Art’s Transformative Power: The Art of Healing Trauma

Affordable housing and homelessness

South LA Central LA City of Los Angeles (select only if your project has a citywide benefit)

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

The humanitarian crisis that plays out on the streets of LA County affects everyone. Despite millions spent, 75,000 people are without housing, 67% struggle with mental health issues, an additional 200 people become unhoused each day, and 6 or more unhoused people DIE every day.
And the fiscal impact is enormous. Monthly homeless services cost $2,897/person vs $605/person for supportive housing. And yet it is when finally in supportive housing, that isolation, marginalization, and the challenges of living on >$850/mo. trigger stress, trauma, and threaten success. This is where the transformative power of the arts helps save lives, build community safety, and restore the dignity of work and income.
With cuts to Federal funds, a city budget deficit, collapse of LA Homeless Services, a rise in income inequality, the lack of affordable housing, wildfire displacements, increased tariff costs, and a possible recession, it is urgent that we mitigate the potential return to homelessness now.

Piece by Piece is the only arts-based organization dedicated to serving LA residents who have experienced poverty or homelessness, uniquely combining therapeutic art practices with earned income to bridge the gap between hardship and long-term personal and financial stability.
Our program is a safe, welcoming space where participants learn and practice mosaic art, rebuild trust, begin healing from trauma, and regain self-confidence, leading to measurable improvements in mental health. We offer life-skills training such as financial literacy, benefits navigation, communication, stress management, and art therapy. Combined with opportunities to earn income, these tools help break the cycle of homelessness.
Participants engage in workshops, open-studio hours, visiting artist immersions, and field trips that enrich their experience and deepen engagement. All workshops are free, led by trauma-informed artist-instructors. Certified artists may earn $20/hour or more, working up to 32 hours per week.
In 2024, we welcomed 250 artists into our studios, provided 2,400 nutritious meals, often the only meal of the day for many, generated $140,000 in participant earnings, and engaged 4,750 community members through public art events.
With this grant, we will expand our capacity, reach hundreds more, and accelerate our mission: transforming trauma into thriving livelihoods. Because no Angeleno should be left without purpose or hope.
NOTE: Actual numbers vs estimates quoted in Video.

LA County faces unprecedented challenges: $1B city deficit, $4B abuse settlement, wildfire costs, potentially devastating cuts to the social safety net, Gov. Newsom’s plan to clear homeless encampments, and a crisis at LA Housing Services Authority.
We are working to create a world where human-centered solutions, grounded in empathy, science and sustainable change are the norm - where trauma is recognized as a normal response to abnormal societal conditions, by expanding a trauma-informed framework of care where healing begins not by asking “What’s wrong with you?” but “What happened to you?” and fosters emotional and physical well-being, cultivates emotional competence, and empowers individuals to rebuild their lives with dignity.
LA2050’s support will allow us to expand our staff and services, reaching hundreds more. And it will enable us to turn our vision toward presenting our successful model for potential incorporation into the Mayor’s new Homelessness Prevention Program.