Our Story
Community Loving is a volunteer-run organization redistributing resources and building power with working-class families and youth living in the South Bay of LA.
Our Vision
Our Vision is to transform the South Bay into a self-sufficient and compassionate society; one liberated from exploitative and oppressive systems. In this new South Bay, a love ethic fuels life-affirming institutions and an economy of mutual care, where everyone’s needs are met so we can do more than just survive.
We are a political project born out of necessity, not choice. Pending revolution, we help our community survive a system that prioritizes profit over people and the planet.
In doing so, we empower each other to reclaim autonomy, model new relationships, and organize for collective liberation.
who we are
We are a 100% volunteer-run, grassroots organization founded and led by CL Members — working-class South Bay natives. Our work is rooted in the place we call home and guided by our shared Love Ethic, Community Agreements, and a structured commitment system.
What we do
We organize monthly free stores as an act of community solidarity. Our space offers a dignified, welcoming shopping experience where guests can choose clothing, toiletries, baby items, and other essentials at no cost. It serves as both a redistribution hub and a gathering place for accessing resources and building connections. Since 2020, we’ve shared resources with over thousands of families across the South Bay and Greater Los Angeles.
This is not charity—it’s a survival program rooted in collective care and mutual support.
Our Goals
👚 Provide Immediate Survival Support
Meet essential needs—including food, clothing, and hygiene supplies—to help our community navigate and resist systemic failure.
💜 Cultivate a Culture of Mutual Care
Model and normalize a collective responsibility, reciprocity, and care-based relationships in everyday practice—both within Community Loving and throughout the communities we organize with.
🤝 Build Community & South Bay Solidarity
Foster meaningful connections among volunteers, participants, and South Bay residents, creating lasting networks that transcend transactional relationships. Partner with aligned organizations to amplify collective action and shared resources.
🛠 create Dual Power
Develop community-led infrastructure (resource networks, support systems, democratic spaces) that prefigure and replace capitalist institutions, moving beyond critique to functional alternatives.
💡 Raise Political Consciousness
Educate and engage community members through dialogue, materials, and shared practice about root causes of inequality and the value of mutual aid.
Our Love ethic
The living, breathing heartbeat of how we build community.
Inspired by bell hooks, we commit to replacing domination with care, isolation with connection, and punishment with justice rooted in love. These are our shared values —practiced daily in how we relate, organize, and act together.
We move forward imperfectly and persistently, weaving these values into everything we do, toward the world we know is possible.
“Domination cannot exist in any social situation where a love ethic prevails.” - bell hooks
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Acting with honesty, transparency, and alignment between values and actions, fostering trust and consistency in relationships and community work.
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Centering care, dignity, and the flourishing of all people, especially those most marginalized, resisting systems that diminish life.
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Recognizing that our liberation is bound together, rejecting individualism, and fostering relationships of reciprocity and mutual support.
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Building practices, relationships, and structures that nurture long-term collective care, remaining resilient and regenerative.
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Removing barriers—physical, financial, emotional, and systemic—so that all people, especially the most marginalized, can fully participate and receive care.
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Holding ourselves and each other accountable with love, prioritizing repair, transformation, and systemic change over punishment, and working toward liberation.
