LAEP facilitates the Northeast Valley (NEV) Best Start Community, providing capacity-building opportunities to a group of volunteers who in turn lead workshops on parenting, family support, and more in their local communities.
Lidia, an NEV-Best Start facilitator, expressed how her life has changed by being involved in the program. Her self-esteem has improved, she is more secure when talking to others, and she believes in the work the NEV Best Start Community is doing. She shares with anyone that she meets that she is capable of doing many things because she had the opportunity to be part of this group.
Pictured, Lidia spoke at the Her Vaga Bound Roots scholarship ceremony. These 23 scholarships awarded to women in the Northeast San Fernando Valley were made possible by the NEV Best Start’s participatory budget project, which uses a community input procedure to fund local projects that meet needs identified by the local community.