We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Carlos Campero. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Carlos below.

Carlos, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

The first line of our mission states, “to grow a greener future for Los Angeles.” I was hired as the new Executive Director of City Plants, a non-profit of the City of LA, nine months ago with the goal of fulfilling our mission. Growing up in South Central Los Angeles, I had the privilege of having a Dad with a green thumb who loved having plants and trees at home. I “grew” to appreciate trees. As a teen, I worked part-time at my high school and often worked on landscaping my school and maintaining our green spaces. But that’s not the case for every young child in Los Angeles. Many of our communities were redlined. If you were to drive along Vermont Ave from Los Feliz blvd to the 105 freeway, you’d see the vast difference in tree canopy just along that one street. As ED of City Plants, it’s my mission to facilitate trees getting in the ground, engage the community in doing this, and thereby create more Tree stewards as we increase tree canopy. It’s about maintaining those trees and our existing tree canopy. It’s about offering more than just trees. It’s about engaging the public and providing the knowledge of what trees can give us. Cleaner air, shading our streets, cooling down our neighborhoods, and making a greener and healthier Los Angeles.

Carlos, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

When I was 18, I was hired by the LA Corps to be a Crew Supervisor for Middle School aged kids as part of their Clean & Green program. On a training day, we were taken to Temescal Canyon and went on a nature hike with a naturalist who taught us about native trees. He showed us a tree that had been carved on it. He explained that a study was conducted where scientists placed hypersonic microphones on a tree and proceeded to carve on it. They could hear the tree scream. At that point, I was convicted and challenged. I decided then to become an advocate for Trees. It wasn’t until later in my career that I realized the beauty of trees and the benefits of trees. I studied and became a certified arborist and now I am an advocate for the Urban Forest. I advocate for people and trees. We go together. At City Plants we don’t just plant trees, but we tell the story of why trees are so important. We engage with the communities and neighborhoods of Los Angeles to educate and ideally grow more tree stewards while increasing tree canopy cleaning our air, shading our streets, and capturing stormwater runoff. It all ties in together, and it all matters to ours and the next generation’s future.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Working in the Nonprofit sector can be very competitive. There are not always grants or funds available to do the work we’re passionate about. So, you can tend to be singular-minded. What I learned is that when we work together, we can accomplish more. For example, if I work on a proposal to plant trees but have deficiencies, my chances of receiving the grant and achieving our goals are limited. But if we work together with a partner agency, my strengths and their strengths together make a better proposal and a stronger impact. We may not even be doing the same work, but our work is complimentary to the overall mission and goals of our organization, and bigger than that, the impact on the communities we serve, we’re better for it. We have to approach things from a position of humility. I stopped trying to compete for every dollar but instead looked for partners who have a shared vision and are willing to partner with us to make the difference our missions state. At City Plants it’s about bringing people and resources together because it’s bigger than just us. We have to think globally, not selfishly.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Social Media is an awesome tool, but it can also be pretty intimidating. At City Plants, we have the privilege of having four young women who are our California Climate Action Fellows. Because I am actually aware that I didn’t know the difference between a tweet and a story or a post, I needed help. These four young women have taken it upon themselves to dig deeper into our patterns and look for opportunities to use our social media to tell our stories. To engage the public and share with them what we’re about and ask them to follow along. I would suggest you ask for help. Don’t try to figure it out on your own. Look for partners you work with, surf around, and see how others do it. Don’t get overwhelmed; be willing to seek out others like “influencers” who support your mission. Closed mouths don’t get fed. Ask for help.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.cityplants.org/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cityplantsla/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=city%20plants
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/city-plants/posts/?feedView=all

Image Credits

Image 2 – California Climate Action Corps Fellows