our story

Los Angeles is home—and where 24LA’s story began.

24LA (Together, For Love, Always) was founded in the immediate aftermath of the January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires by best friends Malin Smith and Kenyan Armitage. Within 48 hours, we mobilized to meet urgent needs, rapidly growing from a grassroots relief effort into a community-powered response serving thousands of fire-affected Angelenos.

What began as emergency relief has evolved into something much bigger: a new model for what comes after.

As the immediate crisis passed, the needs of the communities we served didn’t disappear. They changed. Recovery became less about the emergency in front of us and more about the months and years ahead—the places people return to, the connections that hold communities together, and the sense of belonging that disaster can profoundly disrupt.

That realization reshaped 24LA.

Today, we are building a model for long-term disaster recovery that addresses both the physical and human dimensions of recovery—revitalizing shared spaces, investing in the arts, creating meaningful programming, and bringing people together in ways that strengthen connection, joy, and belonging.

Because art, human connection, joy, belonging, and a renewed sense of place are not secondary to recovery. They are essential to it.