South LA and County Wide

The Intern Project 

The LA Promise Fund is committed to connecting high school students with the experiences and tools they need for future career success. The Intern Project pairs over 300 students, both from our own schools and across the County, with high-value mentorships, internships, and jobs. The program connects deserving Los Angeles public high school juniors with the chance to work in dynamic career areas through paid internships of four or more weeks during their summer break. Students have worked in fields like digital media, entertainment, technology, health care, and design. Learn more.

#ArtsMatter

Research shows that arts-based education is correlated with increased academic performance, improved attendance, community engagement, and lower dropout rates. Through #ArtsMatter, the LA Promise Fund works to create innovative programs designed to integrate arts education into all subject areas. Through pilot partnerships with CalArts, J. Paul Getty Center, The Music Center, Mattel and Urban Arts Partnership, the LA Promise Fund and LAUSD have identified and will continue to identify best practices in arts integration that will enrich the classroom experience and ultimately provide students with creative thinking skills that will last a lifetime. Learn more.

Health & Wellness/ School Fuel

The LA Promise Fund believes that healthy students are successful students. With the Mark Ridley Thomas Wellness Center at Manual Arts High School as our anchor, the LA Promise Fund and its many dedicated partners provide information, services, and healthy opportunities to all students and families in our network of schools. In parallel, our School Fuel initiative ensures that all public school students in LA get a nutritious start to their day and the supplemental knowledge to develop healthy habits for life. To date, School Fuel has facilitated Breakfast in the Classroom, parent engagement, and nutrition education in partnership with the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). Breakfast in the Classroom, now implemented by LAUSD, has been made available to over 500,000 students at over 650 schools in LAUSD.

Girls Build

Through the Girls Build Challenge, public middle and high school girls are designing and implementing community-based solutions that can effect widespread change. Girls Build empowers these students to identify the challenges they face and provides them with resources and support to address them.

The Challenge is organized across three critical impact areas: Health & Wellness, Civic Engagement & Leadership, and STEM & College Access. Regional experts and skilled coaches facilitate the problem-solving and solution-design process. The students from each participating team will build the skills necessary for effective leadership, like collaboration, communication, consensus-building, and project management. Now in Year 3, grants will be provided to approximately 50 teams of girls who will use STEM principles and 21st Century learning skills to effect social change. Scholarships will again be awarded to winning teams at the completion of the school year. Learn more.

Stronger Workforce Project

The Stronger Workforce Project creates a collaborative regional approach to align K-14 pathways for student success by strengthening career pathways across Slate-Z, a federally designated Promise Zone and collective impact partnership with the mission to revitalize South LA.

The grant partners 10 local high schools with local community colleges to create comprehensive career technical education pathways that develop experience and skills for college and career readiness through dual enrollment and workforce learning.

Strategies include articulated pathways, dual enrollment, career exploration events, competitions, showcases, summer pathway program and targeted marketing of pathways to high school students, parents, and counselors.