Jonathan Coreas travels from the San Fernando Valley to Boyle Heights a few times a month to lead self-defense lessons for girls and teenagers.
The 31-year-old, who has experience in jiu-jitsu, kickboxing, mixed martial arts and boxing, says he enjoys teaching youth self-defense as much as the students enjoy learning it. “It helps build anybody’s confidence, whether it’s a young boy or a young girl or an adult,” he said.
The classes are part of youth programs offered by Girls Today Women Tomorrow and Alma Family Services, which operates under the city’s Gang Reduction and Youth Development program.
Now, Coreas and his team at Alma Family Services hope to expand the program, offering classes to a wider range of community members, potentially at Hollenbeck Recreation Center.
Grant money stuck in limbo
But when he approached the Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council in March to apply for a grant, he learned that funding for Neighborhood Purpose Grants had been frozen due to operational challenges. The funding freeze has stalled access to $24,000 in community grant money.
As the Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council struggles with internal governance issues, funding that supports local programs — from neighborhood beautification to tutoring services — sits unused. If the council can’t resolve its challenges before July 1, the funds will vanish from the budget, cutting off Boyle Heights from vital resources.
“Not receiving funding would mean less opportunity for the community to receive access to programs meant to enrich and empower the lives of community members,” Coreas said.
In past years, funding from Neighborhood Purpose Grants has supported groups like Felicitias and Gonzalo Mendez High School, Abuelitos de Boyle Heights, The Wall Las Memorias and the Weingart-East L.A. YMCA.
What is “exhaustive efforts”?
This fiscal year, the Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council allocated $24,000 of its $55,032.64 budget for Neighborhood Purpose Grants – funds intended to provide up to $5,000 for activities or projects at local public schools and nonprofits. But to date, nothing has been distributed. That’s because in December, the council was placed under “exhaustive efforts,” a restrictive status designated when a council can’t meet certain regulations.
The designation bars the council from issuing grants or donations. It also allows the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, also known as DONE or Empower LA, to step in and support the council in increasing membership and addressing board challenges, according to Ava Marinelli, public information officer for Empower LA.
“The goal of exhaustive efforts is never punitive, but it’s to help the neighborhood council overcome challenges, streamline their operations and get back on track to effectively delivering services to their community,” Marinelli said.
A history of setbacks
While an exhaustive efforts designation isn’t unheard of, Marinelli says, it’s still not the norm. The Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council was placed in exhaustive efforts before, most recently in 2011.
Neighborhood councils serve as a vital connection between the community and the L.A. City Council. While they can’t pass any laws or ordinances, the councils give residents a voice on issues like housing developments or neighborhood concerns.
Local councils must operate under certain bylaws and rules, including quorum requirements, meaning a minimum number of board members must be present to conduct official business — something the Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council has struggled to meet.
May elections mark a race against time
With board elections coming Tuesday, the community has a chance to strengthen the council before the fiscal year ends this summer. But there may not be enough time to move the council out of exhaustive efforts and distribute grants to current applicants.
Typically, up to $10,000 in Neighborhood Purpose Grant funds can roll over to the next fiscal year if gone unspent, according to Marinelli. But if a neighborhood council is in exhaustive efforts during the transition, the funds can’t be carried over into its future budget.
That pressure is what spurred Veronica Polanco to return to the Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council board in February.
Polanco, now the council’s vice president, has served on the council for five terms in different capacities and returned to the board after hearing about the council’s struggles. “I rejoined in hopes of helping support all the administrative stuff that needs to get done,” Polanco said.
A push to rebuild
She and the other members of the council have pushed for greater transparency, offering updates at the top of each monthly meeting to keep community members informed.
She acknowledged that navigating city systems isn’t easy, but said neighborhood councils should be able to bridge that gap. But being limited to what the council can support has been hard, Polanco said, and has hurt engagement.
“It’s hard to recruit new board members and really get the community engaged when they’re coming into something that they feel they have to fix,” she said. “We’re really focused on making sure we’re up and running to the full extent, especially with a new election coming up. We want to hand over a board that’s not in exhausted efforts to the new members.”
To be removed from the exhaustive efforts status, the board must approve all outstanding monthly expenditure reports, complete mandatory training, address and approve a budget for the current and upcoming fiscal year and continue to engage stakeholders. The Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council has seated 10 new board members since December, according to Marinelli, and will seat more after the election.
Marinelli and other representatives of Empower L.A. hope to restore the council to normal operations before July. However, according to a representative from the Neighborhood Council Funding Section of the City Clerk’s office, the deadline to submit payment requests for Neighborhood Purpose Grants is June 1.
Why these grants matter
Losing access to thousands of dollars in grant funds would be unfortunate, said Emmanuel Deleage, executive director of Casa 0101 Theater in Boyle Heights, which received a $2,500 grant in 2024.
The funding allowed the theater to offer students and community groups free tickets for a performance of the play “En Mi Jardin.” If given the opportunity, Deleage said he would “absolutely” apply for a small grant to further support the Eastside’s access to the arts.
“For small and community-based groups, money is always hard to come by,” Deleage said. “I think it’s an important way to distribute resources and share power. If the community group had to go to City Council meetings and advocate for their cause and budget, that would be a never-ending process. The neighborhood council system lowers barriers for access to these resources, even though they’re small.”
To learn more about Neighborhood Purpose Grants, visit the City Clerk’s website here.
Reporting for this story came from notes taken by Los Angeles Documenter Victor Nonato at the Boyle Heights Neighborhood council meeting on March 26, 2025. The Documenters program trains and pays community members to document what happens at public meetings. Check out the meeting notes and audio on Documenters.org.
Editor’s Note: Boyle Heights Beat applied for a Neighborhood Purpose Grant from the Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council in 2024 but was denied due to a complication over the Beat’s address.