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  • News & Stories
  • Community Engagement, Early Childhood

Northeast Valley Best Start Community Grants 2022

For the second year, the LAEP-facilitated Northeast Valley (NEV) Best Start Community has, through a participatory budget (PBP) process, worked with the community to identify needs and grant funds to projects that meet those needs.

This year’s PBP grant recipients are:

Las Palmas Community Park
Pacoima Beautiful
Pasadena/Altadena Coalition of Transformative Leaders (PACTL)

Each agency received a $70,000 grant, for a total of $210,000 invested in the Northeast San Fernando Valley community! We look forward to sharing more about their projects as they are implemented over the course of this year.

Last Year’s Grantees’ Work

Projects funded by 2021’s inaugural participatory budgeting project came to life over the course of the past year. These projects included:

  • A community mural
  • Multi-cultural storytimes
  • College preparation workshops and scholarships
  • Mental health workshops
  • Community art events

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Eric Barela, Ph.D.

Senior Consultant, Raya Cooper Impact Consulting

Dr. Eric Barela has worked as a measurement & evaluation professional for over 2 decades, helping organizations to better understand and act on their social impact. He’s currently a Senior Consultant with Raya Cooper Impact Consulting and previously worked at Salesforce, where he led efforts to measure the social impact of the company’s work with nonprofits and educational institutions across the globe. He began his career working with the Los Angeles Unified School District and with the nonprofit, Partners in School Innovation. Eric previously served on the Board of the American Evaluation Association and currently serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of the American Journal of Evaluation.

Eric grew up in East LA and was educated in the Montebello Unified School District. He holds a Ph.D. in education from UCLA. He loves a good road trip, with his husband serving as trusty navigator.