The official newsletter of the Los Angeles Urban League | Volume I Number 3

Welcome to the Fall edition of The Quarterly!

We waved goodbye to summer and rolled back clocks to Standard Time, finding ourselves now in the full harvest of autumn. Our new season is touting jobs, careers, business capital, record attendance at State of Black LA, a full slate of impact programs along with an end-of-year giving campaign to propel us into 2026. As we set our sights on the new year, let’s look back on some accomplishments.

Career Fair Draws Record Number as Job Seekers Hail it as Major Success

Career Fair Held November 18th at LA Trade Tech College

Employers were offering jobs and hundreds of job candidates turned out in search of employment at our annual Career Fair, held at LA Trade Tech College. An estimated 700 job searchers came through the doors, patiently waiting in lines for interviews, a chance to hand off their resumé and meet hiring managers. Some 40 different employers, throughout Los Angeles and the country were represented, including the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, City of Los Angeles, LAUSD, City of Torrance Transit, UPS and even the State of Illinois.

Our in-person job fair offered candidates a way to bypass the online employment process, which can often leave a job applicant feeling ignored. The personal touch this experience offered is what job seekers were looking for. The buzz throughout the Career Fair was–how well the candidates presented themselves and how well prepared they were. That might be an indicator the resumé seminar and job prep orientation we held three days prior to our event, truly paid off.

With the LA County unemployment rate hovering around 6.5 % the Career Fair offered promise and hope for hundreds of job seekers, underscoring the mission of the Los Angeles Urban League as part of our workforce development action pillar. Thank you LA Trade Tech for hosting us and our partners in this venture, She Ready Foundation and SoCalGas.

Business Capital. Our Entrepreneur Team Gets You on Right Path to Find $$

Along with job seeking individuals, capital-seeking entrepreneurs, throughout the LA area, are heading into the holiday season with reason to smile. Thanks to our Entrepreneurship Center (EC) and a stellar workshop on how to create Proper Financial Projections and master the business loan application process. To convince a lender to provide you capital as a business owner, you must convince them you’ll know how to spend it. That was the theme of this master class presentation conducted by Momentus Capital in partnership with our entrepreneurship team, at El Camino College in Torrance on November 19. Our EC unit provides trainings year around to give entrepreneurs knowledge and tools to access capital and grow their businesses. Back by popular demand, a new virtual workshop session has been slated for next Wednesday December 10th.

Season of Strength 2025 Giving Campaign: An Initiative of Generosity

Today is Giving Tuesday, and we are asking you to donate today.
Your support ensures we can close the year with the strength and resources needed to serve our community in the year ahead.

CLICK HERE TO GIVE NOW

This year pushed us to rise in extraordinary ways. We began 2025 responding to unprecedented firestorms across Los Angeles County, stepping into disaster relief while continuing our civil rights mission. We navigated funding challenges brought on by the national DEI rollback, yet still found opportunity in adversity.

And together, we achieved remarkable milestones:

A historic 50th Whitney M. Young Jr. Awards & Celebration
Our uplifting annual Black High School Graduation, awarding $1,000 scholarships to deserving seniors
A successful Celebrity Golf Tournament fundraiser
Record-breaking participation in our programs and cohorts
Fifty entrepreneurs graduating from our Intuit IDEAS cohort
A powerful and inspiring State of Black Los Angeles event

Today, our work is being felt throughout the region advancing education, workforce development, entrepreneurship, advocacy, transportation access, health initiatives, and wildfire recovery and rebuilding.

This is our strength in action, and it is only possible because of generous support from partners, donors, and community members like you.

DONATE NOW

State of Black Los Angeles 2025 | Solidarity in Action: Black and Brown LA.

A Bold Undertaking. A Purposeful Endeavor

That call to action of generous giving played prominently at our State of Black LA (SOBLA) event last month. Our Urban League world is still somewhat abuzz at what unfolded on site during our October 16th forum, as more than 30 speakers took to the stage. We conducted three enlightening panels on health, economic prosperity and immigration solidarity. It was our third annual SOBLA, advocacy-themed, in finding solutions and building pathways forward for underserved communities.

The speaker roster included some of the most remarkable and influential leaders in the state. California Secretary of State Dr. Shirley Weber, LA Mayor Karen Bass, Congresswomen Sydney Kamlager-Dove and Maxine Waters, State Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, LA County Executive Director of Racial Equality Dr. D’Artagnan Scorza, LA County Supervisor Holly Mitchell, USC President Beong-Soo Kim, LA Urban League President & CEO Cynthia Mitchell-Heard and National Urban League President & CEO Marc Morial to name a few. They all offered stirring thought-provoking remarks. To relive all the action, we’ve created an interactive summary brief of SOBLA 2025 titled The Pathway Forward Beyond the Applause. That link offers you the chance to experience what we heard and saw in the room that day. It’s the CliffsNotes version, downloadable too.

Here are some other memories of SOBLA 2025. To access full photo gallery visit here.

Our Programs: Finding Real Solutions to Real Problems

The last 90 days have proved pivotal for our resourceful Programs Division as the list of forged partnerships keeps expanding in the continuing quest of driving impact.

Back in August we celebrated with our partner, Concerned Citizens Community Involvement as CCCI opened doors to SERENITY APARTMENTS in South LA. The new development provides housing to seniors, along with tech skills training which will empower them to thrive in the digital world.

In conjunction with City National Bank we held an informational and well-attended October workshop on access to capital, finding the keys to homeownership and securing a mortgage. A second such workshop is already in the works, scheduled for sometime early 2026.

Let’s welcome one of our newest partners, Western States Regional Carpenters Union. This builders trade has joined forces with us in two new Workforce Development programs. The Raising the Trades: Culture Shift for Workforce Inclusion Program and Building Resilient Infrastructure, and Digital Equity Skills, also known as BRIDGES LA Program.

The high-tech BRIDGES LA Program got underway last month. It’s designed to develop a county-wide training and placement program of workers across three industry aligned pathways; Green Construction, Ethical AI/ Clean Tech, and Data & eDiscovery. These are valuable skills one can acquire to position themselves for tomorrow’s future.

September marked the graduation of cohort 2.0, from one of our most successful entrepreneurship-based programs. We did more however, than just graduate 50 entrepreneurs from our home-grown Intuit IDEAS program. The cohort’s success has spurred expansion of similar programming now to 10 cities across the U.S., along with a dedicated program for veterans. Participants in this venture receive 12-month access to Intuit products, a $5000 grant and monthly workshops on how to grow their businesses. All the fun from the September graduation video here!

Over the summer our entrepreneurship team presented a 7-part learning series designed to help business owners navigate the current economic volatility and uncover new opportunities for growth. Survival in today’s trade war environment is no easy task. Thankfully we can report all of our business owner attendees have made it through, thanks in large part to this insightful series. Learn about LAUL programs here.

Tee’d Off for a Wonderful Cause

Our second annual Celebrity Golf Tournament and fundraiser was nothing short of a community hole-in-one, should we say. About 300 participants flocked to the greens at the picturesque Calabasas Country Club, earlier in the summer. Fabulous door prizes, auction items, vendors along with the weather–set the stage for an ideal event. Media coverage and public awareness was widespread from local newspapers to a segment in People Magazine. Our recap video here to see who had the best strokes, the most fun and all the A-listers who pulled up.

The Award-Winning Los Angeles Urban League

Being honored by your peers is often the most satisfying reward, especially when the award comes from the National Urban League. Surprised yet gladdened he was, when our Education and Workforce Development lead Darrell Hills heard his name announced as the Impact and Innovation Award Honoree in Technology, during the Whitney M. Young Jr. Leadership Conference in October. Darrell our Programs Director, seen on the left with NUL President Marc Morial, attended the awards luncheon in Brooklyn that day as part of our LAUL delegation sent to the conference, but was not aware he’d receive an award. Forever the team player, he accepted on behalf of the entire staff. Congrats Darrell on your fine honor!

Our CEO and President Honored with Distinguished Award from LA Times

Join us in congratulating our chief executive Cynthia Mitchell-Heard for her Los Angeles Times Studio Inspirational Women Forum & Leadership Award. The exclusive awards ceremony was held last month in Santa Monica. It brought together LA’s top executives, entrepreneurs and change makers for a powerful gathering, that featured exhilarating panels and an awards presentation honoring corporate and nonprofit excellence. Cynthia was one of five distinguished honorees in the, Education, Nonprofit and Government category of women honored for “exemplifying true leadership, demonstrating resilience, growth and wisdom.” Congrats Cynthia on your fine honor!