Happenings

Twelve LA organizations to participate in community conversation series about a shared vision for Los Angeles via #LA2050Listens

Today, LA2050 announced the winners of this year's #LA2050Listens grants. Last year, we started #LA2050Listens to solicit feedback from a broad and representative group of Angelenos on the draft LA2050 goals. This year, we put out another call for submissions for events about the latest LA2050 report which incorporates feedback drawn from the previous year's community conversations. This year's #LA2050Listens grants winners will hold events about the shared vision outlined in the report and the metrics LA2050 will use to track progress toward building a better LA.

Through #LA2050Listens, 12 organizations will each receive a $5,000 grant to host local community events about what it takes to build the LA of our dreams. We are so excited about the diversity of these events, ranging from community days to local walking tours! The events are slated to take place before October 20th throughout Los Angeles County.

The winners of this year's #LA2050Listens grants are:

• Big City Forum will host a community conversation in Spanish and English with Silver Lake residents at the historic Neutra House VDL about redevelopment opportunities, placemaking in underserved communities, and gentrification in LA.
• Food Chain Workers Alliance & Restaurant Opportunities Center of LA will collaborate with affiliate labor organizations throughout the LA region to host a community town hall meeting in English and Spanish at the UCLA Downtown Labor Center about food justice in Los Angeles.
• Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles will host “Los Angeles, Our Home 2050," a community forum that will engage residents of Estrada Courts in Boyle Heights, along with local community partners, in a discussion about the future of low-income housing in Los Angeles.
• Impact Hub will present “ANTIFRAGILE LOS ANGELES: Leveraging Failure for the Future," a retrospective of failed city initiatives in order to create institutional knowledge that new initiatives can leverage to effect change.
• Impact Rising, in collaboration with YouTube Space LA, Snapchat, 72andSunny, the Center for Nonprofit Management, and The California Endowment, will host a ProduceAthon connecting creatives and content creators with local causes aligned with the LA2050 goals to help tell their story through new media.
• LA Commons will host a walking tour inspired by the newly released book, Latitude: An Angelenos Atlas, asking a diverse set of Angelenos to create their own unique maps of LA.
• Neighborhood Council Sustainability Alliance will build on events surrounding the 2015 Congress of Neighborhoods to host a co-design session bringing together citizen feedback and artist renderings to create a plan for LA's future.
• Operations-South Bureau Community Stakeholder Collaboration will host three community events in the LAPD's South Bureau service area to spark conversations conducted in English, Korean, and Spanish about the future of Los Angeles.
• Pacoima Beautiful, with additional support through the Great Streets Challenge Grant from the Mayor's Office and the Urban Land Institute's Healthy Corridors Initiative, will host a listening session to explore the vibrancy of the Van Nuys Boulevard and solicit community input about ways to activate public spaces.
• River Wild will host a pop-up event in Elysian Valley to highlight and provide proof of concept for the creation of economic development through arts and commerce along the LA River
• Urban & Environmental Policy Institute, Occidental College will invite residents of Northeast Los Angeles to participate in a planathon to inspire and inform a city process to update the NELA community plan.
• Wilmington Chamber of Commerce, Council District 15, and LA-Más will collaborate to host pop-up programming and pilot temporary installations that will inform On Avalon, a plan to improve the experience, safety, and viability of Avalon Boulevard in Wilmington.

Here's the full calendar of events.

Be sure to check the blog for updates and follow #LA2050Listens to learn more about these events. We hope you will attend and share your vision for the future of Los Angeles!

#LA2050Listens
Last year, we finalized the LA2050 Goals with your input through a series of community-led events that solicited feedback on the draft LA2050 goals from a broad and representative group of Angelenos.

Today, LA2050 released a report that tracks progress toward our shared vision for the future of Los Angeles using these LA2050 Goals.

We are continuing the #LA2050Listens series in order to learn more from you about the progress outlined in our report. For instance, what excites or concerns your community the most about the findings in the report? What additional data points should we be tracking? Are there activations we might promote or strategies that your community suggests to accelerate progress?

Please apply here for a $5,000 grant to host an #LA2050Listens event in your community and lead a conversation about the reports. You can learn more about the 2014 winners here.

The events should be participatory and engaging, but the format and design are completely up to you. In 2013, we saw everything from bike-in movie theaters to basket weaving – it's time to get creative!

Applications are due by August 4th, 2015 at noon. You can apply and learn more here!