Rooted in Resilience

The Living Fabric of Los Angeles’ Wellbeing Economy

Image Credit: Cottonwood Urban Farm

In the heart of Los Angeles, where freeways coil like arteries and wealth disparity casts long shadows, a quiet revolution is taking root. It is not loud or headline-hungry. It grows in gardens behind churches, in cooperatively owned storefronts, in the hands of neighbors who refuse to let each other fall. This is the living fabric of LA’s wellbeing economy, a constellation of people-powered initiatives that place care, equity, and ecological balance above profit.

Land and Housing: Reclaiming Ground, Rebuilding Trust

In El Sereno, a neighborhood long targeted by speculative developers, the El Sereno Community Land Trust is reclaiming land for the people. Born from decades of organizing, the trust now stewards properties once slated for demolition by Caltrans. “We are not just fighting for homes,” says Executive Director Brenda Tafoya. “We are fighting for the right to stay rooted in our community, to live with dignity.”

Across town in Koreatown, the Beverly-Vermont Community Land Trust is decommodifying housing by acquiring multi-family buildings and placing them under permanent community stewardship. Their model centers tenant leadership and prioritizes working-class Asian and Latinx residents. “We talk about land as a commons,” says a BVCLT organizer. “It’s about collective care, not private gain.”

These land trusts are part of a broader coalition supported by Liberty Hill Foundation, which incubates and funds five CLTs across LA. Together, they are stitching a safety net where the market has failed.

Food and Resource Sharing: Cultivating Sovereignty

On a rooftop in Skid Row, volunteers with the Los Angeles Community Action Network tend raised beds of kale, tomatoes, and herbs. This is not charity. It is food sovereignty in action. “We’re not just feeding people,” says a volunteer named Marisol. “We’re growing power.”

In South LA, Avenue 33 Farm offers weekly produce boxes and volunteer days that connect neighbors to the land and to each other. Their mission is simple: grow food, grow community. Meanwhile, Cottonwood Urban Farm in Panorama City teaches regenerative agriculture and hosts workshops on composting, seed saving, and soil health.

These farms often collaborate with mutual aid networks and food justice organizations like the LA Food Policy Council, which unites over 400 groups under a shared vision of equitable, sustainable food systems. Their language is one of “nourishment,” “access,” and “justice.”

Work and Ownership: Building Democracy at Work

In Southeast LA, a pop-up coffee cart called Collective Avenue Coffee has grown into a cooperative hub known as COOP LA. It houses four worker-owned businesses, including a catering company and a wellness collective. “We’re not just resisting gentrification,” says co-founder Kateri Gutierrez. “We’re creating alternatives.”

The Los Angeles Worker Center Network supports co-ops like CleanWash Mobile, the first carwash worker cooperative in the U.S., and Courage Homecare, a homecare co-op led by immigrant women. These businesses are rooted in values of “dignity,” “solidarity,” and “self-determination.”

Training and incubation come from groups like LA Co-op Lab, which sees worker ownership as a tool for economic justice and community resilience.

Finance: Rewiring Capital for Collective Good

Money, too, is being reimagined. Public Bank LA is pushing for a city-owned bank that would reinvest public funds into affordable housing, green infrastructure, and small businesses. Co-founder David Jette calls it “a tool for economic democracy.”

Credit unions like Los Angeles Federal Credit Union and USC Credit Union offer community-centered banking, while California Credit Union supports educators and public servants. These institutions prioritize transparency, member ownership, and reinvestment in local needs.

Ecological Regeneration: Healing Land, Honoring Lineage

At the Los Angeles Eco-Village, permaculture is not just a gardening technique, it is a philosophy of interdependence. Residents grow food, harvest rainwater, and teach others how to live in harmony with the earth. “We’re modeling what’s possible,” says a longtime member.

Devorah Brous has transformed vacant church lots into edible gardens across the city. Her work with faith institutions brings permaculture to underserved neighborhoods, creating what she calls “resilience gardens.” These spaces offer shade, food, and sanctuary.

Many of these efforts honor Indigenous stewardship. The Gabrieleno Confederation of Tovaangar participates in land rematriation and cultural revitalization, reminding us that regeneration is also about remembering.

Technology and Infrastructure: Coding for the Commons

In the digital realm, Hack for LA is a civic tech collective building tools for public good. Their projects include Food Oasis, which maps food pantries, and Expunge Assist, which helps people clear criminal records. “We’re volunteers,” says a project lead. “But we’re also technologists who believe in justice.”

PledgeLA, a coalition of tech firms and venture capitalists, is working to diversify the tech sector and invest in underrepresented founders. While still tethered to capital, their efforts signal a shift toward accountability and inclusion.

Interwoven Futures: Toward a Post-Capitalist Los Angeles

These initiatives do not exist in silos. The land trust grows food with the urban farm. The co-op banks with the credit union. The civic tech project maps the mutual aid network. This is not a utopia. It is a patchwork of real people doing real work, often with limited resources and against systemic odds.

Yet together, they form a living fabric, a post-capitalist ecosystem rooted in care, cooperation, and community. They speak the language of “regeneration,” “solidarity,” and “belonging.”

Still, gaps remain. Many neighborhoods lack access to these resources. Funding is precarious. Policy support is inconsistent. And the wellbeing economy must reckon with its own inclusivity, ensuring that Black, Indigenous, disabled, and undocumented communities are not just served, but centered.

A Call to Action

If you live in LA, volunteer at a community land trust, join a worker co-op, or support your local urban farm. If you live elsewhere, look to these models as blueprints. Share their stories. Fund their work. Start your own.

The wellbeing economy is not a distant dream. It is already here, growing in the cracks of a broken system. All it needs is more hands in the soil.