The
California Endowment helps empower youth to support a healthier
community in Boyle Heights and beyond
Pat Brown Institute is
awarded a $249,000 grant to support
Youth Civic Engagement
and Community Leadership Training program
Los Angeles, CA
–
To help engage youth in advocacy efforts that will improve community
health in Boyle Heights,
The California Endowment
recently awarded
a $249,000 two-year grant to the
Edmund G. “Pat” Brown Institute of Public Affairs
(PBI) at
California State University, Los Angeles.
The grant will support
PBI’s
Youth Civic Engagement and Community Health Leadership Training program,
and its new Building a Healthy Boyle Heights community
collaborative, to bring together a select group of 25 students from
Roosevelt High School, Mendez Learning Center and other local schools to
educate them to become champions in advocating for a healthier
community.
“This
grant will allow us to train students to become civic leaders by
equipping them with skills and knowledge in policy and strategic
planning, and at the same time, to help boost healthy changes in the
Boyle Heights community,” said Jaime Regalado, PBI’s executive director.
“Engaging energetic young leaders in such an effort is the best way to
promote a healthier and productive future for underserved communities.”
As part of the training,
the students will participate in a two-day retreat as well as in The
California Endowment’s Health Exchange Academy to learn the underlying
causes of poor health and the need for health promotion and prevention.
They will also attend monthly workshops covering such topics as how
public policy impacts local communities,
community and individual leadership,
advocacy strategies, using research
to support an advocacy agenda,
social determinants of health, and the role of community stakeholders
and system leaders in creating change.
While participating in the
collaborative, the students will meet regularly with youth-serving
organizations in Boyle Heights to research information and develop
partnerships to support advocacy efforts.
The students, who will be
supervised by a designated faculty and a program coordinator, will
identify at least two health policy issues to focus on and implement as
their community projects. They will then develop an action plan
outlining the advocacy strategies for the projects, which includes
reaching out to community youth through social networks and school
newsletters, and meeting with system leaders and elected officials to
explore ideas to improve community health.
The leadership development
program culminates with the students presenting their community projects
at PBI’s annual California Policy Issues Conference, where elected
public officials, scholars, policy and decision makers, and corporate
and foundation leaders converge to discuss and assess significant issues
facing California’s urban and suburban communities.
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.
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