SCAG’S GO HUMAN AWARDS MORE THAN $275,000 TO 31 COMMUNITY-DRIVEN PROJECTS

SCAG’s Go Human program is thrilled to announce that we have awarded 31 Community Streets Mini-Grants to fund projects that build street-level community resiliency and increase the safety of people most harmed by traffic injuries and fatalities, including Black, Indigenous, and People of Color; people with disabilities; and frontline workers, particularly those walking and biking.

The Mini-Grants Program supports the use street space for community resiliency, recovery, and resource delivery that prioritizes disadvantaged communities and communities most harmed by traffic injuries and fatalities. Mini-Grants prioritize community-driven co-creation, where community engagement is a key element in the project.  

SCAG received nearly 50 applications from diverse communities across Southern California and awarded more than $275,000 in Mini-Grants for projects across the region. Applicants were encouraged to propose creative, strategic projects that center justice and respond to the program goal and communities’ current needs. Awarded projects will implement community-driven traffic safety projects. 

Below is a complete list of the 31 Community Streets Mini-Grants Program awardees and brief descriptions of their funded projects. Congratulations to all awarded projects and community partners! 

Meet the Awardees: 

Active SGV – El Monte, Los Angeles County 

SCAG has awarded ActiveSGV to complete two projects in 2021: SGV Re-Cycle and Reimagine Poplar Boulevard. SGV Re-Cycle will help mobilize the community by offering free bicycles to people and families in need while ensuring that donated bikes are repaired and fit to distribute back into the community. ActiveSGV will focus on community members that would have not otherwise been able to afford bicycles to aid in their daily commutes. Their second project, Reimagine Poplar Boulevard, will explore the intersection of pedestrian injuries, health disparities, complete streets, and mobility justice in south Los Angeles. ActiveSGV will install pop-up safety demonstrations led by local residents. 

Altadena Town Council – Altadena, Los Angeles County 

SCAG has awarded Altadena Town Council to fund their project, Dena United Peace March & Summer Celebration – a call to all people in Altadena & Pasadena communities to come together for social and racial justice. Starting off with a Peace March/Ride to Charles White Park, this project seeks to empower the community in dialogue and music while also addressing the need for safer routes to the park, transit, and help identify a safe street network to improve quality of life in the community. 

Antelope Valley Partners for Health – Lancaster, Los Angeles County 

SCAG has awarded Antelope Valley Partners for Health (AVPH) to complete their project, Safe Streets Initiative, Antelope Valley, to build street-level community resiliency and increase traffic safety through education and awareness. AVPH Health will utilize approaches that use street space for community resiliency, recovery, and resource delivery that prioritize the Antelope Valley region, which is a highly disadvantaged community and a community harmed by traffic injuries and fatalities. 

Bicycle Kitchen – Los Angeles, Los Angeles County 

Bicycle Kitchen’s project, Night Lights for Bikes, will include a bike light distribution and education program. Many people are not aware that lights or reflectors are required for bikes per California Vehicle Code 21201. Small groups of Bicycle Kitchen volunteers will go to nearby high-traffic bike routes at night, where they will distribute lights, along with information regarding safe night-riding to people riding in the dark without lights. 

Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice – Jurupa Valley, Riverside County 

Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice (CCAEJ)’s project, South Fontana Climate Action and Safety Coalition, will partner with South Fontana Concerned Citizens Coalition to engage the City of Fontana to address safe truck routes policies and the influx of truck traffic, due to the increase in warehouse developments. The ultimate goal is to create safer routes for communities and improve the air quality that impacts the health and safety of this community and surrounding ones. 

Central City Neighborhood Partners – Los Angeles, Los Angeles 

Central City Neighborhood Partners (CCNP)’s project, Safely Stepping Out - Pedestrian Traffic Safety Project, will focus on pedestrian safety education while staying safe from COVID-19. With the central message being, “Make sure those first steps are safe steps,” CCNP will primarily focus on low-to-moderate-income households who utilize public transit or walk to access essential services and youth, who are at higher risk of pedestrian casualties. CCNP will also target drivers, and inform them on ways they can be more aware of their surroundings. Promotoras, which are trusted women from the community, will receive training to deliver key information that is relevant and appropriate for the community.  

Collins Neighborhood Association – Long Beach, Los Angeles County 

The goal of the Collins Neighborhood Association’s project, Coke St Cap is to promote a neighborhood that is safe for biking, playing, walking and crossing. The project includes a community street event where residents can experience and imagine a street where it’s safe to ride a bike, walk, jog or play in the neighborhood. 

Community Intelligence LLC – Los Angeles, Los Angeles County  

SCAG has awarded Community Intelligence (CI) to complete their project, Incomplete Streets, Pedestrian Injuries and Mobility Justice in South LA, which explores the intersection of pedestrian injuries, health disparities, complete streets, and mobility justice in South Los Angeles. The purpose of this project is to (a) identify and geocode pedestrian injury locations in Los Angeles, (b) organize locations by number of injuries and identify hotspots, (c) compare the number of pedestrian injuries in south Los Angeles to those in other parts of Los Angeles, and (d) identify the presence or absence of pedestrian accommodations and enhancements at pedestrian injury hotspots in south Los Angeles. 

Los Angeles Walks – Los Angeles, Los Angeles County 

In their project, A Safe Street Solution for Every Crash: Mobilizing Traffic Victim’s Families as Agents of Change, Los Angeles Walks will work with a coalition of two dozen families of traffic violence victims who organize together to share in grief and collective action, such as advocacy and public education. They will organize two community workshops led by coalition members with a focus on a partnership with the LA Department of Transportation’s (LADOT) Rainbow Halos project, a traffic fatality art memorial program. These workshops will help strengthen the growing network of Angeleno families impacted by traffic violence. 

Day One – El Monte, Pasadena, and Pomona, Los Angeles County 

SCAG has awarded Day One to complete three projects in 2021: Vamos El Monte, Vamos Pasadena, and Vamos Pomona. With the objective to create safer, walkable streets, and with community engagement as the driving force of the project, Day One will work with community members to identify intersections that are unsafe, unwalkable, and are in need of interventions to address community concerns. The first phase of each project will include community engagement to identify community intersections and facilitate community-driven solutions. The second phase of the projects will also have a focus on community engagement and participation. During this phase, Day One will work with community members in El Monte, Pasadena, and Pomona in the implementation of a temporary, community-driven pop-up event and will assess efficacy and recommend long-term solutions to decision-makers. 

El Sol Neighborhood Education Center – San Bernardino, San Bernardino County 

El Sol’s project, Community Streets in Action, will work with community health workers, El Sol Promotores, to develop a targeted approach with culturally appropriate messages to engage the community. El Sol Promotores will hold community forums to determine community-identified traffic safety concerns and solutions and develop an action plan.  

Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles – Los Angeles, Los Angeles County 

In Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles (Habitat LA)’s project, New Visions for a Safer Washington Neighborhood, residents of the Washington Neighborhood will learn about how urban planning plays a role in developing pedestrian-safe communities. Habitat LA will hold resident-led workshops and a neighborhood model-building pop-up event to bring their ideas to life. Habitat LA will also recruit five neighborhood residents to participate in a leadership training designed to help them develop their skills as advocates and host their own participatory model-building workshops.  

Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition – Los Angeles, Los Angeles County 

Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition (LACBC)’s project, LACBC eBike Elder Encouragement Initiative, will hold three education and demonstration events to help elders in the community explore and get familiar with e-bikes. The events will consist of a one-hour bike safety training class geared towards seniors paired with a half-hour demonstration ride on our e-bike fleet on off-street paths. Each class will be led by a League Cycling Instructor (LCI), and the demonstration rides will be conducted in locations that ensure the safety of participants. 

Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust – Los Angeles, Los Angeles County 

Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust (LANLT)’s project, 11th Avenue Park and Hyde Park – Community Safety Project is a community-based planning project that will work with residents in the Hyde Park Neighborhood starting with the neighbors who live near the 11th Avenue Park, a small pocket park operated and maintained by the Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust. The project will focus on conducting deep engagement with residents, starting with discussions that help identify issues and opportunities related to walking, biking, and safety in the community. Once LANLT has collected feedback, it will be compiled into a graphic report that can be shared with policy-makers and others to help address the issues identified. 

Music Changing Lives – Redlands, San Bernardino County 

Music Changing Lives (MCL)’s Los Amigos Community Streets project proposes expanding upon the City’s CommUNITY Paint Day project from 2018, where Los Amigos community members learned about street safety while participating in creating and painting a community-designed mural in the middle of the intersection. This project will revitalize expand upon this initial safe streets strategy by utilizing art to narrow the roads, hopefully resulting in slower vehicle travel speeds and a more pleasant environment for the community to live in, visit and travel through. MCL will also install a creatively build traffic pop-up demonstration (traffic circles, mid-block and intersection bulb-outs, signage) to gain valuable insight into successful strategies that may be able to be implemented in the future as permanent solutions. 

Nyeland Promise – Oxnard, Ventura County 

In their project, Safe Travels/Viajes Seguros, Nyeland Promise will develop a robust educational program and conduct extensive outreach surrounding safe passages, bike safety, and pedestrian traffic for children and residents. Nyeland Promise will provide outreach and educational program outreach on pedestrian traffic and distribute information to residents through events, social media outlets, texting, and distribution of flyers at food distributions sites. 

Public Matters – Los Angeles, Los Angeles County 

Public Matters’ project, University Park Slow Jams (UPSJ) is a creative call to action for safer streets. Public Matters, in partnership with Los Angeles Walks, USC Kid Watch, and USC Sol Price School of Public Policy, works directly with University Park parents, schools and groups to draw attention to traffic violence and build residents’ capacity to advocate for safe, people-friendly streets. Over the grant period, UPSJ will bring the spirit of creative collaboration to the messaging campaign, directly engaging parents and children in the production of photo and video content that we will deploy in advance of and throughout the 2021-22 academic year. 

Rose Park Neighborhood Association – Long Beach, Los Angeles County 

Rose Park Neighborhood Association’s project, Boulevard Day on East 7th Street, will focus on converting a city-wide corridor to a neighborhood boulevard, bringing a summer festival to a high-traffic corridor. Three different simultaneous events will draw attention to this community and what exists within a 4-block ‘village node’ of a historic boulevard. 

Santa Ana Active Streets – Santa Ana, Orange County 

SCAG has awarded Santa Ana Active Streets (SAAS) to complete two projects in 2021: ¡Luces Vivas! and SAASy Thursdays. 

¡Luces Vivas! is an education and night light distribution program intended to provide education and encouragement for riding bikes and walking in Santa Ana safely at night. ¡Luces Vivas! members will provide bilingual education and encouragement activities to support the safety of pedestrians and bicyclists. 

SAASy Thursdays are fun summer recreational bicycle rides ranging between 5-6 miles for all skill levels at a leisurely pace. Santa Ana Active Streets designs these rides specifically for families that seek to ride as a family and give them the confidence to begin riding a bicycle together. 

Southern California Mountains Foundation (Urban Conservation Corps) – San Bernardino, San Bernardino County 

Southern California Mountains Foundation’s project, Walking is a Basic Human Right, will create community-driven recommendations to make San Bernardino more walkable and accessible for low-income neighborhoods of color, children, women, and the elderly. The project will hold several small community workshops and conduct walking audits to collect data on factors that residents consider to be the primary causes that are preventing them from enjoying walking equally in their communities, as well as solutions. All of the information, data, and photos will be gathered, analyzed, and presented to the media, legislators, and local community leaders in San Bernardino. 

Streets Are For Everyone (SAFE) – Los Angeles, Los Angeles County 

In their project, Interfaith for Safer Streets, Streets Are For Everyone (SAFE) will help raise awareness of the need for safer streets in congregations and the community. The project will also advocate for policy changes to protect those using the streets of South L.A. and improve the infrastructure, health, equity, and safety in the community. SAFE will also support those who have been impacted by traffic violence and educate the community about responsible driver, pedestrian, and cyclist behaviors. 

Streets For All – Los Angeles, Los Angeles County 

Streets For All’s project, Reimagine 6th Street is a project to reclaim public space in Koreatown. Streets for All will hold a weekend popup for a two-block stretch between Mariposa Ave. & Kenmore Ave. to showcase the potential of this project while also collecting community feedback on the project. The project will benefit the community in three key ways: 1) It would provide much-needed open space to LA’s most park-poor neighborhood; 2) It would reduce traffic violence on Koreatown’s dangerous streets, and 3) It would give a boost to the struggling small businesses which make up the fabric of this community. 

The Artlands – Redlands, San Bernardino County 

The Artlands’ project will paint a Pride-themed crosswalk mural on Vine Street in downtown Redlands, CA. The project will help increase the visibility and safety of the crosswalk on a high-traffic, downtown street used by a diverse cross-section of the community and visitors alike. The project will also give visibility to the local LGBTQ community, a group that has been historically underrepresented in public artwork and cultural events in the inland communities. 

Walk ‘n Rollers – Los Angeles, Los Angeles County 

In their project, ST Forward – Foothill Safety Campaign, Walk ‘n Rollers will partner with ST Forward to engage the Sunland-Tujunga community in advocating for a safe streets program along Foothill Boulevard. The safer streets campaign will engage youth in an art-making exercise to express their vision for safer streets in Sunland-Tujunga.  Walk ‘n Rollers will use Go Human materials alongside artwork inspired by students’ visions to engage the community further, create awareness, and develop dialogue. The project will also include a pop-up community and demonstration event that will provide participants an opportunity to voice direct feedback on their experiences with traffic safety in our community by interacting with a printed map of our Foothill corridor. 

Yolanda Davis-Overstreet Consulting – Los Angeles, Los Angeles County 

SCAG has awarded Yolanda Davis-Overstreet Consulting to complete two projects in 2021: Adams Blvd Safety Project – Walk the Boulevard and Mobility Justice in Communities of Color – How Safe Are Black Lives Cycling? Adams Blvd Safety Project – Walk the Boulevard will engage, educate, and gather community feedback on the Adams Blvd. Safety Project between Fairfax and Crenshaw Boulevards. The community members who will be invited to attend this event will be the local schools, churches, and businesses along the Adams corridor between Fairfax and Crenshaw Blvd. The second project will create a 3-5-minute short film that centers on the conversation of Mobility Justice in Communities of Color – How Safe Are Black Lives Cycling? The focus will be on the daily experiences that Black Lives are encountering will bicycling in their communities of color. 

Youth Leadership Institute – Long Beach, Los Angeles County 

Youth Leadership Institute’s project will consist of recruitment, capacity building, design and implementation of a cohort of at least ten youth to complete a youth-led research project highlighting safety concerns in the community of Long Beach for young people that walk and bike. Youth will learn about youth-led action research, including different types of research methodology and analysis. They will design an assessment tool that can be used to measure different aspects of the safety of local Long Beach neighborhoods using both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods. Two to three walking tours/audits will occur throughout Long Beach neighborhoods as identified by youth. The project will conclude with a youth-led analysis of the data collected and a collective art piece that reflects and summarizes their findings. 

Read the full press release here: SCAG awards more than $275,000 to 31 community-driven traffic safety projects in the region.