With a planning grant from The Annenberg Foundation in 2007, Legacy LA initiated a community input and planning process to develop the vacant Hazard Park Armory. This initial planning process resulted in a youth-driven goal for renovation, programming, with wrap-around youth development services from arts and sciences to mentoring and job training. Throughout this process it was also evident that there was an immense need for services in the Ramona Gardens community especially a critical need for developing youth leadership potential to empower them to become agents for change.

The need for youth leadership was addressed by creating the Dream Big Youth Fellowship. This program focuses on ten community youth participating in leadership and personal development activities in service to their communities. The objective is to train area youth in community organizing, leadership skills, and data collection strategies to plan Legacy's facilities and work. Our first team of fellows was hired July 1, 2008.

Working directly with Legacy LA’s design team, Quatro Design, the 2008 fellows helped in developing the conceptual drawings for the Armory. The fellows also traveled to Oakland to study Youth Uprising a community-based organization developed through a youth-driven engagement process, as well as contributing to the capital campaign design and completed the Ramona Gardens Community Asset Mapping Project.

In the same year, the fellows presented their ideas to both the Recreation and Parks Commission and the City Council of Los Angeles. Legacy LA secured a 50-year use of the armory site where Legacy is creating a center for culture, for recreation, and for academic opportunities on a scale never seen before in Los Angeles as well as a model preventative program for at-risk communities throughout the nation.