Come build community with LA Forward Institute community members who are doing amazing things in LA. Our City Hall Academy participants will have just finished 2.5 months of workshops exploring opportunities to work for City Council offices, and separately, our Unarmed Crisis Response working group has built a context in which LA City Council expanded the city’s much-needed Unarmed Models of Crisis Response program – even with a budget deficit. Find out more from our incredible community members, in-person! Join us in Silverlake at Jay’s Bar.

LA Forward Institute is launching its first Deep Canvassing Academy— a cohort-based opportunity to practice deep canvassing skills and build a community of people committed to making deep canvassing a more regular part of our ecosystem of civic engagement in LA.  Learn more about deep canvassing and this academy opportunity here.

We will be meeting in Sherman Oaks, exact location coming soon. Sign up for our June 4 info session below.

Join LA Forward Institute's Housing Justice Working Group for important updates on two major developments concerning LA City's Rent Stabilization Ordinance (LARSO) and the Venice Dell Community affordable housing project. Learn where things stand, what’s coming next, and how you can stay involved in shaping the future of affordable housing in Los Angeles. RSVP below or click here. 

LA Forward Institute is launching its first Deep Canvassing Academy— a cohort-based opportunity to practice deep canvassing skills and build a community of people committed to making deep canvassing a more regular part of our ecosystem of civic engagement in LA.  Learn more about deep canvassing and this academy opportunity here.

We will be meeting in Westside, and the address will be shared upon RSVP. Sign up for our June 1 info session below.

LA Forward Institute is launching its first Deep Canvassing Academy— a cohort-based opportunity to practice deep canvassing skills and build a community of people committed to making deep canvassing a more regular part of our ecosystem of civic engagement in LA.  Learn more about deep canvassing and this academy opportunity here.

We will be meeting in East Hollywood, location coming soon. Sign up for our May 27 info session below.

LA City Council will vote on final amendments for the city's budget on May 22, so Wednesday, May 21 will be our final opportunity to speak out on the City of Los Angeles 2025-26 budget! Come share your story, advocate for your neighborhood, and stand with others fighting for a more equitable Los Angeles. Let’s show up strong and make sure our communities are seen and heard!

Never given public comment before? We have all the tools you need to prepare. RSVP below to join us. 

The South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) is an incredibly powerful 13-member air quality regulatory agency that has jurisdiction over a vast region that’s home to 17 million people — nearly half of California’s total population: most of Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Orange Counties. As we continue to advocate for climate justice in Southern California, we cannot exclude this entity from our advocacy. Learn more from environmental justice lawyer Fernando Gaytan, including ways you can advocate as soon as June for a more accountable and responsible climate policy. Join us to plug in! RSVP below, or here for the Zoom.

Join us at LA-Forward's popup during CicLAvia to share your vision for the future of Los Angeles! CicLAvia is the perfect place to be inspired by what our city could look like if our streets were designed to be playgrounds for people. Stop by our booth to share what you want LA to look, feel, and smell like in the future. Your input could help shape the Capital Improvement Plan!

Join us for our May Monthly Meeting! This is your chance to get updates on our work around climate, housing, unarmed crisis response, transportation and more. Plus, this month we’re spotlighting the Olympics. The 2028 Summer games are being promoted as a win for Los Angeles — but what do they actually mean for our communities? Join us along with journalist Alissa Walker for a critical conversation about the true costs of the games.

RSVP below or at this link.

Since LA Forward members began advocating for Unarmed Models of Crisis Response (UMCR), we not only have seen the Mayor's draft continue current UCMR services; we've also seen council offices ask about its possible EXPANSION and/or making it a more permanent city service vis a vis a possible Department of Community Safety. With all of these new variables in play at the last minute, what are we advocating for in the last 10 days of budget advocacy with City Council? Join us to plug in! RSVP below, or here for the Zoom. 

Some of us tenants already benefit from RSO policies in LA City, but did you know they can be a whole lot better for us? LA Forward Institute has signed-on in support of Keep LA Housed's work to improve LA City's Rent Stabilization Ordinance (LARSO). Come find out more about why it's important to revise our city's RSO policies, what's been done to move the needle to improve tenant protections, and why we need YOU to prioritize advocacy opportunities at the Housing and Homelessness Committee in the coming weeks. Now is the time to plug in! RSVP below, or at this link.

Join LA Forward Institute's Housing Justice working group to catch up on all things related to housing justice campaigns we're supporting! In particular, get updates on our work to win social housing for LA County; current threats against ULA; the latest on rent stabilization in LA; state legislation that aims to support renter protections and affordable housing production, and more! RSVP below, or HERE.

Spring Into Action supports LA Forward’s work to build the people power needed to advance justice. Join us for a celebratory afternoon of food, drinks, and time to connect with members of the LA Forward community and progressive leaders from across Los Angeles.

Click here for more info and to purchase tickets!

Join us for the latest on LA City's Capital Improvement Plan process. In addition to updates, we want to start making sure we specifically capture this community's interests and perspectives on high-level things we want the CIP to accomplish! Knowing this information will help us advocate for important outcomes this group seeks out of a CIP. RSVP for the Zoom below, or here.

Join us on Monday, April 28th at 1pm to give public comment in support of continued funding for critical unarmed crisis response!!

In March 2024, the City of Los Angeles launched the Unarmed Model of Crisis Response pilot program. This program operates in 6 police divisions and diverts 6 types of non-violent 911 calls to unarmed mental health responders instead of traditional police. After a year of operation, this program has proved to be a success, diverting thousands of calls while resolving 96% of calls without police involvement – all with an average response time of 28 minutes, four times quicker than county programs can be deployed.

Despite the success of this program and promise from city officials, the UMCR pilot faces elimination due to the City’s budget crisis. Make your voice heard and tell LA City Council they must continue to fund this essential program!

Never given public comment before? Don’t worry! We have all the tools you need. Sign up below to receive logistical information about meeting on Friday.

Join us on Friday, April 25th at 1pm to give public comment in support of continued funding for critical unarmed crisis response!!

In March 2024, the City of Los Angeles launched the Unarmed Model of Crisis Response pilot program. This program operates in 6 police divisions and diverts 6 types of non-violent 911 calls to unarmed mental health responders instead of traditional police. After a year of operation, this program has proved to be a success, diverting thousands of calls while resolving 96% of calls without police involvement – all with an average response time of 28 minutes, four times quicker than county programs can be deployed.

Despite the success of this program and promise from city officials, the UMCR pilot faces elimination due to the City’s budget crisis. Make your voice heard and tell LA City Council they must continue to fund this essential program!

Never given public comment before? Don’t worry! We have all the tools you need. Sign up below to receive logistical information about meeting on Friday.

Metro has committed twenty lots to the development of 10,000 units of affordable housing -- so why not make it social housing: permanently affordable, with the intent of being community-owned and -governed, and protected from a housing market running amok? Learn more about two REAL opportunities to turn either the Canoga or Balboa Metro Stations into standard-bearers for new social housing development in LA, and find out what you can do to support these efforts! We have just a few months to win this incredible opportunity for our entire city. Join LA Forward Institute and our ACT-LA partners on Zoom by RSVPing below or here.

On April 21st, Mayor Bass' office will publicly share a proposal of a 2025-26 budget for the City of LA, one that must take into account a projected BILLION dollar deficit. Want to take a first peek at her proposed budget? You don't have to do it alone! Learn where you can find it, how you might understand it, and develop your own opinion at this nerdiest of nerdy civic happy hours. Bring a laptop or iPad (or even a smartphone could do), and join other community members as we explore her draft proposal for the first time. RSVP below, or HERE.

Note: This is more like a community space and office hours, where you're invited to drop in whenever you want and connect with community members trying to wrap their heads around the same thousand pages of budget. It's not a panel or teach-in, but the best way to learn the budget is to look through it yourself and discuss emerging thoughts in community! We'll have folks on hand to make sure you are looking at the appropriate documents. This event will be at Lawless Brewing in North Hollywood, where you can grab food/drinks too! 

It’s tax day! You’ve done it — you filed your taxes (or maybe you’re waiting until extended deadline of Oct. 15). But what are our taxes even paying for?! Join us for our April Monthly Meeting where we’ll be diving into LA City and California BUDGETS! On April 21, the proposed budget for the City of LA will be made public. Now is the time to understand what it all means and how the budget impacts the lives of everyday Angelenos. We’ll be joined by special guests LA City Controller Kenneth Mejia and Chris Hoene, Executive Director of California Budget & Policy Center. 

RSVP for the Monthly Meeting below, or at this link.

Forty LA Forward community members steeped themselves in local campaigns for rent stabilization, affordable housing, social housing, and more. Join (or return to!) the conversation, with updates on organizing work around zoning reform; state fights around rent caps; LARSO (the LA rent stabilization ordinance), and more. Register for the Zoom below, or click here.

Last week, we launched a campaign to save LA City's Unarmed Model of Crisis Response program from the chopping block, ahead of a huge city budget crisis that seeks to close a $1 billion deficit. Join us again to debrief the actions we've taken -- emailing key decisionmakers and making public comment in public meetings -- and help lean into strategic next steps as we countdown just three weeks until the Mayor reveals her budget recommendations! RSVP below or here.

Join us on Friday, March 28 at 1pm to give public comment in support of continued funding for critical unarmed crisis response!

In March 2024, the City of Los Angeles launched the Unarmed Model of Crisis Response pilot program. This program operates in 6 police divisions and diverts 6 types of non-violent 911 calls to unarmed mental health responders instead of traditional police. After a year of operation, this program has proved to be a success, diverting thousands of calls while resolving 96% of calls without police involvement – all with an average response time of 28 minutes, four times quicker than county programs can be deployed.

Despite the success of this program and promise from city officials, the UMCR pilot faces elimination due to the City’s budget crisis. Make your voice heard and tell LA City Council they must continue to fund this essential program!

Never given public comment before? Don’t worry! We have all the tools you need. Sign up below to receive logistical information about meeting on Friday.

One year ago, LA City launched a pilot to divert 6 different call types from LAPD to unarmed crisis response services, including for calls requiring mental health support, substance abuse help, and more. In one year, the UMCR (Unarmed Model of Crisis Response) pilot has diverted more than 6,037 calls from the police to provide 8,339 touchpoints of service -- with 96% of those calls avoiding law enforcement capacity completely. But having demonstrated emerging success for this unarmed diversion program, why would LA think about cutting this program? Is this program in danger during upcoming conversations? Haven't Angelenos been calling for this program for years? Learn more and help us keep this program going -- and growing -- in LA city. RSVP below or here.

Join us for our third Climate Justice working group meeting of the year. We'll feature special guests from Sunrise Movement LA (working on local legislation) and the Make Polluters Pay movement (working on state legislation), as well as hear back from working group members who have met with multiple city offices to triangulate next steps around LA City's Climate Action and Adaptation Plan. Whether you've joined us in our previous meetings or are brand new, come join us, learn from other climate justice leaders, and jump into our organizing efforts. RSVP below or here.

LA Forward community members plugged into a lot of local housing justice work in 2024: advocating for Venice Dell; building a movement for social housing; supporting funding initiatives like Measure A; pushing for affordable housing in single-family-zoned areas; and more! On Saturday, March 15, from 10am-3pm, we're getting organized for 2025! We invite all our community members interested in housing justice advocacy across LA City and LA County to come in-person for community-building, hear from local housing justice groups about upcoming opportunities for change in 2025, and decide how they'd like to be involved in the coming months. Lunch provided. This event was rescheduled from February 22. Sign up below.

Last month, LA Forward Institute community members started diving into Mayor Bass' Executive Director 9, which creates a path to create a Capital Improvement Plan for the City of LA -- a backwards-planned vision to ensure that LA has the sidewalks, streets, lights, parks and overall infrastructure it needs to serve all Angelenos with excellent and equitable neighborhood systems across the city. Since our first teach-in, LA Forward community members have met with a handful of council offices and members of the Mayor's office, and want to report back about what they learned, so that we can figure out what advocacy steps we want to take next. Join us to catch-up on the latest around the CIP, and to learn what role(s) you can take to help ensure the CIP process is transparent, equitable, and one that engages as much public voice as possible. RSVP below, or here.

Join members in the Sawtelle area who have been building community through monthly meetings since March 2024. If you're in or around Sawtelle and want to connect with other community members wanting to make your neighborhood more and more of the neighborhood you know it can be, RSVP below. We will also debrief our January community canvassing efforts. This event is hosted in-person by a fellow Sawtelle resident! Address will be shared upon RSVP!

Dive into the real impact of federal actions on Angelenos and what is being done at the local level to push back. For this monthly meeting, we will be joined by a guest speaker who will provide firsthand insights on the challenges we face and the strategies being implemented to defend against the harmful policies of the Trump administration. This is a chance to ask questions, learn about ongoing efforts, and discover ways you can take meaningful action. Staying plugged in is how we build power. Whether you’re new to LA Forward or a longtime member, we welcome you!

RSVP for the Monthly Meeting below, or at this link.

Immigrants have been, are, and will continue to be an integral part of the fabric of our LA communities! Many of us have been attending (or holding!) Know Your Rights trainings, joining rapid response networks, and engaging with some level of direct support, but what policy solutions can be passed locally to support immigrants? Join us as we learn from leaders of the Immigrants Are LA coalition about their work to support and protect immigrants through policy -- and maybe you'll get some new ideas for fighting for justice in LA! RSVP below, or here.

For the last few months, people in LA have been asking difficult questions like: "Is this a city?" "Does it have a government?" "What is the firetruck situation -- does the city have them or are we supposed to have our own?" “Can you put a fire hose on a normal car?" With LA Power Hour, former public employee Hayes Davenport looks into these questions and more, bringing together LA’s leaders and entertainers to either fix the city or start a new one.

Featuring Demi Adejuyigbe, Jason Concepcion, Krystle Drew, Andrew Ti

Purchase tickets HERE.

Hayes Davenport is the host of the podcast Hollywood Handbook, a TV writer (Family Guy, Eastbound and Down), a former staffer at LA City Hall, and the writer of the newsletter Big City Heat.

Doors at 7:00pm, show starts at 7:30pm

Seating begins 15 minutes before showtime, there is NO LATE SEATING. Seats are assigned on a first come first served basis, from the front of the theatre to the back. If you want to sit closer, be sure to arrive earlier.

Shows start no later than 10 MINUTES after the scheduled show time.