Contact Us: 310.399.1631
235 Hill Street, Santa Monica
Built on a progressive past, forging a just and inclusive future. Hosted by the United Methodist Church
Kid City Quince
Kid City is turning 15! And we are celebrating our Quince with a fundraiser and luncheon, hosted by longtime supporter Byron Hayes in the private Toluca Lake park! Hope to see you there!
Tickets available here. Donations also welcome! Click Here for Details
"Where Has All The (affordable) Housing Gone?": In search of lost rent control housing in Venice
Closing celebration for the exhibit: Sat, November 4 - 1-5:
Calaveras poetry workshop, 1-3:30, including reading the poems – a joint workshop with Beyond Baroque, SPY, and SPARC for Dia de los Muertos that will be fun/provocative – please come at 1 sharp to join.
Tours of the show 2:30 and 4:30pm;
Poetry reading and conversation with housing activists 3-4:30
Snacks and drinks throughout.
Open Sunday, Nov 5 - noon-5pm
If anyone is interested in coming by as an individual or group during the week, please call Judy at 310-392-2076
More about the project: https://thevenicebeachhead.com/2023/04/07/where-has-all-the-affordable-housing-gone/
Take Action With Community Supporters of Starbucks Workers United
Monday, August 7th is a national day of action in support of organizing Starbucks workers.
Please join us at a one-hour leafletting event at one of the Starbucks in Santa Monica.
Details are still in formation but if you are interested in joining us please contact Judy at sycamorecity@gmail.com
More information on the campaign: https://sbworkersunited.org/bussin
In Santa Monica: Land Was Taken, Homes Destroyed.
How Should The Land Be Used Now?

The Committee for Racial Justice Housing Committee brings this information and petition.
As the “urban renewal” movement gained momentum in the mid twentieth century it bulldozed places associated with Black American history. At the same time, Black American communities in California were also under active attack by highway construction, discriminatory lending, eminent domain, gentrification and many other destructive policies. Gentrification has paved the way for officials to use eminent domain to destroy Black communities they claimed were blighted. Santa Monica’s Civic Auditorium and the 10 Freeway are monuments that symbolize the displacement of Black American communities in the city. We need Santa Monica to create a reparations program to nearly two thousand plots of land taken from Black American families.
Now the city is selling the auditorium and land. Help our city commit to the action they promised in their Public Apology, to support efforts to restore this land to provide affordable housing and opportunities for families displaced to build generational wealth.
Santa Monica has an opportunity right now to restore the Civic Center as homes for a community that the city displaced, but will they do it?
Please read this petition and sign it and spread the word. Help us be a City that is doing the right thing! Thank you!
Here is the link: https://chng.it/6r7n2wmq
In Los Angeles: Just Trying to Make Ends Meet
Writers, Actors, UPS Workers, Nurses and Hospitality Workers should be treated with respect. Workers who are the backbone of major economic engines can’t afford to live here and struggle to make ends meet. As tourism workers welcome people to L.A., help ensure that they are able to live here as well.
For More information, and to sign the petition, Click here!
Take Action with Our Longtime Friends at Unite Here Local 11
Our friends at UNITE HERE Local 11, thousands of cooks, room attendants, dishwashers, servers, bellmen, and front desk agents at multiple hotels, walked out on July 3rd in the largest multi-hotel strike in the local's history - and have asked for our help in the following three specific ways.
Adopt a picket line
Please consider adopting one or more picket lines--either as an individual or as an organization. You will pick a geographic area (or more than one) that fits your community on the sign up sheet, and if a strike is called you will be assigned to a specific hotel in that area by committing to at least one two-hour shift a week to walk the line and visit workers and committing to bring refreshments to the picket line (coffee, snacks, pizza, etc.).
Send a message to the Fairmont (Miramar) Hotel and city officials
Click this link to send an email to the Fairmont telling them you stand with the workers.
Call the Fairmont at 310 319 3152 and tell them you stand with the workers.
During the pandemic, hotels received $15 billion in federal bailouts and cut jobs and guest services such as daily room cleaning. In 2023, hotel profits in Los Angeles and Orange County surpassed pre-pandemic levels. Yet hospitality workers struggle to afford a place to live in the cities where they work and are forced to move further away because wages are not keeping pace with the cost of housing. In a UNITE HERE Local 11 survey, 53% of workers said that they either have moved in the past 5 years or will move soon because of soaring housing costs.
Their demands?
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Historic raises that keep members in the communities they work
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Affordable family healthcare
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Pension that will enable workers to retire with dignity
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Fair and humane workload.
Take Action with Keep LA Housed
Did you know that in LA County...
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279,810 households currently have rent debt
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There are 280,900 children living in households with rent debt
In the City of LA, the first repayment deadline is right around the corner (see chart below)... For many, it's been a struggle to make current rent payments, let alone pay back debt accumulated during the pandemic. If we don't address this debt, it could lead to another spike in evictions and homelessness.
We want to collect more data to better advocate for all of those in debt and help you stay housed.
Take Action With Santa Monica Climate Corps (ages 15-21)
Climate Action Santa Monica is currently hiring with open positions available. We have partnered with the City of Santa Monica to create a workforce development program that aims to engage underserved youth, including low-income, foster, justice-involved, and unemployed. CASM's mission is to build community and careers in support of climate action.
Each role is part-time and lasts 6 months. Climate Corps members who complete the program are eligible to earn a $300 honorarium. Returning Corps can apply as team leaders.
Apply Now! https://climateactionsantamonica.org/jobs-at-casm/
Take Action With Stay Housed LA for Eviction Protection
Stay Housed L.A. has the resources tenants need to know their rights and the legal support to back them up.
COVID protections ended March 31, 2023. You must pay your rent on time and in full starting April 1, 2023!
If you have received an unlawful detainer you only have 5 days to answer. To get help, click here. For immediate assistance, call 1-888-694-0040.
Learn About Tenant Rights in LA with Keep LA Housed
Take Action with JusticeLA in 2023
Join JusticeLA for Virtual actions on Mondays and/or Wednesdays
sign up at http://jlanow.org/vasignup
Join “Where Has All the Housing Gone?” and search for the lost affordable housing in Venice
“Where Has All The Housing Gone?” is a participatory, community-based art project starting in early February that will investigate the loss of affordable housing in Venice.
We will research, take photos of, and write about the many rent control homes that have been taken off the market– and develop our writing and photo-taking skills at the same time with local poets, artists, and photographers. We’ll also interview people who can help tell the story. The project is organized by Judy Branfman with Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center in Venice.
We’ll develop an exhibit, in Beyond Baroque’s gallery and online, a zine, and readings and events out of the materials we produce. The project will begin in early February 2023 – and we’ll meet on Saturday mornings, eat, share our stories and do some research, photo/writing skill-building, and go out into Venice to take photos and write. Small stipends will be available.
If this sounds interesting or fun to you, let’s talk – we’d love to hear from you!
Please contact Judy at sycamorecity@gmail.com or 310-392-2076
or Beyond Baroque at 310-922-3006
Take Action with the Coalition to Free Ruchell Magee!
Harold Weston spoke with the Church in Ocean Park last February about the plight of Ruchell Magee. Well it's more than a year later, and he is still imprisoned!! Magee was unjustly captured in 1962 and given trumped-up charges. He is now 82 years old, forced to suffer mentally and physically due to the poor conditions inside California’s prison camps. Ruchell needs our support and action so that he can be released, spend time with his loved ones, and better his community.
Harold Welton has organized with the Southern California Chapter of the Black Panther Party, the East Los Angeles College Black Student Union, Los Angeles SNCC, Jonathan Jackson Educational Cadre, union organizer with SEIU Local 99, and Black August LA. Harold is imploring us to take action now ~ Call Governor Newsom Today.
Take Action with STAND LA and South LA Activists
The City of Los Angeles continues to delay and deny health and safety protections for South LA residents plagued by the Murphy oil drill site. Earlier this year residents asked for three protections the City mandated for wealthier, whiter, West LA drill sites more than 20-years ago:
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Enclose the drill site to keep toxic gasses out of neighboring homes and schools.
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Require electric workover rigs instead of diesel
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Power the drill site with an electric utility connection instead of burning methane
The City continues to delay and deny justice for South LA. Please click on the link to call on Mayor Garcetti and Planning Director Bertoni to end decades of disparate and discriminatory treatment and then share the link with your friends and groups on social media.
Take Action With the Poor People’s Campaign
Urge Gov. Newsom to make history and
support over half a million workers
Earlier this year we reported on AB 257 (aka the FAST Recovery Act), a landmark piece of legislation that would give workers a seat at the table with global corporations like McDonald’s, Burger King and Jack in the Box—empowering those workers to set industry-wide standards like wages, benefits and working conditions.
After passing in the California Assembly, the bill must now clear the State Senate before it lands on Governor Newsom’s desk. By signing AB 257 into law, the governor would be supporting historic legislation that would create the opportunity for economic equity and worker power for more than half a million fast-food workers.
You can help! Learn more about the bill in this Vox.com article and sign this petition asking the Governor to sign AB 257.
Take Action With LA County Housing Activists
If approved, SB 679 would create the L.A. County Affordable Housing Solutions Agency: a single affordable housing solutions agency in Los Angeles County with the ability to raise its own public and private revenue to fund systemic solutions to the countywide affordable housing crisis, including 100% affordable housing and renter protection programs. To read more about SB 679, click here.
SB 679 has cleared the State Senate and been approved by all State Assembly committees. The legislature has until August 31 to approve the legislation, and then the Governor must sign the bill. There are a few Assemblymembers who have not confirmed their support, which is necessary for SB 679 to succeed. Take 30 seconds today to fill out this email template and send it to key legislators!
Take Action With Reform LA Jails: Cancel The Contract
The Reform LA Jails coalition is meeting with Supervisor Barger and want her to advocate for the Antelope Valley Union High School District to be included as one of the pilot programs to provide services to improve safety and culture in schools – services that don't include School Resource Deputies. Some of the services that will be in place are: healing-informed trainings, social/emotional training, and additional staff (that are NOT School Resource Deputies) to improve school climate, peer leadership training for youth, and technical assistance to support the development of a safety plan with clear roles and responsibilities.
Students from the Antelope Valley Union High School District have suffered for far too long at the hands of law enforcement violence in our schools. Recently, Black students made up 16.7% of the student population in the district, yet they received over half of all law enforcement contacts. We owe it to them to fight for their safety and wellbeing.
Will you take a moment to help flood Supervisor Barger's inbox #CareOverCops
Take Action With United To House LA
United To House LA is an exciting ballot initiative we will get to vote on this November, creating a one-time tax for millionaires, billionaires, and corporations that only kicks in when they sell properties in LA for more than $5 million. It would immediately provide housing for people living on the streets, send emergency assistance to low-income seniors in danger of becoming homeless, protect renters from illegal harassment and rent hikes, and provide legal aid to renters. The measure would be implemented with the strongest oversight in LA’s history.
We only have three months until election day -
Learn More and Volunteer https://unitedtohousela.com/
Take Action With The CA Community Land Trust Network
The CA Community Land Trust Network is sponsoring a bill, AB 1837, that will fight displacement and strengthen community ownership. Check out our fact sheet for details on the bill.
Real estate investors who are profiting on the status quo are trying to sink our bill so we need your help to get us through the Senate Appropriations Committee. We've prepared an online letter that you can submit to the Appropriations Committee.
Take Action with Stay Housed LA
L.A. County has had laws to protect tenants affected by COVID-19 throughout the pandemic.
And Stay Housed L.A. has been there to make sure tenants know their rights along the way.
On July 1st, new tenant protection changes for the county went into effect that renters should know about.
To help tenants understand these changes better and protect themselves check out StayHousedLA.org
Take Action With the National Coalition Against Censorship and the New York Film Academy
The National Coalition Against Censorship and New York Film Academy invite films from filmmakers under 19, responding to:
WHAT DOES FREE SPEECH MEAN TO ME?
Create a video (up to 3 minutes) using film, animation, photographs, music, or anything else to explore what free speech means to you–a student, a citizen, a human.
Be thoughtful. Be creative. Be original. Be uncensored.
Details, terms and conditions at ncac.org/film-contest
Take Virtual Action With Justice LA
Date & Time: Twice each week:
Mondays,10:30am - 12:00pm PT
Wednesdays, 6:30pm - 8:30pm PT
Location: Zoom, register here
Details: Join us in action to lift up and organize around demands from JusticeLA and coalition partners calling for defunding law enforcement, decarceration, and investment in community-based Alternatives to Incarceration. It all happens right there - context, training, collective action + recruitment, debrief, and next steps.
TAKE ACTION WITH THE STOP LAPD SPYING COALITION
#KnowYourFight Community Webinar Series
Date & Time: Every Tuesday, 6:00pm PT
Location: Online, Zoom link available here
Details: Join the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition in this weekly webinar series to dive deeper into Los Angeles policing through a lens of surveillance and counterinsurgency. Each week focuses on a different topic - for more information on this week's webinar, check out their calendar here
Take Action With Reimagine LA
Email the Board of Supervisors demanding full finding and transparency in year two of the Care First Community Investment (CFCI) FORMERLY KNOWN as Measure J!
Take Action With Code Pink
Meet members of congress, policy-makers, and grassroots activists – and take action to champion progressive peace legislation.
Join twice-monthly Zooms (1st and 3rd Tuesdays of each month, 5pm Pacific).
Sign up for CODEPINK Congress to receive info on our bi-monthly peace actions: codepink.org/codepinkcongress
Take Action With BAJI, the Black Alliance for Just Immigration
END TITLE 42 TODAY
Date & Time: ASAP
Location: Anywhere; toolkit here
Details: On April 1st, 2022, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that on May 23rd the Biden administration would be ending Title 42, the Trump-era pandemic restrictions that effectively blocked migrants from entering the United States. The administration was responding to years of advocacy from immigrants' rights groups, including BAJI, and directly impacted people against this racist and harmful policy. About 1.8 million people have been expelled and turned away at the border using the Title 42 policy. A Louisiana judge ruled on May 20th that the Biden administration must continue implementing Title 42. Following this decision BAJI and our allies maintain our everlasting position that the Biden administration and legislators must work toward codifying an end to Title 42."
Use this toolkit to reach out to legislators and amplify BAJI's demands.
Take Action With Black Lives Matter LA
#EndPoliceAssociations RALLY
Date & Time: Every Wednesday, 4:00 - 6:00pm PT
Location: 1313 West 8th Street

Details: Join Black Lives Matter - Los Angeles in favor of progressive justice reform. This is an in-person action, please show up masked and stay socially distant.
Take Action With Housing Activists Across California
Take Action With Housing Activists Across California
We have 10 days to pass AB 2050 out of the Assembly.
We must amend the Ellis Act and end speculator evictions in California.
ACCE has updated their tool to quickly and easily contact our potential supporters here.
Take Action With Justice LA
Pending legislation in California — Senate Bill 1338 — would establish what is being called “CARE Courts”. The proposal would give the state and persons without mental health expertise the power to initiate a process to force anyone into court-ordered treatment, while calling it care. If a person refuses to participate in forced treatment, or the treatment is not deemed "successful", the CARE Courts will have the power to impose hospitalization, state conservatorship, forced medication, and criminal penalties, again while calling it care. SB 1338 is not actually care, but a statewide sweep of unhoused people and a gross violation of human rights that targets Black, Brown and Indigenous communities. Please take action to stop SB 1338 this week. #CareNotCourt
Poor People's Campaign:
A National Call for Moral Revival
Take Action With Veterans For Peace
Please support Veterans For Peace’s bill to reduce the overall environmental impact of military activities and missions - and to monitor and report greenhouse gas emissions from all of its operations.
Take Action With Black Lives Matter LA
#PeoplesBudgetLA wants to know how you want YOUR tax dollars to be spent.
The People’s Budget LA is a coalition led by BLMLA demanding a city budget that invests in the wellbeing of our communities with a priority on supporting Black people.
Make your voice heard by participating in this survey to help create a People’s Budget.
Please participate in the survey here
Take Action With Reimagine LA
In just the past few weeks, our neighbors and community members held a Town Hall Meeting and have sent over 1,100 emails demanding the Board of Supervisors invest $900 million a year in our communities.
Can you take a moment to call your supervisor now? We have it all set up—all you have to do is click here to call.
Tell your supervisor: nothing less than the voter-approved $900 million annual community investment, and full budget transparency, will be accepted. Thanks!
TAKE ACTION WITH HEALTHY LA
Please join us in urging the members of the full LA City Council to reverse the decisions of the Budget & Finance Committee (3/21/22 hearing), to accept the recommendations that earlier came out of the Immigrant Affairs Committee (1/20/22 hearing), and to affirm the City’s commitment to due process for those facing detention and deportation. The Committee voted to add new criminal exclusions that will deny due process to many more undocumented Angelenos. These exclusions make the program less efficient and more complicated.
We are asking you to do the following:
· Action 1: Send an email using this link
· Action 2: Sample Social Media Posts
· Action 3: Call-in and Public Comment for Full City Council Hearing (DateTBD)
TAKE ACTION WITH JUSTICE LA AND REIMAGINE LA
Last week the LA County Board of Supervisors passed a motion authored by Sheila Kuehl establishing the Justice, Care, and Opportunities Department and the Department of Youth Development. The creation of an independent pretrial services agency outside the probation department is a demand that the community has been voicing for decades. While this is a great step in the right direction, our work is not done until they are fully funded.
Please one-click the Board of Supervisors to demand they fully fund and provide transparency for the second year of Care First Community Investment (CFCI), formerly known as Measure J!
Take Action with Student Advocates for Speech
Students across the country are standing up for their right to read and bravely opposing book bans in schools. Help us turn the moment into a movement by sharing with students, teachers and parents.
NCAC's new network of high school clubs will spread greater awareness of the threats to student speech, including book bans and bans on student protest, while mobilizing school communities to get involved.
Student Advocates for Speech will empower the next generation of leaders to
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advocate for freedom of expression as both a fundamental human right and a keystone of democracy
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fight for their own free speech rights, as well as the rights of those they disagree with, and
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promote the essential principles of free expression.
Now recruiting 14-18 year old free speech defenders. Applications are open. Learn more here
Take Action With Justice LA
Please sign up to join the JusticeLA Action List here.
Three times a week you’ll receive, via text, a 2-5 minute action to uplift their justice campaigns, often in the form of an email, a phone call, and/or social media amplification.
Contact: whitepeople4blacklives@gmail.com with questions
Take Action With Stay Housed LA and LA County
State rent relief is an important tool in avoiding an impending wave of evictions in LA County. That’s why it’s so important that every eligible tenant and landlord financially impacted by COVID-19 uses the help available to them.
The program is open to any LA County resident (excluding those living in Pasadena and the City of Long Beach, which have their own programs) with income below 80% of Los Angeles County's median income, regardless of citizenship or immigration status.
For more information on the California Rental Assistance Program, including a helpful video that can walk you through the application process, click here!
Take Action With Stay Housed LA
It is not too late to learn about your rights as a tenant and get help paying your rent.
There are tenants’ rights workshops almost every day – join by phone or zoom: https://www.stayhousedla.org
Take Action With Justice LA
Sign up to join Justice LA on an upcoming Monday or Wednesday for a virtual action.
Take Action with White People 4 Black Lives
White People 4 Black Lives’ goal is to end white support for state violence in Los Angeles County. And we get there by making sure new White People 4 Black Lives members have a clear path to become anti-racist organizers, committed to organizing and acting daily (in public ways and in ways less visible) INCLUDING after moments of intense political and racial upheaval.
The AccountabiliTEAMs project will invite folks new to White People 4 Black Lives (or folks have been around for a while but feel they could benefit from building a stronger foundation and deeper relationships) to be part of 5-person pods, matched with one of our lead organizers. The culture of this program is welcoming and transformative, with the goal of building a foundation for sustainable white anti-racist action for our participants.
More details are available at: https://www.awarela.org/wp4bl-ateams
HOUSING IS KEY
Just because state emergency tenant protections have ended, that doesn’t mean that tenants don’t have any protections or assistance available to them to continue to help with the financial crisis caused by the pandemic. So here’s what you need to know: The state has billions of dollars in rental assistance available to tenants, but you must apply. Applications will remain open until the state runs out of money. You can apply at HousingIsKey.com.
Your protections may differ based on where you live.
Take Action with the Healthy LA Coalition and Our Housing Allies
Two important actions with the Healthy LA Coalition and
our housing allies
Thousands of housing units in LA have already been lost to short-term rentals. It should be illegal to convert housing into a de-facto hotel. Now Councilmembers are considering a loophole to allow the ultra-wealthy to list their second homes as vacation rentals instead of housing units. That would cost Los Angeles an estimated 14,740 housing units.
Take action now and send a letter to urge your councilmember to reject the vacation rental amendment.
Please sign & share the petition from Unite Here Local 11!
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