The open door
This is what we are trying to make permanent.
She never ran a program. She kept a door open and a couch free, and people came. The foundation exists to do that at a scale one house cannot.
Lisa Ann Woods Foundation
“Don’t let the grass grow under your feet. Can’t nobody stop you but you.”
— Her words. Now the mission.
The mission
Lisa Ann Woods was known across her neighborhood for the same thing everywhere she ever lived — the door was open. That wasn’t a program. It was just who she was. The L.A.W. Foundation exists to give that instinct a structure, so it outlasts all of us.
They called her Law long before there was a foundation. The name isn’t an acronym we invented — it’s what people already called her.
The three pillars
Three letters, three promises — each one a line from the song her son wrote for her, and a program this foundation is built to run.
L — is for Lisa
“The love she gave so free”
Transitional Safe Havens — secure, dignified space for families in crisis.
A — is for Ann
“The anchor of the family tree”
The Neighborhood Anchor — the open door, made permanent.
W — is for Woods
“The roots that made us strong”
Assistive Innovation — adaptive tools, minus the adaptive tax.
Built to last
We have watched good foundations thin out because they were built to depend on the generosity of a given year. This one is structured for sustainability first.
The open door
She never ran a program. She kept a door open and a couch free, and people came. The foundation exists to do that at a scale one house cannot.