LA Forward Institute

LA Forward Institute is working to leverage multiple strategies to transform the insufficient crisis-response system in LA City and LA County so that all people, especially those experiencing acute mental health distress and homelessness, will benefit from easy-to-access, trauma-informed, and coordinated 24/7 care that minimizes violence and maximizes compassion.

LA 101 is an interactive guide and campaign to help you understand how local government really works, and how you can make a difference with your friends and neighbors. It will cover major local elected and appointed officials and what they do, city and county departments and how they impact your life, the fundamentals of advocacy and organizing, and more. Our goal is for every Angeleno to have the knowledge, tools, and confidence they need to become active in their communities and advocate for an LA that is fair and flourishing for everyone.

Even as Metro invests billions into new rail lines, LA City’s infrastructure for helping people get to transit and move around (sidewalks, street lighting and shade) is in disarray. As Mayor Bass prepares the city’s first long-range infrastructure plan, LA Forward Institute has a plan to elevate the voices of our community members so we build a city that facilitates safe, quick, and easy movement across LA. We’ll host community engagement events in all 15 council districts to uplift what everyday Angelenos want out of the infrastructure plan.

LA City is considering forming a Department of Community Safety (DCS) and we have a unique window to shape it. LA Forward Institute has a plan to engage the public to ensure the DCS is designed to work effectively and equitably. We’ll publish a series of podcast episodes to educate the public around different ways of imagining community safety and host education opportunities including teach-ins, working groups, and a Crisis Response Summit that will lay the groundwork for large-scale advocacy.

LA Forward Institute is working to leverage multiple strategies to transform the insufficient crisis-response system in LA City and LA County so that all people, especially those experiencing acute mental health distress and homelessness, will benefit from easy-to-access, trauma-informed, and coordinated 24/7 care that minimizes violence and maximizes compassion.

LA Forward Institute will harness the power of storytelling to activate people across the San Gabriel Valley to create a housing system that's affordable and stable for everyone. We will host five "Moth"-style storytelling events in public places by recruiting residents to surface their lived experiences around housing and helping them craft compelling stories. The goal is to broaden and deepen the community of supporters (residents, policymakers, media) for protecting tenants, preventing homelessness, and building more affordable housing.

Our initiative is a collaboration of LA Forward, the People’s Resource Center, and SGV Tenants Alliance to build community power for housing justice through educating renters on their rights and on housing policy, growing their organizing and civic engagement skills through training workshops, building relationships within and across the region’s cities. We will also help to organize housing justice groups in different cities and supporting new and existing ones with research and technical support.

LA Forward is seeking support for our COVID-19 crisis response work, which to date has included crisis response guides, policy development, digital mobilization, and helping to launch and coordinate the Healthy LA Coalition of over 250+ local organizations proposing concrete solutions to the many hardships caused by the pandemic. Our next goal is to organize middle class renters and homeowners who previously felt secure but are now on the brink, and make common cause with working class communities who have long struggled — lifting everyone up.

Building on the success of our own ballot guides and the national Indivisible Guide, we’ll create the LA 101 Guide and make the center of a 10-month campaign to convey how local government really works and how you can make a difference. It’ll cover key elected and appointed officials, the main levers of powers, how can average citizens make an impact, and more. It’ll be available through multiple languages and media, including an interactive website and serialized social media posts.

LA Forward connects Angelenos with the organizers, policy experts, and coalitions based in disadvantaged communities in order to build a movement for a just, democratic, and sustainable Los Angeles.