Elgin Nelson
West Angeles CDC has been awarded a $2 million grant from MacKenzie Scott’s Yield Giving Open Call, a tremendous boost for their efforts in advancing the voices of community changemakers and opening opportunities for positive change. Yield Giving launched the Open Call in March 2023, receiving over 6,000 applications from nonprofits nationwide, with West Angeles CDC being one of the 361 selected organizations.
Scott’s thorough process involves two pathways for gathering information about organizations she intends to fund, starting with conducting research to identify potential candidates dedicated to advancing opportunities in underserved communities. Then, organizations are evaluated based on specific criteria such as size, geography, and mission, focusing on indicators like stable finances, multi-year track records, measurable outcomes, and experienced leadership representative of their community.
This award will help launch the West Angeles CDC’s Wellness Center, which will offer residents of South Los Angeles professional counseling sessions as well as wellness classes like mindful movement, art therapy, and meditation. All will be free of charge. The Center is expected to open by October 2024 at West Angeles CDC’s corporate office, located at 6028 Crenshaw Blvd., Los Angeles, while construction on the Center’s permanent home is completed.
In 2025, the Wellness Center will permanently occupy the first floor of The Curve at West Angeles, located at 5414 Crenshaw Blvd., Los Angeles 90043.
West Angeles CDC was founded in early 1994 as an outreach program of West Angeles Church of God in Christ, then a 15,000-member congregation in the Crenshaw District of Los Angeles. Dr. Lula Ballton and Bishop Charles E. Blake, together with Trustees of West Angeles Church, founded the CDC to expand the compassionate outreach and neighborhood development ministries of the church in the face of mounting problems of poverty and injustice in the surrounding community.
Lack of jobs, business investment and affordable, decent housing, struggling schools, endemic homelessness and gang activity were all signs that new, long-term improvements were needed. At the same time, new business and community-building activities had also begun and were growing. These signs were new life and hope on which to build. In January 1994, the CDC was incorporated as a nonprofit organization to bring together people and resources to help develop the community.