The Pat Brown Institute
supports faculty research
focusing on a healthier
Boyle Heights community
Mini-grants to further Pat Brown Institute’s Youth Enrichment Policy
Project
Los
Angeles, CA –
The
Edmund G. “Pat” Brown Institute of Public Affairs (PBI)
at
Cal State L.A. recently awarded mini-grants
for unique research in Boyle Heights
to three CSULA faculty members—Kathryn Hillstrom, Enrique Ochoa,
and Ellen Shiau. The
mini-grants come from PBI’s Youth Enrichment Policy Project (YEPP),
which is funded by The California Endowment. The grants will support
the faculty members’ applied research on issues and topics involving
the Boyle Heights community. As part of two-year TCE grant, PBI will
also provide Youth Leadership and Civic Engagement training program to
high school students in Boyle Heights.
The
YEPP students are trained to become civic leaders and community
advocates in a nine-month training program and will use the information
and data gained from the CSULA research to inform their own community
policy projects. The research projects will culminate with the faculty
presentations and a series of working papers that will be published in
Spring 2013.
“High quality academic research makes an invaluable contribution to the
development of good public policy,” said Dr. Raphael Sonenshein, PBI
executive director. “PBI is fortunate to be located at a university
with active scholars whose research can help advance the PBI mission.”
For
Nutrition Professor Kathryn Hillstrom’s research, she will be
collecting data on the food environment in Boyle Heights, specifically
the availability of healthy foods in supermarkets and corner markets.
“Los
Angeles, like all large cities, has pockets where residents’ rates of
disease like obesity and diabetes are disproportionately high,” said
Hillstrom. “Boyle Heights is one of these communities and has been
defined as a food desert. This study has the potential to add to the
current literature an understanding of the ‘food swamp/food desert’
environment, including what foods are available, the quality of those
foods and the price points which may affect food purchasing behavior.”
Political Science Professor Ellen Shiau will explore the possible
connections between the built environment, crime and fear, while also
providing knowledge to the Boyle Heights community about spatial and
temporal patterns of crime.
“My
research project plans to map reported incidences of crime in Boyle
Heights from 2005 to 2010 using GIS (geographic information system)
methods in order to identify spatial and temporal patterns of crime in
the community,” explained Shiau. “The project builds on a collaboration
with two USC researchers who are researching the experiences of male
youth in East Los Angeles neighborhoods. As one piece of their research,
male youth living in East Los Angeles were surveyed regarding places in
their neighborhood where they felt afraid. The crime maps I will create
hopefully will serve as a useful policy tool for Boyle Heights residents
and advocates with an interest in public safety issues.”
And,
History Professor Enrique Ochoa will be examining the food
systems in the community and drawing on Mexican and Central American
rural histories and cultures to reframe the issues of health.
Mini-grant awardees will receive one course release during the fall
quarter 2012. Additional mini-grants will be awarded in winter 2013. The
proposal process will begin at the end of September 2012.
TCE
is investing in Boyle Heights as part of its Building Healthy
Communities program, which is focusing on 14 distinct communities in
California where residents and organizations are committed to building
healthy communities. Through the Pat Brown Institute, the TCE seeks ways
to foster on-going partnership and collaborative opportunities between
the University and the Boyle Heights community.
# #
#
The
Edmund G. “Pat” Brown Institute of Public Affairs
is
a non-partisan public policy center located on campus at California
State University, Los Angeles that is dedicated to sustaining the vision
and legacy of former California Governor Edmund G. “Pat” Brown through
convening public policy forums, engaging multi-sector stakeholders and
diverse communities, and conducting timely policy research and
community-driven initiatives.
The California
Endowment
is a private, statewide health foundation founded in 1996 to expand
access to affordable, quality health care for underserved individuals
and communities, and to promote fundamental improvements in the health
status of all Californians.
Working for California since 1947: The 175-acre hilltop campus of California State University, Los Angeles is at the heart of a major metropolitan city, just five miles from Los Angeles’ civic and cultural center. More than 20,000 students and 225,000 alumni—with a wide variety of interests, ages and backgrounds—reflect the city’s dynamic mix of populations. Six
Colleges offer nationally recognized science, arts, business, criminal justice, engineering, nursing, education and humanities programs, among others, led by an award-winning faculty. Cal State L.A. is home to the critically-acclaimed Luckman Jazz Orchestra and to
the Honors College for high-achieving students.
Programs that provide exciting enrichment opportunities to students and community include an NEH-supported humanities center; a NASA-funded center for space research; and a growing forensic science program, housed in the Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center. www.calstatela.edu
Back to: News site | Services for Journalists | Public Affairs | Cal State L.A.