Dear LA Civil Rights Family,

As we celebrate the holidays and prepare for the new year, we also want to highlight our 2023 wins. First, congratulations to Mayor Karen Bass on a successful first year in office - we appreciate your leadership and support as we continue to lock arms to bring equitable services to Angelenos. Thank you to City Council and our fellow city departments. Together, we've displayed the best of LA!

I am especially grateful for our LA Civil Rights Family and partners - the advocates, leaders, commissioners, and committee members. Your support of L.A. REPAIR Participatory Budgeting Program, Peace & Healing Centers, and our events truly made a difference, and we're looking forward to even more collaborations in 2024. For now, I wish you a happy holiday season!

Keep the faith and keep the fight,

Capri Maddox

Executive Director

LA Civil Rights Department

In 2023, LA Civil Rights uplifted equity, justice, and inclusion. We participated in over 1,000 meetings, forums, panels, and equity-focused events, hosted or co-hosted over 150 community events, received and processed nearly 750 discrimination cases since the launch of our Civil Rights Enforcement Unit, and had a reach to over 552,000 residents on social media. The following are just a few of this year's key accomplishments:

LA Civil Rights in Tokyo

This February 2023, LA Civil Rights Executive Director, Capri Maddox, represented the City of Los Angeles at the Global City Network for Sustainability, G-Nets Mayors Summit in Tokyo, Japan. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government convened and moderated discussions between leaders from 34 cities around the world, including Abu Dhabi, Bangkok, Brussels, London, Milan, Nairobi, Nice, Paris, Rome, Singapore, and our sister city, Taipei. Some municipalities focused on women’s issues, hate crime prevention, equity goals, or human rights, but no other single entity represented at this international conference fought injustices on all fronts like the LA Civil Rights Department.

LA For All Week

In September 2023, we held our biggest event of the year, LA For All Week! To celebrate our award-winning anti-hate campaign, we hosted a World Peace Day event at one of our Peace & Healing Centers, lit up 15 structures across LA, including City Hall, US Bank Tower, 6th Street Bridge, and Union Station in a mosaic of colors representing the multicultural campaign, and we ended the week by welcoming hundreds of volunteers for a Day of Service dedicated to former Councilman Tom LaBonge in Silverlake, North Hollywood, Pacoima, and Mid-City.

Heroes Wanted

This year, several modern-day heroes visited our LA Civil Rights Offices and John Lewis Conference Center in the LA Mall. We were honored to welcome Mayor Karen Bass, LA Fire Chief Crowley, and City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto. Not only did Dolores Huerta - a civil rights activist, who stood beside Cesar Chavez in the fight for labor rights - and Father Greg Boyle, founder and owner of Homeboy Industries grace us with their presence, they also signed their names next to their photos featured on our 'Heroes Wanted' wall.

Peace & Healing Centers

This year, we began distributing $2 million dollars to local organizations to establish nine Peace & Healings Centers to address harms caused by systemic and institutional racism. Each organization developed and implemented programs focused on social, economic, and environmental healing to support community members in South LA, Southeast LA, West Adams-Baldwin Village-Leimert Park, Westlake, Wilmington-Harbor Gateway, Boyle Heights, Skid Row, and Arleta-Pacoima.

Thank you to Central City Neighborhood Partners (CCNP), Para Los Niños, Volunteers of America Los Angeles (VOALA), Bryant Temple AME CDC , YMCA, Proyecto Pastoral, Creating Justice LA, and El Nido Family Centers for bringing peace and healing to Los Angeles' highest need communities.

Upward Mobility Programming

We are always working to build a more equitable Los Angeles through our upward mobility programming, which helps residents acquire middle class status and beyond. This year, we hosted over 100 pre-law students at LA Law Day, connected low to moderate income residents with real estate professionals at our Homebuyer Seminar, and hosted our first in-person career fair. Over 150 job seekers attended the job fair and 40 employers received Gender and Sexuality training to help employers eliminate bias toward the LGBTQ+ community members in the workplace.

We are thankful to the individuals and organizations who leaned in to provide priceless information and help prepare our next generation of leaders, including Los Angeles Partners in Homeownership, Pepperdine University School of Law, Southwestern Law School, Los Angeles Trade Technical College, and so many others!

Continue to follow us on social media @lacivilrights for future events in the upcoming year!