LAPD officers, nonprofit surprise family of seven with renovation of home

SOUTH LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Los Angeles police officers swapped out their duty belts for tool belts Wednesday to help surprise a family with a major transformation of their home.

The effort is part of a program aimed at building bridges between the LAPD and the community.

Cinthia Joch, her husband and their five kids had their South L.A. home transformed in a matter of hours thanks to officers with LAPD's 77th Street Division and the Healthy Room Project.

The goal of the Healthy Room Project is to change the narrative between law enforcement and the communities they serve.

"We do this with a major one-day transformation. We find families through the officers in at-risk and challenging communities, and we come in and we completely transform their bedrooms," said Janet Crown, co-founder of the Healthy Room Project. "We build the furniture, we paint the rooms and completely renovate these existing homes."

The Healthy Room Project team and officers spent hours building furniture and transforming the home for the family.

The Healthy Room Project has completed more than 160 rooms in 16 cities, with 1,500 volunteers and more than 500 officers participating.

Joch's five children were away while the officers and the Healthy Room project team worked on renovations.

Her kids would return in the afternoon to see the big reveal.

It was all possible thanks to Felicia Robinson with the 77th Street Division. She nominated Joch for the home renovation after meeting her at a bus stop and finding out her family's rent was increasing.

"To know that the LAPD 77th Division, especially the 77th Division, is doing this for us, it means the world to me," Joch said.