Watts Leadership Institute

Recognizing that the Watts community had become a hub for nonprofits and community-based leaders, Jorja Leap and Karrah Lompa of UCLA Luskin Social Welfare founded the Watts Leadership Institute (WLI) in 2016 to provide ongoing support and education around capacity building, specifically focusing on fundraising diversification and strategy, board leadership, and organizational technical assistance. In this way, WLI works to maximize the impact that community leaders and organizations can have in this historic community. 

WLI utilizes a cohort model focused on sustainability and independence. The original WLI cohort, which included six organizations, began training in 2016. In 2020, a new group of individuals and organizations was tapped to become the second cohort, and a third cohort launched in 2023. Through this structure, each cohort passes on its knowledge and skills to the next cohort, and this capacity-building will continue to spread throughout the Watts community in a self-sustaining way over time.