The Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture has announced $750,000 in grant awards for 63 nonprofit social justice and social service organizations and city departments, as a part of its Community Impact Arts Grant program.

Unlike Arts and Culture’s long-standing funding for nonprofits with a primary mission in the arts, CIAG supports arts-based programs of social justice and service organizations, recognizing their reach in underserved and marginalized communities. CIAG was designed to address two priorities: make arts services available to L.A. County residents who might not experience them through traditional arts venues and outlets, and encourage the intersection of the arts in cross-sector work in local nonprofits.

CIAG grantees include mental health, disability, environmental, homeless, immigrant rights, youth, justice reform and veteran service organizations. The one-year awards support a variety of community projects.

The CIAG program began with seed funding from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2015 and evolved as a pilot program over the next six years. In April, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a motion authored by Supervisor Holly Mitchell, 2nd District, and co-authored by Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Chair Hilda Solis, 1st District, to sustain and expand funding to CIAG.

“Research tells us that communities with access to cultural resources have better health, education and safety,” Mitchell said. “But there needs to be more equity in how we target these resources and investments. The motion I authored this spring with Supervisor Solis affirms the Community Impact Arts Grant program and its power to deliver cultural funding, programs and services to under-served L.A. County areas and neighborhoods.”