For NeighborWorks America's recent symposium, "Co-creating an Equitable Future at the Intersection of Health, Housing and Community Development," leaders created a series of case studies to help show how network organzitions are centering resident voice. Following is the study on Little Tokyo Service Center, based in Los Angels, centering on resident co-creation through culture, history and place.
Little Tokyo Service Center (LTSC), a NeighborWorks network organization based in Los Angeles, California, was established to support the thriving Japanese residents in the Little Tokyo neighborhood. Today, LTSC offers a wide range of social welfare, community development, revitalization and cultural preservation services within Little Tokyo — and beyond to the broader Japanese and Los Angeles communities. While initially focused on Japanese residents, LTSC's commitment to centering belonging, culture and history has created opportunities for all residents to thrive both within the community and beyond.
LTSC's approach is anchored in their commitment to fostering a sense of belonging. By prioritizing relationship building, designing leadership pathways, and nurturing community bonds, they create opportunities for residents to shape their surroundings. In a recent annual survey, residents called their building "home," but did not feel the same affiliation with their neighborhood. This feedback has guided LTSC's efforts to partner with residents to co-create spaces where everyone feels comfortable showing up and expressing their perspectives, while cultivating a sense of belonging.
LTSC directly holds space and cultivates connections to improve resident health outcomes. Through initiatives like the Little Tokyo Neighbors Program, residents are not only involved in addressing day-to-day quality of life issues but are also empowered to become leaders within their community. This inclusive approach has resulted in tangible impacts, such as shaping comprehensive plans, influencing zoning policies, and securing infrastructure investments. The program's success is evident in the return of participants as co-facilitators and board members, showcasing their enduring commitment to shaping LTSC's long-term vision of centering resident voices in the co-creation of opportunities for culture, history and belonging.
LTSC cultivates solidarity with neighboring communities, too. LTSC fosters collaboration and robust coalitions with community-based partners and institutions along with residents, particularly residents who reside in Skid Row. This is significant as Skid Row is a concentrated area of homelessness and poverty that is emblematic of the systemic issues of homelessness. It has been important to build relationships across neighborhoods — both to address shared challenges, but also to create a future vision of what is possible within diverse, multiethnic places.
By centering residents and going beyond neighborhood boundaries, LTSC along with a coalition of residents and other partners, has been able to craft a collective vision for neighborhood transformation that focuses on planning, urban design, land use, and development of key neighborhood assets, like open spaces and housing. The aim of the cross-neighborhood work propels a new vision of healthy neighborhoods where everyone is included and can thrive. To foster closer relationships with the Skid Row community, LTSC is supporting the design of a mural that celebrates shared roots and cultures across the neighborhoods.
Residents, in collaboration with LTSC, are co-creating a new vision for a healthy future by partnering to center their neighborhood's culture and history, extending beyond Little Tokyo's boundaries to neighboring communities. Through this inclusive approach, LTSC facilitates spaces and platforms for residents, unhoused individuals and diverse stakeholders to collectively reshape neighborhood development plans, community spaces, affordable housing and small business opportunities, fostering a thriving multicultural community. By addressing both short-term wins and long-term systemic issues through values-centered investments, infrastructure development, and policy advocacy, residents and stakeholders are working together to transform quality of life and build enduring relationships that reflect shared values and aspirations.
03/13/2024
