3E LARR Projects:Advocacy Groups

Advocacy Groups

The passion of many environmental and community groups has been a driving force in efforts to revitalize the Los Angeles River for the past two decades. Many of these groups have inspired, initiated, developed, and/or sponsored projects along the River.

	Alianza de los Pueblos del Río The Alianza de Los Pueblos del Rio, was formed in 2005 and is a coalition of various groups that include, The City project, Anahuak Youth Soccer Association, Mujeres De La Tierra, Re- Mapping L.A. , and The William C. Velasquez Institute

	Anahuak Youth Soccer Association Anahuak Youth Soccer Association is a nonprofit children's sports organization. It provides group team soccer opportunities to children whose families cannot afford the fees charged by other local programs. Anahuak was started seven years ago by its president and concerned community members living in Cypress Park and Glassell Park. Anahuak provides children with uniforms, soccer shoes, and a structured league to play. This Soccer organization attempts to end the cycle of despair and self-destructive behavior of youth has resulted in very positive benefits to the families and communities of Northern Los Angeles.

	Audubon Center at Debs Park Audubon California is dedicated to protecting birds and other wildlife and the habitat that supports them. Audubon California was formed in 1997 as the National Audubon Society's California Field Office. Audubon's mission is to conserve and restore natural ecosystems, focusing on birds, other wildlife, and their habitats for the benefit of humanity and the earth's biological diversity.

	Friends of Atwater Village Friends of Atwater Village was founded in May 2000 by a group of concerned citizens. The organization works to protect the integrity of the entire Atwater Village community by: Preserving and promoting local history; advocating rational development that serves the community's best interest socially, culturally, economically and environmentally; encouraging community involvement in neighborhood cleanups as well as Los Angeles River cleanups; establishing broad based communication and a sense of community; encouraging responsible urban gardening / landscaping and community plantings.

	Friends of the Los Angeles River FOLAR is a non-profit organization founded in 1986, whose mission is to protect and restore the natural and historic heritage of the Los Angeles River and its riparian habitat through inclusive planning, education and wise stewardship.

	Heal the Bay Heal the Bay is a nonprofit environmental organization dedicated to making Southern California coastal waters and watersheds, including Santa Monica Bay, safe, healthy and clean. They use research, education, community action and advocacy to pursue their mission.

	Los Angeles Audobon Society The mission of Los Angeles Audubon is to promote the enjoyment and protection of birds and other wildlife through recreation, education, conservation and restoration.

	Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers Watershed Council Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers Watershed Council is a non-profit organization of community groups, government agencies, business and academia working cooperatively to solve problems in the watershed. Its mission is to facilitate an inclusive consensus process to preserve, restore, and enhance the economic, social, and ecological health of the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers Watershed through education, research, and planning.

	Natural Resources Defense Council The NRDC is the nation's most effective environmental action organization. They use law, science and the support of 1.2 million members and online activists to protect the planet's wildlife and wild places and to ensure a safe and healthy environment for all living things. NRDC was founded in 1970 by a group of law students and attorneys at the forefront of the environmental movement. With the support of our members and online activists, NRDC works to solve the most pressing environmental issues we face today: curbing global warming, getting toxic chemicals out of the environment, moving America beyond oil, reviving our oceans, saving wildlife and wild places, and helping China go green.

	North East Trees North East Trees is a nonprofit environmental and youth education organization with a mission "to restore nature's services to improve the quality of life in resource-challenged communities." Founded nearly 20 years ago, North East Trees has planted over 30,000 trees, created over 35 parks and other landscape improvements including habitat restoration along the Los Angeles River and across Los Angeles County, and engaged, trained and employed thousands of local youth to achieve this mission. While tree plantings are still critical to fulfilling the mission, North East Trees also designs and builds parks and landscape improvements that restore habitat while developing neighborhood and community capacity to nurture or steward these improvements and the environment in general.

	Parks for People This is an initiative of the Trust for Public Land, previously mentioned above, that TPL works with community leaders to identify opportunities for park creation, secure park funding, and acquire parklands. TPL's participatory design process ensures that parks meet community needs. TPL's Center for City Park Excellence produces research and reports to make the case that parks are as essential to community health as schools, clean water, and hospitals.

	Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy was established by the California State Legislature in 1980. Since that time, it has helped to preserve over 60,000 acres of parkland in both wilderness and urban settings, and improved more than 114 public recreational facilities throughout Southern California. Additionally, it has given grants to nonprofit organizations for educational and interpretation programs that have served hundreds of thousands of children and other park visitors. Through direct action, alliances, partnerships, and joint powers authorities, the Conservancy's mission is to strategically buy back, preserve, protect, restore, and enhance treasured pieces of Southern California to form an interlinking system of urban, rural and river parks, open space, trails, and wildlife habitats that are easily accessible to the general public.

	The River Project The River Project is a non-profit organization dedicated to planning for natural resource protection, conservation and enhancement in Los Angeles County. Their mission is to encourage responsible management of our watershed lands and revitalization of our rivers for the social, economic and environmental benefit of our communities. Through outreach, advocacy, scientific research and hands-on educational programs, they provide communities with the tools to reclaim their riverfront lands.

	The Trust for Public Land The Trust for Public Land is a national, nonprofit, land conservation organization that conserves land for people to enjoy as parks, community gardens, historic sites, rural lands, and other natural places, ensuring livable communities for generations to come. Since 1972, TPL has worked with willing landowners, community groups, and national, state, and local agencies to complete more than 3,500 land conservation projects in 47 states, protecting 2.5 million acres. Since 1994, TPL has helped states and communities craft and pass over 330 ballot measures, generating almost $25 billion in new conservation-related funding.

	TreePeople TreePeople is a nonprofit organization that has been serving the Los Angeles area for over three decades. Their work is about "helping nature heal our cities". They offer sustainable solutions to urban ecosystem problems, focusing on three areas: training and supporting communities to plant and care for trees; educating school children and adults about the environment; and working with government agencies on critical water issues.

	Urban Semillas Urban Semillas is a community-based, watershed-driven organization promoting socially-conscientious reconnaissance and outreach services. Their overarching goal is to educate underserved and monolingual (Spanish-speaking) communities about watershed and social justice issues, and to provide these with community-building skills, thus empowering them to actively participate in local, citywide, statewide, and nationwide planning and policy development.