About EmpowerLA

EmpowerLA, also known as the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, is the partnership agency for the City of Los Angeles’ Neighborhood Council system. Established by the City Charter in 2000, EmpowerLA has over 20 years of experience providing resources and training to volunteers, uplifting and amplifying the civic engagement and advocacy work of Neighborhood Councils across the City, and advocating for deeper and more expansive investment in the nation’s largest grassroots civic engagement model. EmpowerLA cultivates meaningful partnerships with other City departments, K-12 and higher education institutions, and local community-based organizations to better connect individuals to their Neighborhood Councils to foster community investment and support platforms that ensure local government is responsive to the people it serves.

Our Origin

In 1999, Angelenos took to the ballot box and approved a new City Charter for the first time in 75 years. This new City Charter included a new form of governance, one that was grassroots and driven by the people closest to the vast number of unique communities across Los Angeles: the Neighborhood Council system was born. The Neighborhood Councils ensure all Angelenos are represented in City government. Each Neighborhood Council is made up of volunteer elected officials who live, work, study, do business, worship, or volunteer in a hyperlocal Los Angeles community. In addition to creating the Neighborhood Council system, the 1999 City Charter also created the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment.

Our Mission

EmpowerLA’s mission is to inspire Angelenos to be civically engaged and community advocates and work alongside Neighborhood Councils to create a thriving network of grassroots co-governance throughout the City of Los Angeles, building people power.

Our Vision

EmpowerLA envisions a co-governing Neighborhood Council system that represents and serves all Angelenos, bringing equity, democracy, and local power to every community in the City. Through the Neighborhood Council system, EmpowerLA aspires to a process of decision-making that is equitably shared with the people and policymakers throughout the City.

Our Values

Transparency: Trust is critical to our work. In order to be strong partners that can steward civic engagement and local democracy, we must center and communicate transparency in all that we do.

Collaboration: Collaboration is essential to EmpowerLA’s relationship not only with the Neighborhood Council system, but also with the City Family and other stakeholders. We value working together alongside our partners, rather than pushing a top-down or authoritarian relationship. It is important that Neighborhood Council Board Members, City agencies, and stakeholders feel included in planning, decision-making, and meaning-making when it comes to the Neighborhood Council system.

Community: Community is at the heart of EmpowerLA’s work. We value building deep, authentic, lasting roots into all 99 communities represented in the Neighborhood Council system, and beyond. We work to steward strong, lasting relationships with community members across Los Angeles–from board members to stakeholder committee members, community leaders to policymakers, and anyone who makes up the fabric of Los Angeles. Block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood, region by region, we build community together.

Our Team

EmpowerLA works alongside people and neighborhood leaders.

Our team is made up of dedicated staff members who serve as trusted partners that each play a role in helping community members navigate City systems and turn local concerns into action. From helping a Neighborhood Council set up a Zoom meeting to increase accessibility for community members, to posting Planning and Land Use agenda notifications so residents can provide input on local development projects, to connecting City departments with Neighborhood Councils for presentations on local cleanups—we are the Department that powers Los Angeles’ system of local representation, connecting people to their neighborhoods and to their City.