# Watts Rising: A Vision for a Healthier Watts

> **NIH NIH OT2** · HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF LOS ANGELES · 2023 · $1,124,989

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
Watts is a community in Southeast Los Angeles that has faced systematic disinvestment, discrimination,
and resource deprivation, resulting in health disparities across multiple domains including high rates of
diabetes and obesity, high pollution burdens and limited employment opportunities. Watts residents,
almost exclusively people of color, (73% Latinx and 25% Black/African American), have a life expectancy
twelve years lower than other parts of Los Angeles, largely due to decades of neglect the community has
faced. This proposal builds on the work of the existing Watts Rising Collaborative (WRC) to address this
neglect through a community-led approach to develop and evaluate an intervention that will address
two primary structural factors that contribute to these disparities and health outcomes: access to
resources and food insecurity and economic instability. The project will be developed through a
partnership between the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles, the University of California Los
Angeles and Charles Drew University as well as the 50 members of the WRC and Watts residents. We
will employ an intervention mapping process to refine an intervention that will develop a network of
community gardens that will provide opportunities for increased access to healthy foods, green space
and physical activity as well as entrepreneurial opportunities for businesses utilizing food from the
gardens. Ultimately, we anticipate the intervention will decrease rates of preventable chronic disease in
Watts and provide opportunities for workforce development. This intervention has the potential to
positively affect the entirety of the Watts community of approximately 40,000 residents.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10782014
- **Project number:** 1OT2OD035940-01
- **Recipient organization:** HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF LOS ANGELES
- **Principal Investigator:** Katrina Kubicek
- **Activity code:** OT2 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2023
- **Award amount:** $1,124,989
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2023-09-20 → 2028-09-19

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10782014

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10782014, Watts Rising: A Vision for a Healthier Watts (1OT2OD035940-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10782014. Licensed CC0.

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