Since 1965, the Watts Labor Community Action Committee has made it its mission to uplift and improve the lives of the people in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Watts through resources, education, and movement building.

They have helped build housing, bring public transportation to the area, fostered educational opportunities and, at two different sites, free tax preparation services and access to tax credits each tax season.

Mayra Espindola, Program Manager for the Family Source Center and Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Site Coordinator, estimates that the two VITA sites WLCAC runs serve at least 600 people per tax season. For many, getting their taxes done at WLCAC is a gateway to accessing the many other services they offer and getting to the point where financial stability is a reality.

 

 

“We work hard to help our community members become financially stable because we want them to become self-sufficient,” Espindola said. “We want them to take full advantage of our services and know that they can learn new skills and have support. So many families come in without goals, without knowing where they’ll be financially next year. Tax preparation and financial planning helps us to address that issue.”

This is part of WLCAC’s bigger strategy to centralize services and bring services that they had been referring people to–such as free tax preparation–in-house. The goal is to remain a centralized place where the community knows they can get a range of services and the help they need.

And, since they became a Community Connect grantee through Golden State Opportunity, expanding those services has become even more of a possibility.

“We were interested in becoming a partner so we could expand these services in our community,” Espindola said. “We also wanted the opportunity to grow our network and work with other partners in one central place. We wanted to learn and collaborate with them, with multiple service offerings in one place. We’ve definitely been able to do that.”

WLCAC’s free tax preparation service is so popular that in 2023 they opened up tax services at a second site to address the demand in the area.

Last tax season, WLCAC also helped to host one of GSO’s signature Tacos & Taxes events, which featured State Senator Steven Bradford and enabled dozens of community members to get their taxes done while getting a free meal.

Ariel Gonzalez, Program Manager, emphasized that so much of WLCAC’s work has been geared toward building trust in the community and becoming a reliable VITA provider has been a big part of this.

Ariel Gonzalez, WLCAC

 

Learn more about WLCAC