Liberty Hill Blog: News from the Frontlines

2013 Leaders to Watch

Kruti Parekh, Rabbi  Miller, Melissa de la Rama, Kendra Moore, Ariel Bustamante.

 Liberty Hill  is pleased to announce our 2013 Leaders to Watch, recognizing the energy and achievements of outstanding social-justice leaders in L.A.

It's an honor and a responsibility to be a Liberty Hill Leader to Watch! We'll be checking in throughout 2013 to find out what's happening on the frontlines of campaigns for change that these dynamic women are involved in. Follow the links to meet:

• Kruti Parekh of Youth Justice Coalition
• Rabbi Heather Miller and Melissa de la Rama, donor activists
• Kendra Moore of People Organized for Westside Renewal (POWER)
• Gay Straight Alliance Network's Ariel Bustamante

Each year Liberty Hill calls upon members of our community to represent our amazing family of community organizers, donor-activists and allies. We ask them to share their timely stories on video, in person and in the media.

Five Leaders: Showing the Way to a New L.A.!

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Fond Farewell from Kristin Aldana-Taday

Kristin (right) at the White House with Peggy Saika, Carol Lee and Preeti Kulkarni

From Liberty Hill's departing Deputy Director, Donor Services:

Dear Liberty Hill Family,

After over eight years of service I am leaving Liberty Hill to start work at the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. 

Before I depart, I wanted to take a moment to say thank you. It has been an honor and a privilege to work for YOUR Los Angeles public foundation. I am humbled by the work of Liberty Hill’s staff, the power of Liberty Hill’s grantees and the investment made by the foundations and individuals who help to support Change. Not Charity. 

During my tenure I have worked on, witnessed or supported some amazing projects including

• Van Tours that have brought together Angelenos to learn about organizations like Community Coalition, Inner City Struggle and ROC-LA, groups made of hard working community members striving for social justice in their communities and their workplaces.  

• Upton Sinclair Dinners in which supporters, many who have been with Liberty Hill for 30-plus years, have gathered to praise folks like Gary Stewart, Manuel Pastor and Walter Mosley.

• Uplifting Change Summits that draw together African American and ally philanthropists, to focus on practical tools and strategies to promote social justice in Los Angeles.

• The Wally Marks Leadership Institute that addresses the critical need for intensive, customized, on-the-job training and mentoring for leaders of grassroots organizations in communities of color, working with small budgets and long-term social justice goals.  And sometimes brings Freedom Riders to the conversation!

• Engagement events ranging from workshops that have inspired the creation of giving circles to a  book series bringing powerful authors like Connie Rice, Nancy Cohen and Peter Dreier to share their stories.

• Scholarships that have been a lifeline for Dreamers, undocumented students seeking financial aid to pursue higher education in California.

This list doesn’t even cover the amazing work of Liberty Hill’s Community Funding Board and the Fund for Change or the groundbreaking collaborative effort for Brothers, Sons Selves or the Clean Up Green Up initiative!

As I reflect upon my time with Liberty Hill, I beam with pride that I was lucky enough to be a part of an organization whose roots run deep and wide in Los Angeles to make it a more just place. Every day I was inspired by the every day people like you who make Liberty Hill’s work possible. I will continue to support Liberty Hill in every way possible in the same way it has supported me personally and professionally.  You haven’t seen the last of me yet!

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Amazing Local Leaders and the Awesome Wally Marks Leadership Institute

left to right: Eric Ares, Kerri Gallagher, Paulina Gonzalez

Byline: Barbara Osborn

Liberty Hill hosted a lunch for supporters to meet three amazing young leaders who have benefited from our Wally Marks Leadership Institute training. Participants receive 60 hours of training plus an equivalent amount of coaching. In all, Liberty Hill participants received 2,282 hour of training and coaching! That makes a big difference in what participants are able to accomplish as these excerpts from their remarks demonstrate! 

Paulina Gonzalez, Executive Director, Strategic Actions for a Just Economy

Most recent victory: Persuading USC to invest $20 million in the affordable Housing Trust as part of its MasterPlan.

Wally Marks Leadership Institute Track: Board Development

"I’m a relatively new executive director. When I started it was the middle of the worst economic crisis we’d ever seen. It was a difficult time. I thought what did I get myself into? We decide that we needed to be able to survive these ups and downs of the economy and diversify our fundraising.

We set a goal of raising $20,000-$30,000 just by the board. That was a lofty goal because last year the board only raised $2,000!  At The Wally Marks Leadership Institute, we learned about cultivating relationships and how to make an ask. We set out goals and we were able to implement a give/get policy, board commitment forms and we were able to recruit new board members. We had coaching. The board raised $12,000 this year and we asked the board to open up their networks and they did, as a result, it resulted in two new grants at $40,000. That was because of the skills we learned."

Eric Ares, Communications/Organizing staff, L.A. Community Action Network

Most recent victory: Persuading AEG to invest $20 million in the affordable Housing Trust as part of its renovation of the downtown NFL stadium.

Wally Marks Leadership Institute Track: Communications

"I was hired to be half organizer half communications. I have zero communications training. LACAN said 'Go.' And I said, 'Where?'

We had just initiated a campaign around the AEG stadium. We were scared. Our base are extremely low income and homeless people. How could we do this? Government officials and AEG, a billion dollar company, were for the stadium.

The WMLI helped us challenge the narrative. The Wally Marks Leadership Institute helped me think more strategically -  how we could train speakers and use Twitter, our website, our newspaper to make our campaigns more effective.

We learned message discipline: We went to the City Council and said: We love football. We aren’t against the stadium.

We saw AEG use Twitter as a way to spread their word and build support. With very little effort, me and community residents could use their media to tell our story. You could see over the months the narrative change. From 'Let’s build a stadium' to 'Will the stadium benefit everyone?' "

Kerri Gallagher, Executive Director, Housing Long Beach

Wally Marks Leadership Institute Track: Board Development.  

"When I came on as Executive Director, we had just had a major defeat. We felt lost. We were trying to figure out how to move forward. We’re fighting for affordable housing in a city that doesn’t even have rent control.

We were in the board development track of the Wally Marks Leadership Institute.  I’d worked with boards before and now I look at all the other boards I worked on and know they were all dysfunctional.  My board has such potential but I have to build and cultivate and prepare them to do it.

By participating in the Wally Marks Leadership Institute, we were able to achieve three goals:

1. We did a strategic plan. We now have a clear purpose and identity for the organization.
2. We developed a give and get policy that was developed by our low income resident board members!  They were the ones who said our board needs to fundraise and to make Housing Long Beach more sustainable.
3. We doubled our board in size."

Liberty Hill's Wally Marks Leadership Institute is the value-added complement to a grant from Liberty Hill and is designed to strengthen organizational infrastructure and the leadership base of grantees. It is named for donor-activist Wally Marks. The next tracks in develpoment, community organizing and communications take place in March.

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Frontlines to Headlines December 2012

Peter White, founder/co-director, LA Community Action Network and Chuck D

We’ll see more news reports in January about policy changes won by Liberty Hill grantees that are taking effect in our new year, but our December headlines include a preview of California’s new homeowner bill of rights; other stories look to the old year as well as the new on stories about hearth, home, food and work.

December 6- 31 The Inland Empire’s Press-Enterprise newspaper reported about the launch of the Homeowner Bill of Rights. Citing statistics provided by Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), the comment on how the new law will how the new law will thwart lender abuses.

Earlier in the month, a Getty images photographer captured ACCE activists pitching a tent in Wells Fargo lobby during a demonstration. 

December 24 Pomona Economic Opportunity Center was recognized by the National Immigration Law Center with a Courageous Luminaries award for their work around workers’ rights and empowerment.

December 17 Dr. Ange-Marie Hancock, author of the just-released Liberty Hill report Giving Black in Los Angeles: Donor Profiles and Opportunities for the Future is interviewed about her findings on Black philanthropy in L.A. on the video news site “Reel Urban News.”

December 10 This story in the USC Annenberg School of Communications news site “Neon Tommy” offers an overview and update of neighborhood responses to USC’s expansion plan including the October win by Strategic Actions for a Just Economy (SAJE) and others of a $20 million benefit settlement from the University, the November letter and protest to the City of Los Angeles by Los Angeles Community Action Network (LACAN) and others on behalf of tenants in a nearby affordable-housing building who face pressure to leave, and the December presentation by USC to the L.A. City Council of the renegotiated plan.

December 7 The Los Angeles chapter of Restaurant Opportunities Centers United is one of the most active ROC units in the country so we’re happy to note that University of California, Berkeley is opening a Food Labor Research Center headed by ROC co-director Saru Jayaraman.

December 4 The L.A. Weekly writes about the documentary “Lost Angels: Skid Row Is My Home,” made by the filmmaker who worked as second unit director for the Hollywood movie “The Soloist” who returned to document the stories of the people living on Skid Row and the advocates and organizations serving them. Among the organizations whose members are highlighted is Los Angeles Community Action Network (LACAN).

The film, and advocacy for homeless individuals received attention as well when LACAN, Union de Vecinos and other groups joined Chuck D and Public Enemy at a press conference connected with the “Hip Hop Gods” tour to spotlight the issues.

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