Endangered Watts School Gets Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable Award

The Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable announced a special Building Self-Sustaining Communities Award on Friday, August 17. The August award is part of our Building Self-Sustaining Communities Initiative. The Building Self-Sustaining Communities Awards are made to support organizations that have a proven track record of commitment to building community sustainability projects, activities, and service. The awards are given monthly. Wells Fargo Foundation is a major partner with the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable’s Building Self-Sustaining Communities Award Program.

The award recipient is: The Los Angeles Community High School in Watts. The small private school which has a near 100 percent graduation rate for at risk students faced closure without emergency financial support. They have played a major role in giving students a second chance and reducing gang violence and crime in Watts and South L.A.  The school is totally dependent on private funding and still faces serious financial challenges to stay open. Its mission, work and accomplishments are spotlighted on the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable website: http://www.laupr.org/  

“Budget cutbacks, the sharp increase in poverty, and the on-going struggle of small community service groups for funding have made it more imperative that we help fill the funding gap to boost them in their efforts to build community sustainability in under-served communities,” says Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable President Earl Ofari Hutchinson, “The Building Self-Sustaining Communities Award Program aims to further community self-reliance and independence. This is the pathway to citizen empowerment.”

The Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable will make its next Building Self-Sustaining Communities Awards in September. Information and nominations for the Awards

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