Community First: Safety Through Action

Community safety

South LA East LA

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

Too many low-income families in South Los Angeles face threats to their physical, emotional, and economic safety due to underinvestment, systemic inequality, and lack of access to advocacy platforms. Unsafe streets, exploitative labor conditions, and barriers to public resources contribute to a climate of insecurity—especially for immigrant communities and informal workers such as recyclers and street vendors. This disconnect from public systems results in both fear and disengagement. Without active and informed civic participation, these families remain at risk and without recourse.

With LA2050 support, UPAS will expand our community-led safety advocacy initiative by training and mobilizing 300 parents, students, and young organizers through workshops, listening sessions, and direct civic engagement. We will build on our proven Parent Academy and Young Organizers Institute to equip participants with tools to advocate for safer neighborhoods, access public resources, and intervene in unsafe or exploitative practices. The grant will fund community safety walk audits, know-your-rights trainings, and facilitated meetings with local leaders and agencies in South LA, Watts, and East LA.
In partnership with schools and local nonprofits, we will also run pop-up safety resource tables—offering connections to food access, legal aid, and tenant rights info. Youth participants will lead peer-organized forums addressing safety in and around schools. All activities will be anchored in ongoing campaigns already underway around food justice, economic inclusion, and neighborhood accountability.

If successful, our work will leave behind more connected, empowered, and safer communities across South LA, Watts, and East LA. Families will report feeling more informed, visible, and supported by public systems. Schools and neighborhoods will be safer—not because of surveillance or policing—but because residents are organized, trained, and resourced to demand equity and action. Youth participants will become trusted community advocates, and city departments will respond more effectively due to sustained grassroots pressure. By centering the voices of historically excluded communities, this model will strengthen civic infrastructure and safety networks that can be expanded across the region through future partnerships and replication.