About Us
Our Goal
Our goal is to work with Watts residents and stakeholders to build and sustain a healthier Watts through ongoing engagement and collaboration to identify the most pressing needs of Watts and to work together to address those needs.
While our work began more than 10 years ago, Watts Rising as a collaborative was formed through the award of a Transformative Climate Communities (TCC) grant from the State of California’s Strategic Growth Council. This award provided more than $32 million in funding to address the decades of neglect that Watts and its residents have faced.
Watts Rising is a collective of more than 40 local and governmental organizations with the mandate to improve the environmental and economic health in Watts. The Watts Rising Collaborative aims to ensure Watts residents are at the center of every project and process. We have adopted guiding strategies and principles to help ensure our projects increase opportunities for residents of the Watts neighborhood.
Those strategies include:
Ongoing neighborhood engagement throughout implementation through regular meetings and other outreach activities.
Providing direct benefits to Watts households such as solar panels, energy retrofits, trees, and mini-urban farms for residents’ yards.
Job training to improve career opportunities and prepare youth and adults for careers in the growing green fields. Agreements to hire locally and engage small businesses whenever possible create opportunities for individuals, businesses, and organizations in Watts.
Anti-displacement services to ensure existing Watts families can continue to stay in their homes and preserve their businesses to benefit and prosper from the Watts Rising investments.
By implementing a robust and comprehensive engagement plan through the TCC grant, the Watts Rising Collaborative will complete 24 projects by September 2025 that will result in:
5 Miles
of new bike lanes
300 Tons
food waste diverted
25+ Blocks
of pedestrian improvements
54
new solar roofs
289
new energy efficient homes
3000+
new trees planted
4+ Acres
urban agriculture land added
118,000 Sq ft
new commercial space
216
new affordable rental units
Electric
car sharing vanpool & dash bus
2
new public parks
1 Mile
of new cultural trails
In addition to the TCC funding, Watts Rising continues to expand its portfolio through additional funding sources such as the Choice Neighborhood Implementation (CNI) Grant from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and, the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program, and more! To read more about our funding sources, please visit our Funding Sources page. Watts Rising prides itself on its collaborative structure- meaning we work with residents, stakeholders, and local organizations to ensure voices at all levels are integrated into the work we do. To maintain the spirit of collaboration as a pillar in our values, Watts Rising has 3 working groups that meet monthly to address our collective goals.
- Aims to ensure an ethical, integral, and participatory data collection process for Watts Rising to learn whether projects have achieved our grants’ desired outcomes and reached residents of Watts
- To learn more about the work they are doing, visit the Our Impact page.
- Watts Rising is implementing the Displacement Avoidance Plan to ensure that benefits created by TCC are enjoyed by the current Watts residents whose tireless effort, vision, and perseverance contributed to the realization of this and other neighborhood investment grants.
- Watts Rising is connecting renters, homeowners, and businesses to resources that can reduce household expenses, increase income and business profitability, increase housing access and security, and build wealth in order to help them “Stay Rooted” in their neighborhood.
- To learn more visit the Anti-Displacement page.
PURPOSE
- Give feedback to projects on how best to reach Watts residents and improve information-sharing and resident involvement in projects, address safety and improve utilization of resources, get the word out about the health, economic and environmental benefits, and generate ideas to expand and sustain the effort
COMMUNICATIONS & LEADERSHIP
- Led by a diverse group of residents and stakeholders, the team develops strategies for outreach and involvement
STREET TEAM
- A a group of Watts residents engaged as consultants to share Watts Rising opportunities
More About Us
Our Staff & Neighborhood Leadership
We have a dedicated team that works diligently to ensure effective project implementation, oversight, and meaningful engagement.
Our Funders
We could not accomplish neighborhood transformation without essential financial support from our funders.
Our Projects
Watts Rising has a wide selection of projects to improve the public, environmental, and economic health. Learn more about them and sign-up to receive services!
Our Partners
Watts Rising is comprised of leaders in climate action, grassroots engagement, and outreach grounded in fairness and respect.