Snap CEO helps launch LA wildfire recovery program

In Brief

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel and Miguel Santana, the chief executive of the California Community Foundation, are launching a program focused on helping residents in Altadena and Pacific Palisades rebuild on their own terms after last month’s wildfires.

The California Community Foundation, Snap, Spiegel, and Snap CTO Bobby Murphy are committing $10 million in funding to staff the program, which is called the Department of Angels.

“Our purpose is to ensure that the communities impacted by the Eaton and Palisades megafires steward their own recovery,” a press release announcing the program reads. “The Department of Angels is not a government or private-sector initiative; it is a grassroots, community-driven network focused on ensuring impacted residents have control over their recovery.”

The Department of Angels will provide independent resources and project management support to help impacted residents, and will work alongside existing community leaders and organizations.

Last month, Spiegel penned a letter to the Los Angeles community and touched on how he grew up in the Palisades. He noted that his father’s house had been lost in the wildfires. 

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