LA's Promise Neighborhood

One of the most impacted communities in South Los Angeles is undergoing transformation, anchored by MLA Partner Schools, a nonprofit with a deep connection to the children, families and history of this community. MLA and its partners turn public schools into community beacons, offering a college-ready education, wraparound services and the support needed to ensure that every neighborhood child leads a healthy, successful life.

At the center of this transformation is one of the city’s oldest schools, Manual Arts High School. Two miles north on Vermont Avenue, West Adams Prep opened in 2007 to relieve decades of overcrowding at Manual Arts, and as the city’s first MLA Partner School, showcases a new model for urban public schools. To the south of Manual Arts is the new “South LA High School No. 3.” Together these three flagship high schools and their feeders represent the promise of a college-ready education and a successful life for every child who lives nearby. MLA is ensuring these schools fulfill that promise and calling the 8.2-square-mile enrollment zone that surrounds these schools LA’s Promise Neighborhood

MLA’s partner school family will soon span from kindergarten through 12th grade and already includes the two existing flagship high schools, Manual Arts and West Adams Prep. Soon, MLA will open smaller high schools specially focused on serving neighborhood children with the greatest academic needs. MLA will also partner with local feeder middle schools to create an educational "pipeline" that keeps children in school and prepares them for college and life beyond high school. In this way and with the community's help, MLA will create a diverse, community-focused family of schools to accommodate the needs of an entire region of our city.

MLA's primary goals are to significantly increase retention, college-readiness, and college matriculation for the children of LA's Promise Neighborhood. To achieve these goals, MLA places emphasis on meeting each student's social, physical and emotional needs as well as academic needs. Schools in the MLA family serve as the hub of wraparound services to support the whole child and family. Over 50 specially screened partners providing over 200 services work together to address the comprehensive needs of the school community. A "universal referral system" ensures that community members of LA's Promise Neighborhood easily connect to MLA's service providers. Of particular importance are community health clinics that will operate at each flagship high school. These clinics will provide basic services (such as eye and dental care) to every child enrolled at MLA schools.

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