| Mission Statement The Ethiopian Community Los Angeles, ECLA, is an inclusive, nonpolitical, and nonreligious civic organization aiming to address the social, economic, and educational needs of Ethiopian immigrants, and others in similar situations, residing in the Greater Los Angeles area of Southern California. ECLA is committed to promote the history and the cultural heritage of Ethiopia at large. |
|
.png)
About Us
Our Values:
- We promote inclusiveness, so members feel safe, respected, and comfortable in expressing all aspects of their identities.
- We celebrate the diversity and autonomy of individual members.
- We empower members to willingly give service with transparency and accountability.
- We practice responsible stewardship of resources, as well as expenditures in pursuance of our organization’s mission.
- We intentionally encourage intergenerational social interactions to facilitate the acquisition of language, culture, and history.
- We respond to our communities responsively by meeting needs that the government and the market do not meet.
- We model servant leadership by inspiring others to share in our organization’s vision and mission.
- We develop teamwork by embracing trust, conflict management, commitment, accountability and focusing on result
Our History:
The Ethiopian Community Los Angeles was established after a year of meetings and conversations between like-minded individuals on how to tackle the social problems .JPG)
arising in the Ethiopian immigrant community. A town hall community meeting was convened on September 28th, 2019, to call for Board recruitment and a month later the organization elected an eleven-member board. Amid the Covid19 pandemic ECLA converted to a virtual nonprofit. Over the next few months medical teams were assembled to deliver bilingual public panels to educate the community about the new pandemic. In late July ten more subcommittees were created and ECLA began delivering services based on its mission of educational, economic, and social needs. I am very humbled by what our team of outstanding volunteers have built over the past year, and even more excited about where ECLA can go next. The organization is building a reputation in Los Angeles and beyond with its mission centric services to the Ethiopian community. And we are just getting started.
Our future is full of hope as we see an increase in supporters partaking in our programs and services. Our supporters are beginning to understand and embrace the value of our mission and vision. We are using our team of excellent talent, and
best practices to expand reach and practice high impact services across Los Angeles. ECLA is leading the way as more and more similarly situated organizations are approaching us for collaborative projects. We are developing a strong reputation in our communities.
Our volunteers are our assets that have set us up to lead, expand, and sustain this community organization. Over the next two years we will reach more clients in the Greater Los Angeles region and beyond. We are anxious to expand our programs to continue meeting the growing needs of our primary beneficiaries. Our existing programs and services are important building blocks to continue to have maximum impact on our communities, and beyond. All our volunteers and
Board members were involved in strategically assessing the organization through SWOT analysis and risk mitigation activities before collaboratively developing goals and objectives for the two-year strategic plan. Our public relations team wrote the marketing plan so we would be able to raise even more funds to serve more beneficiaries.
ECLA is run by seven subcommittees, each addressing a different need. Our long-term goals include a health fair, creating Padlets on our website, weekly Amharic lessons, a
STEM lab, mentoring youth, holding job fairs, college counseling, mental health counseling, elderly engagement, and pro bono services through our legal team.
A key part of our strategy is to continue to look ahead toward a healthy and strategic growth. As you read about our plans, we hope you will imagine yourself as a future ECLA partner and be part of our theory of change.
Team ECLA
