6 Leaders Fighting for the Future of L.A. are Battle-Ready

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Jan 18, 2011, 05:10 ET

Liberty Hill Foundation Announces Grassroots Leaders to Watch in 2011

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 18, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Who are L.A.'s unsung grassroots heroes? Who are L.A.'s community organizers to watch? Liberty Hill Foundation has announced its second annual spotlight on exceptional local grassroots leaders who face significant battles for change in 2011.

"The Liberty Hill List: Grassroots Leaders to Watch" draws each year on Liberty Hill's three decades of experience investing in leaders at the frontlines of change in Los Angeles.

Each of the six grassroots leaders faces opportunities to advance the cause of men, women and children in Los Angeles who are poor or discriminated against. They are confronting head-on some of L.A.'s most entrenched problems: no and low-wage jobs, failing schools, the nation's worst pollution, discrimination.

The political challenges they face in 2011 will test their strategic smarts and sheer determination.

Liberty Hill President and CEO Kafi D. Blumenfield said: "These six leaders are smart, strategic, resilient, and tireless. And they face political opportunities that don't come along every day. Can they overcome resistance to change? At Liberty Hill, we think so."

The six leaders are:

Gloria Walton of Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education (SCOPE) is building the grassroots power in Los Angeles and across the state that will someday eradicate the poverty that has shaped the lives of so many people she knows and loves. Her focus this year will be green jobs and reforming California's broken tax policies.
Xiomara Corpeno of Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA) is bringing the frightened, sometimes desperate voices of immigrant workers from the shadows to the halls of power—be it on Capitol Hill or L.A.'s police headquarters at Parker Center— to win fair treatment and comprehensive immigration reform.
Tammy Bang Luu of Labor Community Strategy Center (LCSC) is focusing her efforts on what a Harvard report dubbed "The School to Prison Pipeline," snowballing practices that push an increasing number of L.A. students not toward college, but toward incarceration.
Eddie Martinez and Ari Gutierrez of Latino Equality Alliance (LEA) are working for full equality for L.A.'s nearly 200,000 LGBT Latinos. Already, LEA has attracted attention nationwide as other cities look to replicate its model.
Isella Ramirez, of East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice (EYCEJ), is fighting the concentration of polluters in low-income, L.A. communities. In 2011, her focus will be on combating the expansion of the nearby railyards and freeway that promise only negative health impacts for already polluted residential neighborhoods.

Full profiles and a video are available at www.LibertyHill.org/2011leaders.

Liberty Hill is first to identify community leaders at the frontlines of change. We invest in changemakers and equip them with the skills and relationships they need to build power and advance social justice. After more than 30 years, Liberty Hill is uniquely positioned to bring together forces for change and forge a common agenda for equality and opportunity in Los Angeles. Liberty Hill: Change. Not charity.

www.LibertyHill.org

SOURCE Liberty Hill Foundation