SurveyLA Receives Second CLG Grant from State

The City of Los Angeles has received a 2008-09, $20,000 Certified Local Government (CLG) grant from the State of California to assist the OHR in developing a tailored guide for community participation in SurveyLA -- "MYhistoricLA: A Guide to Neighborhood Participation in SurveyLA."

With its first CLG grant last year, the OHR produced a multi-lingual SurveyLA informational brochure, translated and distributed a SurveyLA educational video, and put in place the first phase of a volunteer Speakers Bureau program. While the Speakers Bureau is an excellent tool to communicate the importance of the survey, some communities are grappling with how to organize themselves and contribute information to the project. Since the OHR has limited staff, the new CLG grant will enable the office to work with a contract consultant to develop the MYhistoricLA guide.

The guide will include a menu of activities from which community members and organizations and can select to help gather information about potential historic resources. It will allow neighborhoods to take ownership of and manage their own activities related to the survey while giving them specific guidance regarding the type of information needed and the format within which it should be submitted. The activities are intended to be completed in advance of the field surveys, and the information collected will be preloaded into the SurveyLA database field interface. This will provide surveyors direct access to this information while in the field via the tablet PCs.

The OHR and contract consultant will be developing the guide over the next year. It will be made available to the public in CD or hard copy notebook format, in the fall of 2009, and promoted through the Speakers Bureau, SurveyLA website, OHR E-Newsletter and other venues. The OHR will distribute the guide to the City's 90 Certified Neighborhood Councils, local chambers of commerce, historical societies, neighborhood and homeowners associations, and museums and cultural institutions