“Our mission is to maintain and strengthen the city's diversity, equity, and accountability. We are focused on reducing bias and injustices while leveling the playing field through community engagement, equity initiatives, and upward mobility programming.”
The Civil + Human Rights and Equity Department, or LA Civil Rights for short, is focused on reducing bias and injustices while leveling the playing field. We do this work through Equity and Empowerment (E2), our Office of Racial Equity, hate prevention, upward mobility programming, youth programming and through our Commissions and Advisory Councils.
Our Department oversees citywide initiatives such as the RENEW Program, LA REPAIR Program, and the LA For All campaign.
We believe that the goals of equity and inclusion for all people can be achieved through hard work and collective action. We achieve this through four core pillars;
Outreach and Community Engagement
- Faith-Based Unity Events
- Community Diversity Events
- Discrimination/Bias Awareness Training
- Hate Crime Prevention
- Discrimination Enforcement Outreach
Discrimination Enforcement
The Discrimination Enforcement division of LA Civil Rights is being built and will launch as soon as possible. LA Civil Rights is responsible for enforcing Los Angeles' Civil and Human Rights Law, and has investigative powers and quasi-judicial authority to address the long-standing discrimination impacting underserved communities which denies equal treatment in private commerce, education, employment, and housing. Click here to learn more
Equity and Empowerment (E²)
LA Civil Rights partners with community-based organizations, faith-based institutions, business groups, Neighborhood Councils, philanthropic leaders, and academic institutions along with our three commissions and two advisory boards to create equity initiatives that level the playing field through work in the following areas:
- Policy Equity Lens: LA Civil Rights applies a policy equity lens to assess health disparities, inequities in City planning, and community policing through collaborations with non-governmental and city entities, including with the Office of Immigrant Affairs.
- Upward Mobility Programming: LA Civil Rights engages Angelenos and community-based organizations for community events and career pipelines for people from underserved communities. LA Civil Rights works to develop college readiness and career readiness, financial literacy workshops, homeowner seminars, and entrepreneurial training sessions.
- Corporate Diversity Metrics: LA Civil Rights assesses, track, and monitor the hiring, promotion, and retention of people from underserved communities in various high-earning potential industries to promote diversity and inclusion, including through the RENEW Task Force.
- COVID-19 Equity: Since the Summer of 2020, LA Civil Rights has been a key stakeholder in COVID-19 equity planning with the City and County of Los Angeles. Our work has resulted in expanded access to testing and vaccines, increased language access to public health services, community outreach and engagement, and more.
Commission Support
LA Civil Rights manages and supports the Commission on Civil Rights (CCR), The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), the Human Relations Commission (HRC), The Reparations Advisory Commission, as well as the Transgender Advisory Council and various ad-hoc committees. Click here to learn more about our commissions.
To learn more about us, or stay involved with updates, please follow us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, or subscribe to our newsletter.
