Imagine Hope - Dec 2020
Looking Back, Looking Ahead:
An Interview with Jill Bauman
Imagine Hope is a one-year blogging project being undertaken by Caitlin Newby as she engages with Imagine LA at the deepest levels and shares her experiences and reflections.
A few days before Thanksgiving, I managed to catch Jill Bauman, President and CEO of Imagine LA, on the phone to discuss what she was most proud of accomplishing at Imagine LA this past year, as well as some of the things she is most looking forward to in the year ahead. As someone new to the Imagine LA family, only involved in a small way with the goings on of the organization, I was astounded by all that Jill and the Imagine LA team have accomplished and set in motion!
I started off by asking a rather large question: How has Imagine LA adapted its program of mentorship and family support in the past year, making sure that families and volunteers are connected, supported, and safe in a year of such unprecedented turbulence?
Jill began by praising the Imagine LA team’s rapid response to the needs of Imagine LA families, “meeting them where their needs were,” whether that was translating safety information and county ordinances or offering IT support so that parents and kids could stay connected to work and school. Within weeks of Los Angeles County’s shutdown in March, Imagine LA had pivoted to online mentor trainings, organized its first of several Grab & Go events, and established a COVID Emergency Family & Investment Fund to help those families that had their hours cut or lost their job entirely maintain their housing.
The outpouring of support from individual donors, faith partners, and sponsors was “a marvel to see and deeply humbling,” Jill noted. They received so many donations for their Family Fun Kits that they were even able to outsource their goods to other outreach organizations!
Aside from this incredible response to the global pandemic, the Imagine LA team and board members began a process of purposefully and mindfully building equity and inclusion into the mission and day-to-day activity of the organization. Imagine LA was working on both the small and large scale to help families, from providing guidance and support following the civil unrest after the murder of George Floyd, to further developing their Financial Wellness Pathways initiative, begun in 2019.
Speaking of which, in spite of everything, today 39 Imagine LA families are on pathways to living wage jobs!
The developments in this area of Imagine LA’s work was the most surprising and exciting to me. In 2021, Jill revealed, Imagine LA will be launching a financial literacy co-curriculum with Operation Hope, which will help past and current families with banking, budgeting, and navigating the stressful and confusing guidelines and restrictions on social benefits.
The lack of clarity as to where the income thresholds are and the subsequent loss of benefits once a family makes a certain amount inspired Imagine LA to set up a task force and fund research into this problem with the USC Price School of Public Policy. Jill was so excited, as was I, while discussing this major development in Imagine LA’s impact.
Not only are they doing the day-today work of supporting individual families, but they have elevated their focus to a broader systemic policy examination of how and why the lack of clarity regarding social benefits affects all families.
In 2021, Jill stated, Imagine LA will be focusing on a continuation of the programs and events that it already runs so well, while continuing to expand its reach and impact in the LA area. It is a hardworking, collaborative, and supportive group of people that make up the Imagine LA family, and their work in the months and year to come is sure to be as impressive and inspiring as it was in 2020!
