CSH is pleased to announce support from the Weingart Foundation to help us implement strategies that use supportive housing to promote equity with historically marginalized communities of color in the Los Angeles area.
Our work will seek to address the structural racism that replicates inequitable access to resources and opportunities for people of color. The new Strategic and Business Plan adopted by CSH places a high priority on incorporating the process and outcome of equity in our initiatives to build healthier communities.
This $125,000 grant in unrestricted operating support from the Weingart Foundation will allow CSH to focus on the below priorities:
1. Strengthening CSH program staff’s understanding of equity through training and education so we can integrate an awareness of this focus into our work with communities, supportive housing providers, policymakers and other stakeholders.
2. Sharing our learnings and experiences in Los Angeles with a broader audience on a national level, helping all CSH staff and our partners benefit from our expanded equity awareness and knowledge.
3. Engaging community-based developers and providers of color to co-create equity approaches in supportive housing.
4. Embedding an equity focus in our Supportive Housing Institute—an intensive designed to guide development teams in the creation and operation of quality, tenant-centered supportive housing.
This grant will enable CSH to co-create a training curriculum and employ participants of the CSH Speak Up! program as facilitators of the Supportive Housing Institute. CSH’s Speak Up! program is an advocacy platform that establishes the deep value of lived experience of homelessness by recognizing formerly homeless people and their stories as a primary knowledge source for ending homelessness.
CSH will engage in partner collaborations with community-based developers and providers of color to co-develop strategies toward sustainable financial returns for communities of color.
We believe supportive housing can be a lasting and equalizing force that recognizes structural racism and addresses systemic policies that maintain racial disparities. By furthering our equity knowledge and engaging with community, we seek to ensure supportive housing as a catalyst for equitable communities.
