Where Water Remembers, Life Returns: Stories at the confluence of safety, justice, and healing in LA County

Community safety

County of Los Angeles (select only if your project has a countywide benefit) Central LA East LA South LA San Gabriel Valley West LA San Fernando Valley Gateway Cities South Bay Long Beach Antelope Valley City of Los Angeles (select only if your project has a citywide benefit) LAUSD (select only if you have a district-wide partnership)

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

Community safety in Los Angeles is not just about policing or emergency response — it’s about clean air, wildfire relief, safe housing, walkable streets, and a sense of belonging.
In Los Angeles County:
Families live next to oil refineries and are exposed to harmful emissions daily.
Youth attend schools near toxic sites or in neighborhoods with unsafe infrastructure.
Incarcerated people live in environments with poor ventilation, contaminated water, or no green space.
Indigenous and historically marginalized communities continue to be excluded from land and water access.
Wildfires tore through the Los Angeles area, including: Pacific Palisades, Malibu, Topanga, Pasadena, Altadena, and Sierra Madre this January, displacing tens of thousands of people and claiming at least 30 lives.
"Where Water Remembers, Life Returns: Stories at the confluence of safety, justice, and healing in LA County" will explore these issues as matters of community safety, equity, and civic responsibility.

Unique Five-Part Series (20 Investigative Stories)
1. The Right to Return: Reclaiming Land as Safety
Investigating Native-led land and water reclamation in LA County, with a focus on sovereignty, resilience, and cultural safety.
2. Breathing the Border: Fenceline Communities and Environmental Harm
Build on Red Canary story "To Live and Die in LA's Diesel Death Zones." Continue reporting from communities surrounded by ports, refineries, and highways where residents face high rates of asthma, cancer, and environmental stress.
3. Sacred Infrastructure: Public Works That Heal
Build off "The Art of Reparation" and similar initiatives reimagining LA’s water systems as tools for equity, access, and healing, not just efficiency.
4. The Climate of Incarceration: Inside LA’s Environmental Carceral Crisis
Reporting on LA County jails and detention centers sited on contaminated or ecologically compromised land, centering the lived experiences of incarcerated people and abolitionist organizers.
5. The Archive Is the River: Ritual, Grief, and Community Memory
A poetic feature on how Angelenos are creating safety through grief, ceremony, and public storytelling connecting water, memory, and place.

Format & Delivery
Each story: 3,000–5,000 words
Original documentary photography and illustration
Audio narration/short video companion
Published in Red Canary Magazine and with community partners
Optional live convening or ritual gathering with artists, organizers, and panel discussions

When "Where Water Remembers, Life Returns" is successful, LA County will be more informed, connected, and accountable, paving the way for changes that will directly improve community safety for LA's citizens and environment.
Frontline communities feel seen, heard, and protected because their lived experiences have been publicly documented with care and dignity.
Decision-makers are moved by memory and evidence that link environmental harm to public safety.
New alliances are formed between storytellers, policy advocates, Indigenous leaders, youth organizers, artists and residents working together across silos to reimagine safety from the ground up.
Public understanding of community safety evolves to include clean air, safe water, access to land, and the emotional safety that comes from being visible, valued, and protected.
Ultimately, our work will shift the cultural narrative of what community safety means in LA from enforcement and exclusion to repair, belonging, and resilience.