Spring 2025 Cohort
The projects below will take place April - June 2025.
Each leader brings their own skills, resources, and networks to support community wellbeing in Santa Monica and the West LA area.
As program dates are scheduled, this page will be updated to inform community members of how they can participate in each project!
Noble Flower Network's Climate Action & Literacy Youth Sci-Fi / Fantasy Fellowship
Bee Barba Padilla
This fellowship is a six-week program for youth (ages 15-24) to explore climate action and literacy through Sci-Fi literature, poetry, and media. The fellowship prioritizes diverse, underrepresented youth and aims to cultivate leadership in environmental justice, sustainability, and climate disaster preparedness.
Patricia's Crochet
Patricia Lopez
Patricia's Crochet is a series of crochet workshops for Spanish-speaking seniors. Participants will learn to create purses/bags using advanced crochet techniques, fostering creativity, reducing stress, and building confidence.
Patricia's Crochet es una serie de talleres de crochet para personas mayores hispanohablantes. Los participantes aprenderán a crear bolsos con técnicas avanzadas de crochet, fomentando la creatividad, reduciendo el estrés y fortaleciendo la confianza.
Suelta
Lina Cordero Suarez
Suelta is a community wellness project for Latina women, offering a joyful space for self-care through dance, movement, and connection. The gatherings will provide a supportive, kid- and pet-friendly environment to reduce stress and build community.
That's a Relief
Amy Lucero
That’s a Relief is a community printmaking project designed to foster self-expression, storytelling, and community connection through hands-on workshops. Participants will learn linocut and printmaking techniques to create artwork that reflects personal and collective narratives. Hosted at Locals Night at the Pier, the project supports financial empowerment by offering mentorship on selling handmade prints, and aims to build a more engaged and expressive community while promoting equity and healing through art.
Good Luck Yogi
JC Das
Good Luck Yogi will support foster children (ages 4-10) in Los Angeles with mindfulness tools to manage stress and build emotional resilience. The program includes live meditation sessions at foster care facilities, free access to a kid-friendly meditation app, and a children's book on empathy and emotional awareness.
The Native Plants of Santa Monica
Isabella Moneta
Ecosystems of Collective Healing
Camellia Lee
Ecosystems of Collective Healing is a community-based event that offers an embodied experience of connection to the land, traditional healing practices, and collective care. Participants will gain tools to support their own and their loved ones' physical and mental health, centering Indigenous knowledge, healing justice, and economic empowerment. Rooted in historical and research-based healing practices, this initiative fosters belonging, health, and resilience in communities most impacted by systemic violence.
Give One, Take One: Body Care for Wildfire Relief
Carol Zou
Give One, Take One: Body Care for Wildfire Relief is a mutual aid project offering a workshop where participants create herbal body care products for themselves and wildfire-affected communities. Attendees will learn healing practices while distributing items to frontline workers and those displaced by recent wildfires.