Community - Cypress LLP

The Cypress Giving Circle

In 2011, Cypress LLP launched its donor advised fund with Liberty Hill Foundation. The choice to make Liberty Hill a partner in our strategic giving was simple—Liberty Hill has nearly 40 years of history as Los Angeles’s leading social justice grantmaker. Liberty Hill provides us with expert advice about today’s innovative charitable organizations and remarkable community leaders who target the root cause of social problems right here in the Los Angeles area. With this insight, and with the active participation of all members of our Cypress team, we are able to make better philanthropic choices that achieve smarter and more efficient results for a thriving community.

Los Angeles Community Garden Council

The Los Angeles Community Garden Council builds healthier, safer, more self-sufficient communities by helping residents organize and find resources to grow fresh food in their neighborhoods. Founded in 1998, LACGC has built and maintains a constituency of 125 community gardens where Angelenos from diverse cultures and backgrounds meet and collaborate to share best urban agriculture practices, promote social and economic justice, reduce household expenses, provide job training, and beautify Los Angeles. LACGC works with residents and city officials to promote the greening of Los Angeles through urban farming, and envisions building stronger, more resilient communities where residents can connect with one another over the nurturing act of gardening.

Peace4Kids

Peace4Kids is located in, and supports, foster youth from South Los Angeles. Peace4Kids’ mission is to empower foster and at-risk youth from ages 5-18, as well as transitioning adults up to the age of 24 by providing a “community as family” environment. The organization’s programs and services create a solid base for these youth by focusing on creative expression and life skills, allowing them to discover their unique voice and limitless potential for success. As the only California organization that serves foster youth as young as 4 years old through young adulthood, Peace4Kids’ results are found in its programming. Eighty-six percent of its Transition Aged Youth received their high school diplomas, 75% of its eligible youth served are employed or in work-related training. Sixty-seven percent of eligible youth are in post-secondary education or vocational programs and 75% say they know there is someone they can turn to for guidance. With an intimate understanding of the culture of youth in foster care, Peace4Kids fundamentally seeks to improve the child welfare system and help disenfranchised youth discover their potential.

Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra

Kaleidoscope is a conductorless chamber orchestra dedicated to enriching lives through exhilarating concert experiences, artistic excellence, musician leadership, and connecting with the diverse communities of Los Angeles. Kaleidoscope is committed to music education, and also performing free concerts in schools, hospitals, as well as shelters. The orchestra issues an annual call for orchestral scores and chamber music scores to premiere in Los Angeles. All musicians rotate principal and section positions. Kaleidoscope believes that pursuing a democratic process within the orchestra improves the quality of the performance ensemble, and creates a unique experience not found in traditional orchestras. Kaleidoscope brings its performances and artistic process to audiences that have little or no exposure to symphonic music because it believes that the experience will enrich the lives of both the audience and performers.

College Match

College Match is a comprehensive one-on-one college preparatory service for hard-working, low-income high school students at 12 Los Angeles inner-city public schools. Through College Match, each student receives two years of services including SAT prep classes, visits to exemplary colleges all over the country, as well as assistance and advocacy with college applications and financial aid forms. College Match provides its students with support equal to that of a student attending an elite private high school. The success of graduating College Match seniors has reinforced the belief that, given the proper tools, low-income public school students can be as successful as their wealthier peers. Over the past three years, 53% of College Match graduates have been admitted into Ivy League universities and 90% of College Match students have either graduated from college or are on track to graduate.

InnerCity Struggle

For a third year, we continue to support InnerCity Struggle. ICS empowers East Los Angeles youth and families to organize toward economic, social and educational justice, and to promote healthy, safe, and nonviolent communities. ICS’s Food Justice for Eastside Schools campaign mobilizes East Los Angeles students, parents, and local district officials to improve school lunch menus, access to food, and increase the consumption of healthier public school food. Thanks to ICS, LAUSD introduced the Breakfast in the Classroom program to hundreds of LAUSD schools, with plans to expand district-wide. ICS has also been instrumental in establishing the Esteban Torres High School Wellness Center. The Center helps meet a critical need for accessible, targeted and community-relevant healthcare supports that allow local Eastside youth to address their overall health needs. To learn more about InnerCity Struggle and their extraordinary work to help one of California’s most disenfranchised communities organize for change, please visit their website.

Advancing Change