Established in 2011, the Leadership Academy is a training program with the purpose of teaching organizing and advocacy skills, civic engagement, and local community action. Since its inception, the Leadership Academy program has graduated more than 215 participants from diverse backgrounds (77% identify as low-income and 90% identify as BIPOC (black, indigenous, people of color), many of whom have successful environmental careers as park rangers, community organizers, educators, artists, storytellers, etc.

More than one fifth of graduates have joined environmental and community organizations, including the California Conservation Corps, the U.S, Forest Service,TreePeople, Sierra Club, and many more. Many graduates also continue to volunteer with organizations focused on environmental justice and protection. In 2023, we proudly had Cohort 20, an additional 11 participants who completed our program.

As a cohort, we were able to complete 6 projects that connected people from underrepresented communities to nature. All projects had the goals of: Engaging with the community in a meaningful way and raising awareness of the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument.

Connecting BIPOC, LGBTQ youth to Birding

Held at the Hilda Solis Outlook, a youth-led bird watching outing was provided for 10 local community members. The group was deliberately small in order to not disturb wildlife or habitat. While mostly youth participated, parents also signed up for the outing. There were a total of 75 community members who obtained informational and interpretive information at the site. Goals Met: Participants learned about the importance the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument & the San Gabriel River play in bird migration.

Camping Basics Workshop

In this project 10 Youth, with an additional 6 community leads from Lennox learned how to plan a camping trip. Youth learned how to navigate the online permitting systems for local, state, and federal campgrounds. They also learned outdoor ethics and the importance of recreating responsibly. This project took place in Lennox and in the Crystal Lake area of the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument and was offered as a bilingual program.

Micro-regeneration in the Built Environment

This project entailed an event that was open to the public and was completely booked within 24 hours! The focus was on flora found in the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument, how it attracts fauna, and how community members can also create micro forests within city limits. The event was held at Eaton Canyon with 20 participants, with close to 70 additional participants.

Connecting Compton to the Mountains

Families from Compton’s equestrian community hiked to the Eaton Canyon waterfall. This was a two part project. The first part entailed community engagement where artifacts and manipulatives from Eaton Canyon were taken to the Connecting Compton ranch. The following day the community joined us on a hike through Eaton Canyon to reach the waterfall. A total of 18 community members participated and 54 viewed the YouTube video created by the participant, post the event! YouTube-54

West San Gabriel River Nature Stroll & Craft

Transportation and connectivity to open space is a major problem in Los Angeles County. This project aimed to physically connect people from the community of Lakewood, along the lower San Gabriel River, and visually connect them to the San Gabriel Mountains. 35 community participants were reached with this project.

Eco Careers Zine

A zine was created by and for BIPOC community members to learn about Green careers and how to navigate greenspaces in places where BIPOC folks are underrepresented. This pamphlet will continue to have a lasting impact, as it has been printed for over 100 community members, and will be used throughout future programming and workshops, as well as our website.

The funded project was fully implemented as indicated in the grant proposal. Our Leadership Academy helped to improve participant’s knowledge of environmental issues that affect their neighborhoods, including health, access to parks, water resiliency, water quality and the role of protecting public lands and natural resources, and connecting culture to nature while building a long-term resiliency in the face of climate change.

A major accomplishment was the ability to meet all project deliverables in a way that ensured quality over quantity. The goal was to foster meaningful interactions between people and places. All outings took trail safety and impact into consideration. We accomplished this by following a 1:10 ratio of leader to participants, trying not to exceed 15. Everyone who planned an outing, whether in a public park or in a wilderness area had to fill out a scout sheet and write an interpretive outline. These are major steps in delivering strong public programming.

Through the planning process, we were able to train Cohort participants into potential outing leaders.

Our objectives included reaching 25 community members directly and 250 community members indirectly. We were able to reach our objectives by engaging a total of 335 community members via the various projects, community meetings, and sharing material for the last project. In addition, Leadership Academy participants will continue to form part of the Nature for All Steward community in order to continue to learn more about environmental stewardship, and support our continued goal to increase access to parks and outdoor programming in their communities. Thankfully results were as expected.

Our evaluation process included asking participants for feedback during the 14 Leadership Academy sessions. We assessed the level of engagement by materials submitted with homework assignments, and asked if they would participate in this program again once it ended. The majority of participants indicated that they would like to participate again and further their education on the topics learned here.

We had more than one person voice concerns over being used for “numbers”. This is something that happens often in underserved and underrepresented communities, hence doing away with a formal survey moving toward community building.

Thanks to this program, for the first time, we were able to work with Vulcan Materials Company. Vulcan delivered the geology portion for CalNat certification. Vulcan Materials operates just outside of the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument. The company has caused major scarring on the mountainside due to their operations. The company’s truck route is along the San Gabriel River, which contributes to the pollution along the gateway cities. All Cohort 20 participants were keenly aware of environmental injustice, but everyone was surprised that concrete can be recycled. Participants also learned how quarries are turned into greenspace, and how Vulcan aims to do their part toward corporate social responsibility.

Because we were focused on small, personally impactful and environmentally respectful projects, we were able to showcase our projects and events on social media.

The Leadership Academy will continue as additional funding was received from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, with a focus on Forest Health Protection in the new year. We are extremely grateful for the funding provided by LA2050 to help support our 20th Cohort of Leadership Academy participants- turned environmental stewards of their local public lands as well as urban spaces in their communities.