Angelenos got to vote on which community programs LA should fund

More than a dozen community organizations will get a slice of $5.4 million in funding from the city of Los Angeles thanks to a pilot program that gives historically marginalized communities more say in how city funds are spent in their neighborhoods.

The “participatory budgeting” process established under the Los Angeles Reforms for Equity and Public Acknowledgement of Institutional Racism program, better known as L.A. REPAIR, was approved in 2021 by the City Council and then-Mayor Eric Garcetti.

The idea was to give residents and other stakeholders in nine L.A. REPAIR Zones – communities that were negatively impacted by a history of institutional racism – the chance to vote on which community programs they wanted the city to fund. Programs that received the most votes in each REPAIR Zone were awarded funding.

The City Council last year awarded about $3.1 million to organizations in three REPAIR Zones – the Mission Hills-Panorama City-North Hills area in the San Fernando Valley, the Boyle Heights community on the Eastside and in Southeast L.A.

Following up on last year’s action, the City Council last week authorized another $5.4 million to be split among  the six REPAIR Zones that weren’t awarded funds last year. All up, the city has allocated $8.5 million to local communities through its L.A. REPAIR program.

“L.A. REPAIR Participatory Budgeting represents a direct investment in Los Angeles’ most underserved communities, empowering them with real decision-making power over significant funds,” Capri Maddox, general manager and executive director of the city’s Civil + Human Rights and Equity Department, said in a statement. The department, also known as LA Civil Rights, oversees the L.A. REPAIR program.

The Arleta-Pacoima Zone in the San Fernando Valley was among the REPAIR Zones receiving funds as part of this year’s second round of grants. In that community, the El Nido Family Centers and the YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles will split $775,000 to support residents in the area.

El Nido Family Centers, which provides social services to families and youth, plans to expand access to affordable fresh fruits and vegetables, yoga, Zumba, gardening, and other health and wellness activities at the Pacoima Farmers Market.

“We plan on expanding family engagement, children’s activities — making it a safe space for families to come out,” said Gloria Villagrana-Cruz, a regional director with El Nido Family Centers.

The organization also plans to host a “learn, play, grow” fair in Arleta with games, pop-up health clinics and other resources for families, in addition to launching a yoga series and nature walks in the San Gabriel Mountains.

Villagrana-Cruz said organizers hope to offer the programs by late 2024 or early 2025, with a goal of serving over 1,000 families.

The YMCA, meanwhile, will host free family camp programs in Big Bear when children are out of school. It also plans to offer families free YMCA membership to take advantage of educational and enrichment programs, and to provide monthly cultural experiences.

Cultural experiences could be a hike in the Pacific Palisades or a trip to the beach or museum, said Lionnel Zaragoza, senior vice president of branch operations for the YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles. Zaragoza said that more than 500 families are expected to benefit from the YMCA’s L.A. REPAIR grant.

“One of the things that we really heard was (people wanting) opportunities to bring families together, opportunities to get families out into nature,” he said.

Although L.A. REPAIR marks the first time the city of L.A. has turned to so-called “participatory budgeting,” the concept has been applied around the world.

According to LA Civil Rights, it’s been used in more than 7,000 cities worldwide. In the U.S. it’s been adopted by local governments in Long Beach, New York City, Chicago, Boston, Seattle and elsewhere.

In L.A.’s case, the REPAIR Zones were identified based on communities that have historically experienced institutional racism. The communities were defined based on the impact of redlining, overcrowded housing conditions, lack of home Internet access, high pollution rates and low access to healthy foods.

L.A. City Councilmember Heather Hutt, whose 10th Council District includes Koreatown and parts of South L.A. including the Crenshaw District and Leimert Park, said in a statement that thanks to L.A. REPAIR, the city is “taking monumental steps towards healing and equity for everyone.”

“The L.A. REPAIR Participatory Budgeting will empower communities to drive the success of their own futures,” she said. “This budget process is a testament to our commitment to dismantling institutional racism and ensuring that those most affected are leading the charge for change.”

During the round of L.A. REPAIR funding this year, residents in the six REPAIR Zones came up with more than 1,000 ideas they wanted the city to fund. Local nonprofits then proposed projects based on what stakeholders requested and the communities voted for the ones they wanted.

Anyone 15 years or older who lived, worked, attended school or was a parent or guardian of a student in the zones got to vote, and the ideas that got the most votes in each zone were awarded funding.

Proponents laud this approach as a democratic way to let members of the community decide how public dollars are spent in their areas.

“We are grateful to the City Council for authorizing these participatory budgeting projects this coming year, thus allowing us to support communities that have faced long-standing inequities by implementing the services they voted to receive,” Maddox, the executive director of the LA Civil Rights department, said in a statement.

She added that participatory budgeting “lifts our underrepresented communities.”

Maddox said several councilmembers are considering making this practice permanent, but because of budget constraints the city may have to drop the L.A. REPAIR pilot program.

“We are actively exploring alternative funding, including non-general funds and philanthropic support, with the goal of continuing in 2026,” she said.

Here are the other L.A. REPAIR grant recipients that the City Council approved funding for last week, besides the two in the Arleta-Pacoima Zone:

• Harbor Gateway – Wilmington – Harbor City: Boys & Girls Clubs of the Los Angeles Harbor and Harbor Community Development Foundation.
• Skid Row: Chrysalis and Downtown Women’s Center.
• South Los Angeles: Girls Club of Los Angeles, Los Angeles Urban League, Social Justice Learning Institute and South Los Angeles Community Foundation.
• West Adams – Baldwin Village – Leimert Park: National Diversity & Inclusion Cannabis Alliance and Teapot Gardens.
• Westlake: Communities In Schools of Los Angeles and New Economics for Women.