t wait to continue building on this momentum together in the new year!

On Friday, December 2nd, our partners in the STAND-L.A. coalition achieved a milestone victory when the L.A. City Council voted unanimously (12-0) to adopt the final ordinance to prohibit new oil and gas drilling and phase out all existing drilling throughout the entire city!

In case you missed any of the engaging episodes, you can check out the very first season of our Podcast Conversations From The Frontlines: Real Talk, Real Change with Shane Murphy Goldsmith here or on your favorite podcast platforms.

As a special wrap-up to our first season of "Conversations From The Frontlines: Real Talk, Real Change" we hosted a special bonus episode called Defending the Future: America Post Roe featuring guests Laura Jimenez, the Executive Director of CA Latinas for Reproductive Justice and Janette Robinson Flint, Executive Director of Black Women for Wellness.

Liberty Hill is proud to welcome EJ Leader Angelo Logan as the new Senior Director of Environmental Justice. Angelo has served as a leader in the environmental and climate justice fields for more than 22 years. He got his start as an organizer for Communities for a Better Environment (CBE) in 2000 when they successfully fought the location of a polluting power plant in Southeast LA.

A new report released by the Los Angeles Community Land Trust Program—a $14 million pilot initiated two years ago with the support of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors—showcases the power of community ownership strategies.

Please join Liberty Hill and a broad coalition of Los Angeles community neighborhood organizations, labor unions, community members, and many of our grantee partners in supporting Measure ULA. Liberty Hill is also proud to endorse Measure H—The Pasadena Fair And Equitable Housing Charter Amendment for the November 8th ballot.

Liberty Hill’s new podcast—"Conversations From The Frontlines: Real Talk, Real Change" hosted by our President and CEO Shane Murphy Goldsmith has established itself as one of the Top 100 Nonprofit Podcasts on Apple Podcasts!

This month we’re highlighting several of our grantee partners working in the Housing Justice area. These grassroots groups such as tenant rights groups, are fighting for housing as a human right and legal protections for at-risk tenants.

Liberty Hill Community, is there a burning topic, issue, grassroots leader or local power player you’d like to hear from? Send us your ideas!

This month the Stay Housed L.A. team held one of their largest community events of the year in the city of Bell Gardens, which recently passed a permanent rent stabilization ordinance.

On Monday, the Bell Gardens City Council unanimously passed a rent stabilization ordinance that limits annual rent increases to once a year with a 4% ceiling. The ordinance will be read and voted again on September 12th before it is signed into law.

That’s why Liberty Hill is proud to endorse Measure ULA for the November 8th City of Los Angeles ballot. With the support of our donor activists, Liberty Hill and our community partners have been deeply engaged across Los Angeles city and county to help tenants get the assistance they need and to advocate for more protections.

The latest incident of excessive use of force by police in Arkansas is a testament to the need for urgent reforms. The police violence against people of color that has plagued our country for so long must end. From Los Angeles to Arkansas, we must raise our voices across the country to make this a reality.

To challenge mass criminalization of Black, Brown, Native American and Indigenous peoples, Liberty Hill’s Youth & Transformative Justice focus seeks to shift power from punishment systems to people impacted by mass criminalization, dismantle these systems in Los Angeles County, and work toward reimagined approaches to justice that invest in communities rather than prisons and surveillance.

After nearly two decades of activism from local organizers, Los Angeles County has made history by launching a new Department of Youth Development!

One of the youngest organizers for ending oil drilling in Los Angeles, Nalleli Cobo, was honored with the Goldman Environmental Prize for North America last month, a distinguished honor which recognizes courageous environmental activists from around the world.

More than 150 attendees joined Liberty Hill, our evaluation team from Imoyase Community Support Services and Destiny Consulting, and our partners at California Community Foundation for a virtual Town Hall to share the results of this multi-year $38 million public private partnership and provide support to our Ready to Rise partners offering culturally responsive community-based services to young people.

This week—after years of patient and steadfast organizing by community organizations supported by Liberty Hill—the L.A. City Council put an end to the practice of poisoning our communities with toxic oil and gas drilling operations! They voted unanimously to draft an ordinance to prohibit all new oil and gas drilling and to phase-out existing drilling operations throughout all areas of the City of Los Angeles!

Liberty Hill Foundation believes that we can end the incarceration of girls and young women by building stronger, safer, and more equitable communities where the distinct experience of girls —particularly youth of color — are no longer criminalized for the violence and discrimination they face.

Four years ago, we set out to end youth incarceration as we know it. And four years later, arrest rates for youth under the age of 18 have declined by 53%; incarceration rates have declined by 66%; more than 50% of youth jails have been closed; and there’s been a reinvestment of more than $200 million from punishment to care.   There are now fewer youth in juvenile halls or courtrooms and far smaller probation caseloads. Yet, the implementation work continues to develop the nation’s largest Department of Youth Development.

​​Healing Justice is a movement that aims to address widespread generational trauma by responding with traditional holistic healing practices and building new, more inclusive ones. The peer convenings allow organizations to come together, build community, share their growing expertise, and support the healing and well-being of organizational leaders and their teams as they commit to long-term power-building and organizing work.

Thank you for helping Liberty Hill and our partners call attention to the urgent need to phase-out oil drilling in Los Angeles. Now, we have a chance to amplify that message statewide by telling Governor Newsom and state leaders to adopt strong public health and safety rules. Sign the petition to tell Governor Newsom to adopt the strongest possible statewide regulations.

Our Vice President of Strategic Partnerships Julio Marcial has authored a chapter about transforming the nation’s youth justice system for Latine Future’s new book, “If We Want to Win: A Latine Vision for a New American Democracy” published by The New Press. The book has been described as an urgent, provocative collection of essays from Latinx thought leaders heralding a more inclusive vision of America’s future.

Advocacy groups that provide educational and legal support to renters across the county have seen an uptick in tenant harassment complaints, such as landlords conducting construction at all hours of the night or refusing to turn on the water or address roach infestations. Reports of harassment like this have almost doubled in the last few months via the Stay Housed L.A. program.

This was truly a banner year for activism and progress! We have much work to do on the road ahead, but we couldn’t be prouder to take this journey with you—our Beloved Community.

Currently, California is the only oil-producing state in the country without a minimum distance requirement between oil wells and the people who live and work in the frontline communities in the immediate vicinity. But this past week, the state of California took bold action to increase environmental protections for vulnerable communities.

After years of activism and organizing including huge wins and painful setbacks—the Environmental Justice movement to end toxic neighborhood oil drilling in L.A. County secured a huge landmark victory yesterday!

The report looks at R2R’s strategies to transform the justice system and to reinvest in the health and well-being of historically excluded young people and their communities.

The Stay Housed L.A. program was featured by the White House as a national model for eviction prevention. Check out our Executive Vice President Jenny Delwood as she shares lessons learned and best practices from Stay Housed L.A.

The night before he spoke with Barack Obama at the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance Leadership Forum, Jacob “Blacc” Jackson was harassed by police. Again.

American democracy has always been complicated. It was built on the enslavement of Black people, who won liberation for half a generation before Reconstruction was replaced with Jim Crow.

This year brought challenges the likes of which the world hasn’t faced in a century—with a pandemic raging around the globe and ineffective leadership from the White House here at home–COVID-19 took an immeasurable toll on all of us.

Victory! We are on our way to Ending Youth Incarceration As We Know It! On Tuesday, November 24, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to dismantle the largest youth justice system in the nation in favor of a care-first model that would emphasize emotional support, counseling, and treatment.

For years, Liberty Hill’s donor-activists have walked with the neighborhood activists of the STAND-LA coalition as they took on drilling in their neighborhoods. We’ve made sure their testimony of respiratory illnesses, dizzying headaches and foul smells was heard widely. We’ve made sure their efforts had the support they needed.

The 2020 election was generation-defining in many respects—from the record-breaking turnout to the critical social justice issues on the ballot for millions of Americans—a coalition of diverse voters, led by Black and Brown organizers, showed up to flex their electoral power in major ways this year.

We were excited to recently host a lively discussion called Divest, Defund, Reform, Abolish? Next Steps for Justice and Policing After the 2020 Protests. This virtual event was an important discussion on the movements to reduce reliance on policing, along with the necessary steps to ensure the safety and future of our youth and communities.

The Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation (LADF) announced a grant of $304,400 to Liberty Hill Foundation’s California Funders For Boys and Men of Color: Our Kids, Our Future Fund to support the thirteen Southern California community partners who are working with the County of Los Angeles to develop the most comprehensive approach to youth development in the nation.

Mainor is a Youth Policy Advocate working to keep Brown and Black youth out of the system at The Arts for Incarcerated Youth Network (AIYN). After navigating his youth without proper guidance or mentorship, he found himself in jail as a teenager.

The heartbreaking and horrifying shooting of Jacob Blake—seven times in the back, at point-blank range, in front of his children—leaves us stunned. We are saddened, and we are angry, but unfortunately we are not surprised.

While we continue to support the push to make this recent national reckoning on racial justice more than just a moment in the crucial fight for Black Lives, our partners are also continuing the fight to ensure this movement makes lasting change in our society and in the lives of Black people in our country.

Last week, Culver City council members voted unanimously to phase out urban oil drilling in the city’s portion of the Inglewood Oil Field. This was the first and necessary step toward a just transition while protecting residents from a legacy of toxic emissions.

The movement to transform the criminal justice system in Los Angeles won a major victory in July when the Los Angeles Police Commission voted to permanently end the LAPD’s use of the CalGang database.

Organizing takes time and building true power sometimes takes years. As the late icon John Lewis once said, “Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime.”

One of the core aspects of our Agenda for a Just Future is our commitment to fighting for a roof over every head. As part of that housing justice work, we have also supported organizations working to ensure fair treatment of tenants who face the risk of eviction during these uncertain times.

Liberty Hill is committed to ensuring we continue to use our financial resources to support Black-led organizing and the activists on the frontlines. We are committed to using our voice to promote anti-racist policies and amplify the voices of those screaming for justice.

The Liberty Hill Foundation encourages donors to make longterm commitments to a broad landscape of grassroots organizations fighting anti-Black racism and police violence. These recent Liberty Hill grantees and community partners organize for Black lives and advocate for criminal justice reforms throughout Los Angeles County.

At Morningside High, Dylan learned about “all the barriers that boys and men of color face in communities like Inglewood,” but in the Black Male Youth Academy on campus, he worked on college-prep projects and was invited to participate in the Brothers, Sons Selves Coalition, which is managed by Liberty Hill. With enthusiasm and hard work, Dylan advocated with school board members and state legislators for changes in school discipline policies that disproportionately impact young men of color and have been shown to increase dropout rates.

As the global pandemic reshapes how we all live, youth organizers continue the fight for justice, especially after two youths in Los Angeles County’s juvenile halls tested positive for coronavirus this week.

In 2018, the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance (MBK), an initiative of the Obama Foundation, sought out organizations working to improve the lives of boys and young men of color. As one of 10 MBK selected sites, the Liberty Hill Foundation, along with 15 cross-sector partners, is now working to transform L.A. County’s youth justice system.

In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and a longstanding housing crisis, families are fighting for their right to a safe place to live.

Local resident Carolina Rodriguez, who was born and raised in East L.A., became a key figure in the local battle for rent control. Despite multiple attempts by her landlord to evict her and her family after increasing their rent more than $500, Carolina remains in her home in East L.A. today due to the efforts of Unincorporated Tenants United, which Liberty Hill helped coordinate.

Esthefanie was born in Guadalajara and was brought to the U.S. when she was six years old. She’s now a community college student and a youth organizer at InnerCity Struggle, a community based education-focused organization that Liberty Hill has supported for many years. Esthefanie transformed her frustration and shame into a sense of pride and determination, standing up against injustices.

Patrisse spoke at Liberty Hill’s Uplifting Change luncheon earlier this year, bringing the voice of a new generation to donor-activists focused on strengthening Black Los Angeles through philanthropic investment in grassroots community organizing. She led the group in a moving refrain by Assata Shakur: “It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love and support one another. We have nothing to lose but our chains.”

Glen Dake seems to work on a vision of Los Angeles the way he works on a vision of a particular community garden or landscape—with lots of practical, hands-on effort. He supports nonprofit organizations, not only through Liberty Hill’s grantmaking, but also, with his sister Renee Dake Wilson and her husband Brian Wilson, through a donor advised fund housed at Liberty Hill. He has also served on Liberty Hill’s Environmental Justice Community Funding Board.

This past April, Liberty Hill hosted a bus tour that provided an opportunity for 40 funders with the Climate and Energy Funders Group (CEFG) to explore challenges and innovations around energy and the environment in Los Angeles.

When Liberty Hill started deciding where to concentrate our efforts for the next three years, there were many factors to consider—the new administration in Washington; California’s role on the national stage; L.A.’s rapidly changing urban landscape and the challenges and opportunities that come with it.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health validated today what hundreds of residents living near urban oil drilling sites have already known: proximity to oil drilling is hazardous to their health. Many active oil wells in Los Angeles are next to places where people live, work and play, causing nosebleeds, nausea, respiratory illness and dizziness.

If someone offered you $100,000 and two years to think deeply about how to solve a big problem, what problem would you tackle? As a recipient of the 2018 Stanton Fellowship, I have just that opportunity.

"At Liberty Hill, environmental justice is a core value and one of our top priorities. Over the years we have powered landmark environmental campaigns, including today’s fight to end oil drilling near homes and schools in Los Angeles—the nation’s largest urban oil field.