ACCE Institute
www.acceinstitute.org
The mission of the ACCE Institute is to improve the lives of California's traditionally underserved residents, including communities of color, low-income and working families, and the undocumented population, by carrying out work that fosters deep, indigenous leadership development, policy creation, robust civic participation, and broad community empowerment.

Last week we witnessed a Black man, George Floyd, murdered in broad daylight in Minneapolis, Minnesota. We stand with Americans in communities across the country who are sharing pain...

Liberty Hill COVID-19 Rapid Response Fund for Community Organizing 

libhill.co/Rapid-Response-Fund (Donate Here)
This emergency fund is designed to support immediate community organizing needs on the frontlines and fuel emergency advocacy efforts in Los Angeles County to protect the most vulnerable during this time of unimaginable upheaval due to the COVID-19 crisis. Small grants, up to $5,000. Priority given to existing Liberty Hill community partners and grant recipients.

In these challenging times, grassroots community organizers are on the frontlines, both supporting their members and also calling on our elected officials to act quickly to meet critical needs and protect vulnerable Angelenos. Here’s a list of calls to action and how to get involved:

This past year, the youth climate movement sprang into action in a major way. With coordinated climate protests across the globe and increased civic engagement here at home, today’s youth are leading the way toward the environmental justice victories of tomorrow. One of these rising stars is Liberty Hill Leader to Watch Nalleli Cobo, a fierce environmental activist who was highlighted on CNN this year for her work to end neighborhood oil drilling. She spoke at the 2019 L.A.

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As the global pandemic reshapes how we all live, youth justice community organizers are fighting for the release of youth from youth jails, especially after two youths in Los Angeles County’s juvenile halls tested positive for the novel coronavirus this week after Probation officials began testing youth entering the system.

An Acknowledgement From President Obama

One of the rising stars of the Youth Justice movement, LeQuan Muhammed has emerged as a voice for his local community and a shining example of the power of positivity and the promise of youth.

Earlier this month Liberty Hill convened an L.A. Organizers’ Virtual Town Hall that brought together more than 100 organizers and activists across L.A. County to share and strategize around the COVID-19 crisis and how we can best support the needs of our communities on the ground.

In the midst of the COVID-19 health crisis, all of us are trying to do our best for the children in our lives — providing stability and a safe and caring home. But how do we best protect the 650 youth and young adults in Los Angeles County’s crowded juvenile facilities?

Our Ready to Rise partners are busier than ever -- providing enhanced mental and emotional health services, peer support groups, virtual learning, as well as financial and food assistance. These expanded services are meeting critical needs for families in crisis and youth coming home from lock-up. 

$2.59 Million Awarded to 20 Nonprofit Organizations to Provide Community-Based Youth Development Services

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

The COVID-19 crisis has laid bare the injustices in our society. And those who have been historically oppressed are being hit hardest by this crisis. But crisis also creates opportunity. We have the opportunity to remake our society in accordance with our...

As difficult as this decision may be, we feel that as a community, we must do our part to help flatten the curve of the virus, slow the spread of infection, and reduce the overall burden on our healthcare system. In lieu of getting to see them on stage in April...

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. They worked tirelessly to organize and empower a collective of tenants, including Carolina, to stand up for their rights.

As the pandemic continues to unfold, organizers are fighting to ensure that our local and state governments are stepping up to protect the rights and the health of the most vulnerable. We are also concerned about the census, continuing inequity in education, a loss of civil rights, and an expanded homeless crisis.

There’s a justice revolution happening in Los Angeles County.

This week, the Board of Supervisors took an unprecedented set of actions to shift away from punishment in large prison-like settings and toward a decentralized community safety strategy focused on expanded neighborhood health services and effective alternatives to lockups.

$2.59 Million Awarded to 20 Nonprofit Organizations to Provide Community-Based Youth Development Services

For Liberty Hill, environmental justice is a cornerstone of social justice. However, many residents in low-income and working class communities of color have traditionally been left behind by innovations in clean energy and solar power, which could mean a lack of access to readily available savings and important community health improvements.

In a tremendous win for our environmental justice agenda, officials recently announced the permanent closure of the Jefferson oil drilling site in South L.A.!

Following a multi-year battle between South L.A. residents and Sentinel Peak Resources—the company that operated the oil wells—the closure will occur over the next three years. The company has been ordered to phase out oil drilling over the next 24 months, before implementing a soil clean up phase to restore the land to residential standards (the highest level of remediation).

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.

Liberty Hill donor-activists from across Los Angeles turned their energy into action this spring by sending letters to elected officials to encourage support for the Youth Reinvestment Grant in the 2019–2020 state budgeting process. The Grant provides resources to local communities to prevent youth arrest and incarceration. 

The 2019 Homeless Count paints a dire picture of L.A.’s homelessness crisis, including a 12 percent increase in people living on the streets. Skyrocketing rents, evictions and flat wages are leading to homelessness for tens of thousands of people. Now, more than ever, we need permanent rent caps and eviction protections to keep a roof over every head. 

This spring, Liberty Hill joined community-based environmental health and justice organizations to host five Sustainability Expos + Fairs with over 370 participants in order to solicit public input on the draft countywide Sustainability Plan that we and our partners helped to create. The plan contains far-reaching goals on critical issues, especially around limiting oil drilling, phasing out fossil fuel consumption and advancing rent stabilization. 
 

Although California is the fifth-largest economy in the world, our state ranks a whopping 44th in the United States in per-pupil funding for education. We can do better—for our kids and our communities. At Liberty Hill, we are committed to funding a future where all children in Los Angeles have access to an education that prepares them for success, no matter their zip code.

For 37 years, Liberty Hill’s Upton Sinclair Awards Dinner has been the premier gathering for those at the epicenter of progress and justice in Los Angeles. Every year, political allies, donor-activists, grassroots leaders and community organizers from across the region come together to celebrate

This year Liberty Hill is honored to recognize three amazing individuals with awards at our annual Upton Sinclair Award Dinner. Our honorees truly demonstrate the spirit of our gala theme–Our Movement, Our Moment. Their collective contributions have paved the way and extended the path for activists and organizers across many diverse movements over the years. We are honored to celebrate their work and accomplishments. 

Program Overview:

Liberty Hill Foundation (Liberty Hill) and California Community Foundation (CCF) have launched a Public/Private Partnership (P/PP) with the Los Angeles County Probation Department. This collaboration will expand opportunities and resources for programs that keep vulnerable youth out of the criminal justice system and help those in the system transition back into the community.

Our collective activism and philanthropic support recently powered a significant victory: the Board of Supervisors approved a temporary rent freeze for unincorporated L.A. County. 

The motion will cap rent increases at 3% annually and mandate fairer eviction practices. As a result, 200,000 tenants can now find relief from rising rents while the Board of Supervisors considers permanent regulations. This is the largest expansion of rent stabilization in decades! 

For over 40 years, Liberty Hill Foundation has supported the tenants’ right movement. From funding tenants’ organizing in Pasadena and Long Beach in 1977, to supporting successful campaigns for rent stabilization in the cities of Los Angeles and Santa Monica in 1979 and winning against discriminatory landlords, Liberty Hill has long been an ally in the fight for housing justice. Now, we are taking another step forward in that fight by endorsing and sponsoring Proposition 10. 

June is Pride month, and a great time to recognize the contributions of LGBTQ individuals in music. As part of our Agenda for a Just Future, we are addressing the impact of housing instability and youth incarceration in queer communities, and fighting for LGBTQ rights. We hope you'll enjoy this Spotify playlist showcasing some of our favorite Pride-themed songs and LGBTQ artists. 

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. Ultimately we selected three areas that became our Agenda for a Just Future—stopping neighborhood oil drilling, fighting for a roof over every head and ending youth incarceration as we know it.

Liberty Hill Supporter,

Like many other people across the nation, I went home every night this last week to hug my children a little tighter, feeling extreme sorrow for those families who were denied the same opportunity by our government.

Remember what it was like to be a kid? What would you have done, at 12 years old, if you couldn’t breathe because of the oil drilling site next door? What if, at 16 you were sent to jail for being late to school? What would you do today if you lost your home because the landlord increased your rent beyond your means?

Would you be paralyzed by fear or would you fight back?

 The 2018 Liberty Hill Awards Dinner was one for the books! Here are some of the most memorable moments from the sold out gala.   

Liberty Hill is pleased to honor Elizabeth Levitt Hirsch with the Founders Award at our 2018 Upton Sinclair Awards Dinner on April 19. The recognition is given to individuals whose philanthropy embodies the spirit of “change, not charity” and whose exceptional generosity is helping to realize equality and justice for all.