• Stories from the Community

Building on the Watts Rising legacy — with resident leaders at the helm

BACKGROUND:

This case study shows how Watts Rising partners have leveraged TCC funds to secure National Institute of Health investment to further address health disparities and continue to cultivate community leaders along the way. In September 2023, the Watts Rising Collaborative partners, Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles, Charles Drew University, the UCLA Clinical Translational Science Department, and community members were awarded a National Institute of Health Community Partnerships to Advance Science for Society (ComPASS) grant. The purpose of the federal grant is to empower community members to design an intervention focused on addressing the conditions that influence health, such as neighborhood and built environment, economic stability, education, and others. This story highlights Khnia Whiteside and Jorge Gonzalez, two members of the Community Leadership Council (Council), which informs Watts’ ComPASS intervention. The Council was formed in response to the sunset of the TCC grant and community members’ desire to continue to bring transformative change to Watts.

Interviews for this case study were conducted in February 2025.

JORGE GONZALEZKHNIA WHITESIDE

JORGE GONZALEZ has lived in the Watts community for about 24 years, and he and his wife raised their three daughters there. Gonzalez and his daughters founded 5 LA Nuevo Comienzo, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering low-income families with young children to access museums, physical education, and language classes in South Central Los Angeles. In his day job, Gonzalez works for Southern California Crossroads, an organization that distributes food boxes and organizes resource fairs.

Jorge Gonzalez at a Watts Rising community meeting to discuss projects and plans, photo credit: Courtesy of Jorge Gonzalez

The vision of Watts Rising was big … [and] many [of the] community leaders inspired me … [so] I wanted to be involved with this new group [to help steer the direction of the ComPASS project].

In 2019, Gonzalez became a Watts Rising Community Advisory Group member. The TCC-funded Advisory Group was created to offer advice on TCC-related projects and plans from the community’s perspective. The Advisory Group, composed of Watts residents, business owners, and community leaders, met with project leads bi-monthly.

As the implementation of Watts Rising and the Advisory Group wrapped up, Gonzalez sought new opportunities to stay involved in his community. When he learned about the National Institute of Health-funded opportunity to serve as a Community Leadership Council (Council) member with the ComPass project, he took action.

Every month, Gonzalez meets with the rest of the Council members to offer insights on its planning phase. He is particularly interested in making sure the ComPASS project benefits Watts youth, which has been a hallmark of his service to the community.

Being involved [in the Council] interested me because … I see many youth who are interested in studying and going to four-year universities, [but] this isn’t accessible to many youth in Watts … It is upsetting to see this happen… I would like to help young folks to achieve their dreams and to help my community.

The Council has helped me understand different perspectives and visions from others. When you converse with others, you see their point of view better and you learn how to respect others’ point of views

Gonzales said being a Council member has been a valuable networking and learning experience. For example, he has met and bonded with various community leaders working toward the common goal of neighborhood improvement in Watts. Hearing the different ways that they approach their work in the community has been a particularly enriching experience for Gonzalez.

KHNIA WHITESIDE, has lived in Watts for over 30 years and proudly raised her two daughters there. They all continue to live in the community. Whiteside owns a business where she cleans homes, medical offices, and commercial buildings.

Khnia Whiteside at Markham Middle School clean-up event held on May 3, 2025, photo credit: UCLA Luskin Center for Innovati

I wanted to improve my community, improve the conditions for us to get the things that everyone else gets [such as] home loans, micro-business loans… whatever we need to buy homes [and] get back accounts… to build up the community.

Whiteside has been a resident representative within the Council since its inception in November 2023. She learned how to get involved with the Council through her youngest daughter, who signed her up because she knew her mom values being involved in the community and strives to be a positive force for change. For example, Whiteside has been an active volunteer in Watts community clean-up events, resource fairs, and local workshops on topics such as water contamination awareness.

Whiteside is committed to attending the Council’s monthly meetings and serves as the Vice President of the four-member clean-up subcommittee. Her duties include communicating with the public about clean-up events. As an active member of her church, Whiteside often shares invitations there.

We schedule clean-ups for the community … we get young people involved … their families are involved as a way to bridge the [communication] gap so we can communicate [effectively] and see what we need [in the community] … and help each other with resources.

We all communicate regularly, we send each community resources, … they all like my videos because they find them encouraging… everyone is helpful … they really want to help you … we respect one another.

Whiteside’s participation in the Council has provided her with peers who inspire one another. Through their group chats, they share resources and information.

Whiteside also credited her time on the Council with helping her form a connection with the City of LA’s Mayor’s Office of Community Business, which provides helpful entrepreneurial workshops. From these workshops, Whiteside has learned money management best practices and become more comfortable asking for the support of her personal and business network in sustaining her small business.

I learned how to sit at a table with other business people and ask for their help, because I’m a company of one right now, so I’m used to having to juggle everything on my own.

I learned how to sit at a table with other business people and ask for their help, because I’m a company of one right now, so I’m used to having to juggle everything on my own.

Top page photo:
Watts Rising Community Leadership Council convening for their Saturday workshops. Khnia Whiteside and Jorge Gonzalez are pictured in the group.
Photo credit: Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles