Photo courtesy of the Weingart East Los Angeles YMCA Youth Institute.

Traditional Arts and Systems Change

Building Healthy Communities

ACTA has been working in the community of Boyle Heights since 2011 through Building Healthy Communities (BHC), a 10-year statewide initiative of The California Endowment. It focuses on building power locally by funding non-profit organizations in 14 communities across the state that have been devastated by health inequities. The Endowment has invested in those communities to facilitate collaboration toward policy change around three different areas: schoolsneighborhoods, and preventive health. In the case of Boyle Heights, where gentrification has been changing/threatening the neighborhood, a fourth area was added: anti-displacement.

ACTA has served and continues to serve as a key protagonist in lifting up traditional artists and their cultural convening methods as important vehicles for exercising and sustaining opposition to injustice and proposition for a collective future. Watch the video to see how traditional art practices enable communities to move toward social wellbeing.

ACTA’s work with Building Healthy Communities is supported by The California Endowment.

DRIKBWC

"Approaching Community Health Through Heritage and Culture in Boyle Heights"

Read our 2017 report to explore the connections between traditional arts, cultural practices, community well-being.

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Announcing the 2024 Taproot Fellows!