Creating Community Change, from within, in LA County

Income inequality

County of Los Angeles (select only if your project has a countywide benefit)

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

Greenhouse isn't looking to solve any one individual issue. What we are seeking to address is a much broader vision of community change within LA County. Our innovative Community Change Model, launched in 2021, is built on the idea of working with incredibly talented young role models from the most underserved communities across the country and providing them the resources, connections, and holistic support for them to create sustainable community change solutions within their communities.
Our programmatic support begins at age 17 and continues for life. This long-term, in-depth approach is centered around creating change in these underserved communities from within. We do not have the solutions to homelessness, environmental issues, food insecurity, and the other issues that face each individual community. However, our Scholars and Alumni, who have grown up facing these issues, first-hand, do, and we empower them to create the solutions to solve these issues within their communities.

This grant will support Greenhouse's Community Change Model in LA County by supporting the first phase of Greenhouse's model, the Whole Person College Program. The Whole Person College Program is our longest-running program and what Greenhouse is best known for. This program has been successfully running for 20 years across the country, and we just accepted our 2nd class from LA.
Our Community Change Model fuels our impact through three programs that build on each other:
● Whole Person College Program (ages 17-22) - Serving high-performing, under-resourced college students with a holistic approach to success
● Young Leaders Program (ages 22-29) - Working with our alumni in the early stages of their career and post-college life to both support their endeavors and work together on community change
● Whole Community Program (ages 30+) - Scaling our impact by running thousands of “experiments,” repeating the ones that are working, while also investing deeply in geographic communities
There are six components that flow through all three phases of our Community Change Model. Each of these six components is executed differently in each of the three programs. The six components are Impact and Entrepreneurship, Lifelong Learning, Connections, Funding, Careers, and Immersive Gatherings.
Specific to the Whole Person College Program, Greenhouse supports Scholars through:
Mentorship
Professional Networking
Financial Support
A Summer Symposium
Skills Modules
Internships

We’re creating outcomes that don’t just lift individuals—they reshape entire communities:
Businesses thriving
Schools educating our kids properly
Education as the great leveler, the gateway to opportunity
Communities that are vibrant, thriving, and sustaining.
We’re about action: launching hundreds—soon thousands—of bold initiatives, businesses, and community change projects. We do the hard work from within communities: listening, diagnosing, solving, and acting on what’s really needed.
Examples from other regions:
We helped launch a Latino Community Center that’s now a hub for culture and opportunity, revitalizing two neighboring communities.
We’re scaling access to higher education through Securing Degrees, a scholarship resource enterprise that’s helped over 3,000 students graduate college debt-free.
Our goal is to bring these innovative, sustainable solutions to LA County—just as we’ve done for the past 20 years elsewhere.