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About L.A. REPAIR

Los Angeles has some of the lowest income and highest need areas in the country resulting from years of structural and institutional racism. These inequities were further made apparent as the COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately impacted our low-income communities of color.

The Fiscal Year 2021-22 Adopted Budget included $10M to launch the Los Angeles Reforms for Equity and Public Acknowledgment of Institutional Racism (L.A. REPAIR) Innovation Fund, which includes the City’s first participatory budgeting pilot, designed to empower nine (9) communities, called REPAIR Zones, with the decision-making power to allocate approximately $8.5M through a participatory process. Participatory Budgeting is the most direct way to enable marginalized and historically disempowered groups to decide on investment priorities for their communities.

 

Unlike the majority of participatory budgeting programs implemented by other government entities, L.A. REPAIR is geared towards providing dollars for programming versus capital projects. Programs created by community-based partners will be prioritized, and the intent is to direct funding to the most impactful services based on ideas from underserved communities.

Timeline

The City of Los Angeles will be rolling out the L.A. REPAIR Participatory Budgeting pilot program in two groups. Each group will repeat the same process for different L.A. REPAIR Zones. 

There are five steps to participatory budgeting:

Graphic showing the cycle of LA REPAIR Participatory budgeting
  • Design: L.A. REPAIR Steering Committee and Advisory Committees, made up of community members from each L.A. REPAIR Zone, come together to write the rules that will govern the process.
  • Idea Collection: After the rules are written, we enter the project brainstorming phase. This is where Advisory Committees and community partners help collect ideas on how each REPAIR Zone should spend their portion of the L.A. REPAIR funds. 

  • Proposal Development: Once the ideas have been collected, Advisory Committees work alongside city staff to create criteria for how to solicit program implementation proposals from community-based organizations (CBOs). CBOs will submit proposals on how to implement the ideas, and final proposals will be prepared for a vote.

  • Vote: Finally, each community votes! Everyone in the REPAIR Zone is given an opportunity to have their voice heard and cast a vote on a project they would like to see funded. The projects that receive the most votes get funded.

  • Implementation: Then, it’s time to fund and implement the winning projects.

The First Group: Boyle Heights,  Mission Hills - Panorama City - North Hills, and Southeast Los Angeles

  • Idea Generation (Summer-Fall 2022): The Advisory Committees in these three REPAIR Zones will facilitate public deliberations where community members will discuss their priority issues and opportunities and brainstorm project ideas.
  • Proposal Development (Winter 2022): The Advisory Committees will share problem statements for each selected project, and help community-based organizations draft and submit proposed solutions (projects/programs) complete with project descriptions, cost estimates, expectations for the project’s impact, and timelines. 
  • The Vote (Spring 2023): Residents will vote on which proposals to fund.
  • Project Implementation (Summer 2023-completion): Winning projects will be funded and implemented.

The Second Group: Arleta - Pacoima, Harbor Gateway - Wilmington - Harbor City, Westlake, West Adams - Baldwin Village - Leimert Park, Skid Row, South Los Angeles

  • Idea Generation (Summer 2023): The Advisory Committees in these three REPAIR Zones will facilitate public deliberations where community members will discuss their priority issues and opportunities and brainstorm project ideas.
  • Proposal Development (Fall 2023): The Advisory Committees will share problem statements for each selected project, and help community-based organizations draft and submit proposed solutions (projects/programs) complete with project descriptions, cost estimates, expectations for the project’s impact, and timelines. 
  • The Vote (Winter-Spring 2024): Residents will vote on which proposals to fund.
  • Project Implementation (Summer 2024 - completion): Winning projects will be funded and implemented.