Mayor Eric Garcetti today announced that Los Angeles has received 7 federal grants worth $36 million resulting from the city’s successful bid to win Promise Zone designation for Los Angeles.
The funding will provide 10,000 LAUSD students with academic assistance, after school and summer support services, teen pregnancy prevention programming and more access to healthier food in schools.
The Promise Zone is President Obama’s signature anti-poverty initiative, first announced at his 2013 State of the Union address. In late 2013, Mayor Garcetti led a coalition of non-profit and public-sector organizations on an aggressive bid to win Promise Zone designation for Los Angeles. In January 2014, Mayor Garcetti joined President Obama at the White House as it was announced that Los Angeles was chosen as one of the first five Promise Zone locations in the nation, giving our city’s applicant partners preference points and technical assistance to earn federal grants. Los Angeles’ Promise Zone serves a larger population than the other federal Promise Zones cities combined.
“We’re being aggressive about pursuing increasingly scarce federal dollars and our work is delivering results in ways that can transform these young people’s lives and our neighborhoods,” Mayor Garcetti said. “My back to basics agenda starts with creating economic opportunity and combined with our plan to raise L.A.’s minimum wage, we are serving hundreds of thousands of Angelenos through these initiatives.” (Full story at LAmayor)
