Grantee Spotlight

In celebration of Black History Month this February, we invited the Liberty Hill community to explore a special series highlight the countless African American heroes whose contributions and narratives are often overlooked in history books. Join us as we shine a light on the remarkable frontline, Black-led organizations making history in Los Angeles.

Over the past year, the Liberty Hill community has helped power lasting change and progress that has impacted the lives of community members throughout the region. Together, we’ve been able to Build the Good and our work has reached communities in every corner of L.A. Our 2024 Impact Report highlights this important work and spotlights some of our proudest moments from the past year. Click below to check out the full report.

In the wake of the recent firestorms, many of Liberty Hill’s dedicated Grantee Partners have mobilized to provide assistance to neighbors and communities across LA County that have been impacted by the devastation. Read on to explore the remarkable initiatives led by frontline organizations and learn how you can support them as they help communities in their recovery.

In her powerful and inspirational speech at the 41st Annual Upton Sinclair Celebration, Liberty Hill President & CEO Shane Murphy Goldsmith encourages the Liberty Hill community to “keep building the good.” Watch Shane’s full speech below to hear more about her call to action and vision for a better future for all Angelenos.

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!

Liberty Hill’s hit podcast Conversations From The Frontlines is back for another season this Spring giving you a front row seat—and a bird’s eye view—of the social justice battles shaping Los Angeles. So, get ready and be sure to catch up on all your favorite episodes from past seasons before the premier of Season 3—coming soon!

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.

Throughout Native American Heritage Month, we honor the many contributions and achievements of Native and Indigenous People—the nation’s original inhabitants. To commemorate the month-long celebration this year, we’re spotlighting Liberty Hill Grantees and Community Partners that center their work on the voices of Native and Indigenous People and fight to address the unique challenges the community has faced both historically and in the present day.

The Pilipinx-led organization has been making waves in the fight for social justice since 1997. From providing immigration legal services to advocating for affordable housing and workers’ rights, Pilipino Workers Center demands for better living and working conditions for low-wage Pilipinx communities throughout Southern California.

Liberty Hill is proud to support the work of social justice organizations and their efforts to create a more just and equitable Los Angeles for all. From advocating for Environmental Justice to advancing LGBTQ & Gender Justice, Liberty Hill grantees are making an impact!

Liberty Hill Youth & Transformative Justice community partner Gente Organizada has been serving historically underrepresented, immigrant populations in the Pomona area since 2010.

Since 2018, Indigenous Pride L.A. has provided several education programs and resources for community members throughout Los Angeles. They’ve created and hosted local events to celebrate Two Spirit, Indigiqueer, and LGBTQPAI+ communities including creating L.A.’s first and only Indigenous Pride Event!

This month, and every month, Liberty Hill honors and commemorates the trailblazing work of our community partners, grantees, and donor activists who have fought tirelessly for LGBTQ+ and Gender Justice in L.A.

Queer and gender non-conforming youth face alarming rates of bullying, loneliness, and isolation putting them at increased risk for depression and other mental health conditions. Local LGBTQ-led nonprofit, Rainbow Labs, is working to change that.

Tune in to our latest episode as Liberty Hill President and CEO Shane Murphy Goldsmith sits down with California Assemblymember Isaac Bryan for some frank conversations and real talk!

We’re excited to announce Liberty Hill’s hit podcast “Conversations from the Frontlines” is coming back with a fresh new season of episodes on May 4th!" Be sure to join us as we sit down with exciting new guests and explore this season’s theme of “Power, Politics, and Solidarity in L.A.” Stay tuned and we’ll see you soon for more, “Conversations from the Frontlines!”

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!

Liberty Hill is proud to celebrate the rich history and heritage of Native American and Filipino American People. We acknowledge and honor the original inhabitants of our various regions and support the resilience and strength that all Indigenous people have shown worldwide.

Liberty Hill honors the Latinx/e-led organizations that continue the fight for justice in their local communities and beyond. We are proud to partner with organizations and leaders who have dedicated their work and missions to improving systemic conditions and bringing community-led solutions to life.

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!

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!

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.

This past year, along with funding a strong group of longstanding community organizations, Liberty Hill expanded our power-building strategy with a specific focus on “Rising Activist” organizations, shifting our outreach strategies, application processes, and assessment tools so that these smaller organizing groups could have greater access to funds.

This Pride Month, we acknowledge the fights for LGBTQ rights happening at the intersections of many social justice struggles and salute the organizers and activists working to build a more just and inclusive world.

We’re still riding the wave of excitement from our 2022 Upton Sinclair Homecoming Celebration! Check out this short video with highlights from this unforgettable evening!

This May, Liberty Hill honors the many contributions of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (AA and NHPIs) and stands in solidarity with AA and NHPI organizers demanding an end to racial violence and fighting for systemic change.

This year’s 2021 Fund for Change and Liberty Vote! grants are building on our legacy of supporting emerging organizations at various levels of development by making a commitment to “Rising Activist” organizations across the County.

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.

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.

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.

As we pause to highlight PRIDE month amidst the continued uprisings for racial justice and police accountability across the country, it’s important to remember that while much progress has been made, equality has not expanded equally across all communities.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

When Teresita left the Philippines, traffickers took her to Hawaii, where she was eager to start her new life working on the island. At first she had no idea she was a human trafficking victim. But her dream of coming to America quickly became a nightmare. The people who brought her to the US promised her citizenship, but never followed through. Soon she was starving and severely overworked, but because of her immigration status, she “was afraid to call the police.” At the same time, she knew little about US labor laws and had no access to information about her rights.

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.

From the beginning, says Manuel, his wife supported his organizing activities. “She would tell me not to be afraid, that everything was going to work out—and yes, we were able to accomplish this.” His elementary school aged son, too, was part of the push for justice. “He was always involved in the campaign. He says when he grows up, he will also be an organizer!”

My name is Diana Feliz Oliva and I am a transgender, first-generation Mexican American. I was raised in a single-parent household in a small, rural town just outside Fresno, California. For a shy, feminine, awkward little kid like me, growing up in a small, rural town was not easy.

Liberty Hill has also helped Gabriel on a very personal level through his work with the Brother Sons Selves Coalition, a Liberty Hill led campaign. "My personal experience being trans, entering BSS was a little bit of a nervous and scary place," Gabriel explains. Up until that point in his life he had never really been welcomed into masculine or even cis male spaces. "And so to have this kind of access through my job and through the social justice work has really helped to heal."

Liberty Hill was an early funder and ally of Los Angeles Black Worker Center, helping to strengthen the year-old fledgling organization in 2010. Gerry learned of the Center—which organizes Black workers to fight back against discrimination in the workplace and improve access to quality jobs—when he was referred by a friend after complaining of racial bias at work. He first called more than two years ago and has been a member ever since. “I didn’t know that there were so many other people who shared the same story as me,” he says.

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.”

It wasn't until she was 29 that Roslyn Broadnax learned she had a learning disability. She'd been a victim of "pushout," as her fellow members of CADRE call it. As a student in South Los Angeles, she'd been passed from grade to grade, eventually graduating high school without the ability even to fill out a job application.

When I started their training I couldn't stand the thought of being on a commission. We just didn't get along with the people in power so much! But now, knowing what I know, and learning what I've learned, I can't stand the thought of missing the opportunity. Because when I'm outside a door waiting for it to open, today, that door is more likely outside the Governor's offic