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. The Civil Rights Movement called our country to live up to the highest values in its founding documents. When it has succeeded, it has been because of the work and sacrifice of people like Liberty Hill’s grantees and partners.
 
Yesterday we saw how fragile those successes can be.
 

As the year comes to a close and we reflect back on all that happened in 2020, I want to first thank you for being a part of the Liberty Hill Family.

The Los Angeles Chargers today announced an expanded partnership with Liberty Hill Foundation, a national leader in social justice.

After sharing the stage with President Obama on MSNBC's Special Edition, Liberty Hill Youth Justice Intern, Jerron Hawkins looks back on his experience as a former White House Mentee and as a beneficiary of the My Brother's Keeper initiative.

The Liberty Hill Family gathered for the first time since the election to decompress, review, and discuss the road ahead with guests Deepak Bhargava, Distinguished Lecturer, CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies, and Liz Watson, Executive Director, Progressive Caucus Action Fund.

Employee Giving Programs are a great way to help fuel progress in Los Angeles through Liberty Hill. We were grateful to local company PDG Consulting for selecting Liberty Hill for their Employee Matching Gift program for Giving Tuesday! 

“Philanthropy has always been a cornerstone of our company’s culture. We are committed to making a difference by giving back to the local Los Angeles community where we live and work,” said T. Kuera, VP of People & Culture, PDG Consulting.

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. 

Victory! We are on our way to Ending Youth Incarceration As We Know It!

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. 

Yesterday, the Los Angeles Police Commission began a shift away from an unjust practice that has fallen the hardest on communities of color. Following a report from the Inspector General, the Los Angeles Police Department will begin to shift away from pretextual stops, which allows officers to pull over a motorist for a minor traffic violation and use the stop to investigate a more serious crime.

Pretextual stops don’t address crime. They don’t prevent crime. They do make whole neighborhoods, and thousands of Black men, feel as though they live with targets on their backs.

As the reality of a new President-Elect becomes clear and we pause for a moment to take in the monumental nature of this day, I want to first thank you for being a part of the Liberty Hill Family. 

When history remembers this time our contemporaries will look back on this election and realize the impact a diverse coalition of voters—people of color, women, LGBTQ folks, young people and all those fed up with the injustice, lies and division of the last four years—were able to accomplish together.  

At Liberty Hill, we believe the people most affected by injustice should be leading the fight for change—from the community meeting to the protest march to the ballot box. That’s why we relaunched our Liberty Vote! Program this year to encourage electoral engagement in our most disenfranchised communities. 

As we inch closer to the generation-defining election of 2020, we at Liberty Hill hope you are as energized to continue the fight for progress as we are.

Longtime Donor Activist Jody Uttal and her husband Jeff Gold have been supporting Liberty Hill and the fight for a more just and equitable Los Angeles for nearly 30 years. 
 
As one of the original co-founders of Rock the Vote, Jody is also dedicated to supporting voter engagement efforts such as our Liberty Vote! Initiative—a nonpartisan electoral engagement program committed to voter engagement in disenfranchised communities.
 

“How can I help? What can I do?”

The late Gary Stewart’s first encounter with activism came in 1988 when he walked into the offices of a shoestring progressive group called Coalition 88 in a strip mall on Western Avenue and asked, “How can I help? What can I do?” 

Liberty Hill Foundation recently announced the relaunch of its Liberty Vote! initiative, which supports nonpartisan electoral engagement efforts through grants and other electorally-focused initiatives to build power at the grassroots level in L.A. County’s most disenfranchised communities.

October 23, 2020

Thank you to the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation and the Kershaw Family for your commitment! This marks a bold step forward for all of us in Los Angeles County. #InThisTogether

Isaac Bryan is a policy shaper and published scholar. His work has helped to advance activist led movements and policy change around issues of racial, economic, and social justice.

Exclusive game-worn jerseys from your favorite Los Angeles Chargers players are now available for auction at chrg.rs/equality.

We are excited and eager to share this opinion editorial, authored by one of our participants in this summer’s Wally Marks Leadership Institute Op-ed Training. The training was hosted by Liberty Hill in conjunction with our partners at Fostering Media Connections. It was designed as a three-part online opinion editorial workshop to provide youth activists with the technical knowledge and support to craft editorial pieces that uplift their unique and important perspective on relevant topics affecting them and their communities.

The belief in the collective power of individuals to come together to create change is a cornerstone of our work at Liberty Hill and it extends to our dedicated Donor Activists who form the core of our philanthropic support.  Our Giving Circles are groups of individuals, corporate representatives and philanthropic partners who come together to pool their donations to make a greater impact on the social justice issues they care about. Liberty Hill's Giving Circles provide members with an opportunity for hands-on community activism and collective strategic philanthropy. 

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. 

Los Angeles renters have faced a housing crisis for many years, but it has exponentially intensified with the onset of COVID-19. Over half a million people are estimated to have lost jobs in the last six months, making rent even harder to pay.

We demand full accountability for the officer who nearly killed Jacob Blake. We demand accountability not only for the vigilante who murdered the protesters, but for the police officers who looked the other way. We seek the dismantling of the systems that allow these brutal...

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. 

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. Fast forward to today where he advocates for youth justice and proudly stands in front of lawmakers to share his story and experience to help win real change.

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.

Liberty Hill Donor Activist and SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director, David White is no stranger to activism. He leads the world’s largest entertainment union, representing more than 160,000 diverse members worldwide who work in fields of film, television, commercials, music, video games and emerging media. He is committed to ensuring his union’s rich history of fighting for the strongest protections for media artists continues.

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. Liberty Hill’s Senior Director for Strategic Initiatives, Michele Prichard caught up with Culver City Councilman and former Liberty Hill/UCLA Luskin Fellow, Daniel Wayne Lee on the recent win and what it took to get there. 

Since its founding in 1976, Liberty Hill has sought to build deep relationships with grassroots organizations and leaders in underserved communities and to support them and help them grow through good times and bad. These are the voices and organizations who have formed the backbone of progressive change in Los Angeles, and who are leading protests and essential conversations as we grapple with structural racism in our society.

This summer, Liberty Hill hosted a series of virtual Youth Activist Op-ed Trainings designed to help our grantee partners expand their thought leadership and make their voices heard on a variety of topics through the medium of opinion pieces. 

Low-income households in California face larger energy, transportation and water affordability burdens than other populations. emPOWER is a coordinated L.A. County-wide outreach program with a mission to overcome barriers to sustainable energy usage commonly experienced in low-income and working class communities of color. 

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.”

UCLA Luskin researchers find emPOWER outreach campaign led by community-based organizations successful in reaching areas of L.A. County impacted by poverty and pollution.

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. And we are committed to supporting and promoting Black community leaders who have the vision and fortitude to go the distance in this fight.

The worlds of art, social justice, and youth activism have long worked together to drive social change within the community. Engaging youth in the arts can promote powerful change in countless ways, improving creativity and social skills, enhancing critical thinking, building confidence, and creating deep cultural and personal connections. 

Our frank and lively discussion with 82nd Attorney General Eric Holder was moderated by longtime Liberty Hill supporter and Champion Mitch Kamin. The event helped set the stage for the battles to come in the November election. Attendees expressed valid concerns about everything from voter turnout to disenfranchisement, and were willing to dive into these issues to discuss solutions and the way forward.