SALUTATION

About Jay Levin
President and founder of Community Media Project

Mr. Levin, best known as the founder of the LA Weekly, is currently the founder and managing director of the media development company, TN Media, whose mission is creating high-quality progressive media and entertainment in all media forms. He is also president of the non-profit Share With the Other L.A. Campaign, an effort of the Community Media Project, which he founded, to mobilize L.A. County residents to take action against mass poverty and hunger in the county. Jay also took the lead in the formation of Media Challenge, a joint effort of the peace and social justice groups in Los Angeles.

Jay has also been CEO and founder of Planet Central Television, a startup independent cable network that suspended broadcast and Internet operations in 1996 because of lack of TV channel space availability. He is noted in the industry for his general editorial and marketing creativity and for his experience as a leading independent culture and news specialist with an extensive range of contacts throughout numerous communities and social movements.

Jay has served on the boards of Wave Publications, Inc., in Los Angeles and Metro Publications, Inc. in San Jose, California. Among other past philanthropic and civic activities, he has been on the board of Americans for Democratic Action and the on the advisory boards of Liberty Hill Foundation. The Labor Community Strategy Center and Amazon Watch. He was the founder of the Remaking L.A. organization and of the Committee of Concern For Central America. He is a former member of the Social Venture Network and of Conscious Business Alliance.


A note from Jay Levin

Some years ago I founded the LA Weekly. We covered poverty in Los Angeles county extensively during my years as editor. We also gave both editorial space and special event support to many grassroots organizations working for community economic development and for poverty relief.

It wasn't enough. With little attention from other media, while LA County grew to be the largest and wealthiest county in the U.S., it simultaneously became the region that houses the most hungry and poor. High-paid manufacturing and aerospace jobs in the region were cut way back. Sweatshops proliferated in their place.

By 2004, following 25 years of cutbacks in federal poverty programs under Republican and Democratic administrations alike and see-saw state and county spending, LA County has two realities. One is prosperous and we see it everywhere. The other is largely hidden from view and struggling every day just to eat and keep a roof over a family's head, with diminishing success. The struggling LA consists of some 3 million people, so we are talking mass poverty here.

In recent years, after leaving the Weekly, I've worked with many media professionals to awaken the public to this reality. Our belief is people can't act on what they don't know about. Share With the Other LA is intended to mobilize individual and community action in part by making it easy for individuals to know what's going on and to find a role for themselves. This is the core solution to poverty: Get involved. Once a community puts its mind to solving a problem, it gets solved. And with poverty, the entire community's prosperity rises with the poor.

So click on one or more of the get-involved links: Advocacy, Volunteer, Donate or just get more information.