I remember how welcome I felt when I first encountered Liberty Hill. Where else could a black woman with a West Indian mother, a black father, a white father, a gay brother, a Jewish husband, and a daughter the color of coconut and honey be at home? It was right here. In the house of Liberty Hill. So whoever you are. Whatever your background, if you believe that raising every voice is important, that equality and justice for all is important, then you belong here. By being with us tonight, you responded to our call to be the change. But how exactly do we that? How do we turn pain into power? Liberty Hill’s answer is strong community leadership. Leadership that often arises out of neighborhoods that appear from the outside to hold little promise or hope. And yet, at Liberty Hill we know that leadership is there. Let me take you back, 20 years. A glass tube. About 4 inches long. On certain streets of L.A., that tube would have been instantly recognized as a crack pipe. At the time south Los Angeles was reeling from the collapse of its manufacturing base. Poverty levels shot up. Crack preyed upon depressed neighborhoods. Police Chief Gates responded with a massive, indiscriminate and outrageous show of force. One woman said “Enough. Something has to be done.” She came to her friends at Liberty Hill for help. She had a vision. She wanted the community to come together, address its problems, make change. Liberty Hill stepped up with a seed grant. In the years that followed, she built alliances with other community leaders. She extended her network. Liberty Hill continued to support her with grants. She joined our grantmaking committees. Then joined our board. Three months from now, that woman -- who first came to the house of Liberty Hill for a seed grant - will become Speaker of the California Assembly, the second most powerful position in the state. She will be the first African-American woman ever to serve as speaker. Assemblywoman and speaker elect Karen Bass brings to Sacramento Liberty Hill’s commitment – your commitment to equality, opportunity and justice. Liberty Hill is proud to have been there to provide her and the leaders working hand in hand with her – the support she needed when she needed it. This is the work of Liberty Hill. We know that without strong community leadership, there is no change. Liberty Hill exists to build the community leadership that makes change possible. Our grants are only the beginning. We link grants with opportunities to skill-build and network and forge common agendas. Across the city there are young community leaders –maybe the next Karen Bass! -- coming up. Liberty Hill is already supporting some of them. Take Fermin Vasquez. In 1999, when Fermin was 12, he said goodbye to El Salvador and crouched into a dusty little van to make the journey to the U.S. to be with his mother. His mother had left El Salvador seven years before to make a new life here in Los Angeles to support her family. For 7 days, Fermin travelled, frightened and hungry. Once in L.A. with his mom, he struggled to get his bearings – learn a new language, a new neighborhood, a new school. By the time he was a teenager, he began showing up for after-school meetings of a youth group led by immigrant kids like himself. At first, he came for the snacks. But he began to wonder why he had to take four buses to get to school and why the families he knew struggled to pay their rent and put food on the table. He wondered why, when he talked to his school counselor about going to college, the first question he was asked was “do you have a social security number?” and why, when he said he didn’t, he was told it would be very very difficult for him to go to college. Fermin had straight A’s. But it didn’t matter. He tutored and had part-time jobs. But it didn’t matter. He lobbied for his community in Sacramento and Washington. But it didn’t matter. He had a vision for change and dreams of becoming an elected official on the school board or the city council. But it didn’t matter. All that mattered was his legal status. And fermin was undocumented. In the house of Liberty Hill, Fermin Vasquez’s leadership and his dreams of change matter. That’s why Liberty Hill has already invested in him: - That youth group at his school? Funded by liberty hill. - His scholarship to Cal State L.A.? Funded through one of Liberty Hill’s visionary donor accounts. Karen Bass and Fermin Vasquez – two leaders a generation apart. Both belong here in the house of Liberty Hill, along with hundreds of other community leaders, and donors like you. I know that in this political season, a lot of folks around the country are talking about change. But at Liberty Hill, we’re not seasonal. Our work doesn’t flare up and out with elections. For 32 years we’ve been about Change. Not Charity. This vital work doesn’t happen without your commitment to Be The Change. Your support has been invested in -- $33 million in grants to community leaders across Los Angeles. 500 of those leaders have received training through our programs. Those community leaders are working hard to raise poverty wages, restore public education, end the affordable housing crisis, green Los Angeles, and insure the safety of lesbian-gay-bisexual and transgender Angelenos across the city. Just this last year your support has helped win- A $10 million judgment against a company that was illegally forcing low-income tenants from 40 l.a. buildings. A new law making l.a. the biggest city in the nation to impose “green” building rules, cutting millions of tons of pollution in the next decade. Passage of additional legislation that protects lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students from harassment and violence. This is how you make change: By investing in Liberty Hill, you support strong community leaders battling critical issues facing Los Angeles. All of us have a place in the house of Liberty Hill. Thank you for your support. Thank you for being the change. Good night.

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