Miguel A. Santana

When it comes to big ideas, we continue to champion bold solutions to homelessness including through our work on The Committee for Greater LA, a group of civic leaders with the shared vision of using the pandemic recovery as an opportunity to advance a more equitable Los Angeles. The Committee recently released research exploring attitudes Angelenos have on the issues of homelessness. Read about what voters are saying in this L.A. Times article and watch the webinar where The Committee shared the findings.

While we do a lot of work in the core Los Angeles region, our work and partnerships extend throughout Southern California. Continue reading to meet some of our new partners and to learn more about how we are working together to advance social, racial, and economic equity together. To read Miguel’s full message and watch his video, click here.

California Immigrant Policy Center

The Weingart Foundation is proud to announce our second round of grants and program-related investments for F.Y. 2022. This funding reflects our unwavering commitment to addressing structural racism and socioeconomic injustice throughout Southern California.

We are honored to partner with these remarkable organizations. Our nonprofit partners represent a continuum of organizations, from health and human service providers to nonprofits elevating resident voice and building power in historically oppressed communities of color. Each of these organizations is doing tremendous work to address the unprecedented challenges and rampant injustices facing our communities.

To read more about our December 2021 grants and program-related investments, and to see the full list, click here.

Eric Medina and Sara Montrose, Program Officers

As Weingart Foundation program officers, one of the greatest privileges of our job is the opportunity to learn from our nonprofit partners. We do this through ongoing conversations, site visits, and listening.

Listening to communities and responding to conditions is at the core of what we do. Our funding is informed by those with lived experience and direct knowledge. Hearing from those on the ground who are most directly impacted by injustice is inspiring and necessary—especially for funders sincerely committed to building an equitable and just society.

Click here to read this post from Weingart Foundation program officers Eric Medina and Sara Montrose about what we’re hearing and how funders can respond.

Dr. Yolanda Gorman, African American Board Leadership Institute; Patrick Salazar, Latinos LEAD; and Vera de Vera, Weingart Foundation

Please click here to view the video and hear directly from these experts.

The P.E.O.C. is committed to upholding the due process and civil rights of all immigrants, asylees and refugees. 

Then hundreds of unaccompanied migrant children began arriving in Pomona.

Children ranging in ages from 7 to 14 years old who had overcome unfathomable hardships traveling alone, began arriving at Fairplex in early May of this year. The children who arrived unaccompanied at the U.S.-Mexico border were to be temporarily housed at Fairplex, which was designated a federal Emergency Intake Site (E.I.S.), as they waited to be reunited with family or placed with sponsors.

A powerful advocate for immigrants, the Pomona Economic Opportunity Center immediately mobilized.

To read the full story, click here.

Joanna Jackson, Vice President of Programs

The Committee’s Black Experience Action Team last week released its The Path to Justice Runs Through Equity: Ending Anti-Black Racism in Los Angeles report, a call to action for all with specific recommendations for addressing institutional racism.

Joanna Jackson, Vice President of Programs at the Weingart Foundation, serves on the Black Experience Action Team and has this to say about the report.