Peace & Healing Centers
The Peace and Healing Centers pilot program provides $2 million to community-based organizations to implement culturally-informed programming that addresses social, economic, and environmental harms created by institutional and structural racism. These centers will be located in nine neighborhoods called L.A. REPAIR Zones, which experience some of the highest levels of poverty, overcrowded housing, and pollution in the City of Los Angeles.
Peace & Healing Centers are designed to respond to inequities still present in the structure of Los Angeles today. Focuses will vary at each Center to meet the needs of each REPAIR Zone, but all services will be open to the public free of charge. Peace & Healing Centers will provide at least 20 hours a week of public programming, with at least two monthly events for the community, and can be activated in the event of an emergency to facilitate critical, community-led dialogues. By the end of the nine month pilot phase, each Peace & Healing Center will have hosted 1,400 hours of free services and programming for their REPAIR zone.
Harder + Company Community Research will serve as the program evaluator for the Peace and Healing Center pilot program. They will develop an evaluation approach, methods, and tools to measure the reach, experience, and impact of the nine PHC sites. The findings of the evaluation will be summarized in a report to be shared with the City of LA leadership and stakeholders to inform future investments.
Since 1986, Harder+Company has led hundreds of projects focused on helping organizations understand how they do their work, use information effectively, and produce change in their fields. They understand the vital role that the public sector plays in bringing about social change, as well as common challenges they face in planning, managing, measuring, and learning from their work. Harder+ Company's evaluation team holds deep professional and lived experience evaluating equity and justice focused initiatives that aim to address structural barriers similar to those experienced by community members living in the LA REPAIR zones.
Click here to learn more about each Peace & Healing Center.
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Peace and Healing Center Partners.
The following organizations will operate Peace and Healing Centers:
- Para Los Niños for the South LA REPAIR Zone
- Volunteers of America Los Angeles (VOALA) for the Southeast LA REPAIR Zone
- Bryant Temple AME Community Development Corporation for the West Adams- Baldwin Village- Leimert Park REPAIR Zone
- Central City Neighborhood Partners (CCNP) for the Westlake REPAIR Zone
- YMCA LA for the Wilmington + Harbor Gateway REPAIR Zone
- Proyecto Pastoral for the Boyle Heights REPAIR Zone
- Creating Justice LA for the Skid Row REPAIR Zone
- El Nido Family Centers for the Arleta- Pacoima and Mission Hills- Panorama City- North Hills REPAIR Zones
Types of Healing Provided
Peace and Healing is defined by community stakeholders and is catered to each REPAIR Zone to serve their unique needs. At the Westlake PHC, CCNP will offer environmental healing through a community garden. At the West Adams- Baldwin Village- Leimert Park PHC, Bryant Temple AME CDC will provide economic healing through financial literacy workshops. Creating Justice LA will offer social healing through immersive education in music, art, and meditation at the Skid Row PHC. Many more examples exist across the nine REPAIR Zones. Click here to learn more.
- Support the betterment of the environment and access to green space.
- Improve the intersectional impacts and environmental inequity affecting communities.
- Examples include: Community gardens, nature access & programming, tree & native garden planting.
- Support the betterment of economic mobility and access to economic opportunities.
- Bridge the city’s vision for equitable economies with the philosophical framework and field experience of local community based organizations.
- Improve the intersectional impacts for communities experiencing economic divestments, wage theft, and low pay/low employment.
- Examples include: Financial literacy, job placement, tax prep, higher ed prep, record expungement.
- Support the betterment of constituents’ social experiences and outcomes.
- Address the intersectional impacts for communities experiencing trauma from racism, COVID-19, gang violence, domestic violence, recidivism, education gaps, and inter-community relationships.
- Examples include: Mental health workshops, healing through arts, inter-community dialogues.