A $4.5 million Community Grants Program launched in 2022 by LA City Council President Pro Tempore Curren Price has touched the lives of more than 44,000 people in District 9 providing critical services to unhoused individuals, families and youth. In an Impact Progress Report released this May, the Coalition for Responsible Community Development (CRCD), administrator of the pilot program, said it had distributed $3.7 million to 91 grantees from June 2022 through April 2023.
Councilmember Price developed the first-of-its-kind community investment initiative to support organizations working in Council District 9. Grants from $5,000 to $150,000 were awarded to eligible CD 9 based organizations, including non-profits, churches, neighborhood councils, schools, health care organizations, and other groups.
“The dedicated funds are being funneled right back into our community with partner groups providing direct attention and care to local families and bringing innovative projects and programming to the area,” Councilmember Price said. “The work the grantees have been leading in our community has made a big impact in the lives of our most vulnerable neighbors and shows a great demand and an opportunity for life-changing support.”
In 2020, Councilmember Price led the charge to “reimagine” $150 million from the police department and invest more resources into Black and Brown communities. As part of the Community Reinvestment Plan, Councilman Price implemented the nation’s largest Guaranteed Basic Income (GBI) program in the nation, deployed rapid-response clean-up crews, established a nonprofit apprenticeship program and created the CD 9 Community Grants Program.
“The Community Grant Program marks welcome progress in community-level grant making and an evolution in our approach to community development,” commented CRCD President and CEO Mark Wilson. “As an African American-led organization headquartered in District 9, equity has always been at the heart of the CRCD mission. Through this initiative, we have amplified this commitment by administering grants for a diverse network of local organizations and providing over 900 hours of technical assistance and training to strengthen the capacity of the CD 9 grantee network.”
"This grant is wonderful and highly needed. The community appreciates everything that Councilman Price is doing,” said Cover the Homeless Executive Director, Rose Rios. “This is the first grant that I have received and I have been doing this for 40 years! I was afraid to ask for grant money and have been paying out of my own pocket for years. When you find good people, it gives us the strength to keep going."
You can find the CD 9 Community Grants Impact Progress Report on the program's website at https://www.cd9communitygrant.org/reports.