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L.A. Foster Youth Shadow Day Drives Policy Progress in Los Angeles

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L.A. Foster Youth Shadow Day Drives Policy Progress in Los Angeles

 

LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and the Los Angeles City Council held the inaugural Los Angeles Foster Youth Shadow Day this week. The program connects former foster youth with local leaders to present policy recommendations based on firsthand experience living in the child welfare system. Based on specific feedback from delegates during the program, Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger will introduce a motion to remove barriers for foster youth who have aged out of foster care in need of housing vouchers, increase their use of housing navigation services, and prioritize childcare for foster youth who are parents.

While in Congress, Mayor Bass founded the Congressional Caucus on Foster Youth, which has hosted Foster Youth Shadow Day for more than 100 former foster youth since 2012. This year, the Congressional Caucus on Foster Youth will be hosting their 11th annual congressional shadow day on June 13, 2024.

“The most recent census of our County’s unhoused population found that approximately 50% of youth leaving foster care will experience homelessness or housing instability, which is simply unacceptable,” said Supervisor Kathryn Barger. “The stories foster youth shared with me during Youth Shadow Day really drove that point home. My motion will work to bring them more stability. These young people deserve our continued support.”

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and the Los Angeles City Council both issued proclamations in honor of National Foster Care Month and Shadow Day. Delegates were paired with city leaders who they shadowed during the afternoon. Delegates also participated in a policy roundtable with Mayor Bass, the Board of Supervisors and other city leaders where they presented policy proposals to improve crucial topics including housing, mental health, justice and resources for parents.

 

Long Beach Briefs: City Sees Decrease in Homelessness and Launches Spring Cleaning Initiative

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Long Beach Briefs: City Sees Decrease in Homelessness and Launches Spring Cleaning Initiative

Long Beach Reports First Decrease in Homelessness Since 2017

During the week of May 6 Long Beach released findings of the 2024 Homeless Point in Time Count identifying 3,376 people experiencing homelessness in January 2024, compared with 3,447 people in 2023. This number signifies a 2.1% decrease from last year — the first time the city has reported an overall decrease in homelessness since 2017. After the homeless population in Long Beach jumped significantly following the COVID-19 pandemic, the city proclaimed a local emergency to strengthen the city’s preparedness and ability to respond. The emergency, which was in place from Jan. 10, 2023, through Feb. 28, 2024, put into place policies and programs that provided immediate assistance and laid the groundwork for positive long-term outcomes.

Details: https://tinyurl.com/LB-2024-Homeless-Count

 

Long Beach Launches Citywide Spring Cleaning Initiative

Long Beach Citywide Spring Cleaning is a new month-long initiative that will help beautify city beaches, parks and public spaces through a series of hosted community cleanup events. The goal is to activate and uplift neighborhoods throughout Long Beach by encouraging community members to participate in and/or host a cleanup. To participate in a neighborhood clean up or to organize your own, visit longbeach.gov/springcleaning.

Details: https://tinyurl.com/citywide-spring-cleaning

Governors Briefs: State Converts Nearly 1,000 Schools Into Community Schools, Launches Map to Track Clean California Initiatives

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Governors Briefs: State Converts Nearly 1,000 Schools Into Community Schools, Launches Map to Track Clean California Initiatives

 

Gov. Newsom, Superintendent Thurmond Announce the Conversion of Nearly 1,000 Schools Into Community Schools

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom, State Board of Education or SBE President Linda Darling-Hammond, and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond announced that SBE unanimously approved nearly $1.3 billion in grants, appropriated during the 2021-22 and 2022-23 budget years, for community schools at its May meeting — the largest allocation of funds yet under the state’s initiative to transform schools through a child- and family-centered lens.

Community schools are a key initiative of California’s historic transformation of public schools that includes universal free school meals, universal transitional kindergarten, before- and after-school learning and investments in teacher training, coaching, recruitment and retention. The CCSPP statewide technical assistance infrastructure supports schools and LEAs to coordinate the implementation of these initiatives for maximum impact and sustainability.

The ten-year, $4.1 billion California Community Schools Partnership Program or CCSPP is the nation’s largest investment in dismantling barriers to learning that contribute to inequitable student outcomes. Community schools partner with education, county, and nonprofit entities to provide integrated health, mental health, and social services alongside high-quality, supportive instruction with a focus on community, family and student engagement.

With the State Board’s action, nearly $1.3 billion was awarded to 288 local educational agencies across the state. Those funds will support a total of 995 schools in implementing a community schools approach at their sites. The list of awardees can be found here. This allocation is in addition to more than $1.3 billion in implementation grants allocated in 2021 and 2022 to 204 LEAs and 1,028 school sites. The California Department of Education plans to administer a final round of implementation grants during the 2024-25 school year.

In Eureka City Schools, which received Cohort 1 and 2 implementation grants, investments in student transportation and multi-tiered systems of support have reduced chronic absenteeism. One McKinney-Vento student went from 40 absences to just one in a roughly 60-day timeframe, and another child went from 26 to one.

How California is Transforming Education:

  • Universal Pre-Kindergarten: California’s children will have access to crucial high-quality instruction by age 4 – effectively adding a new grade to the traditional K-12 system – regardless of a family’s income, with full-scale implementation anticipated by 2025.
  • Universal Extended-Day Learning: All elementary school students will have access to before- and after-school programs, as well as summer learning opportunities, by 2025.
  • Universal Free Meals: No student will need to learn on an empty stomach, with all students having the choice of two free, nutritious meals per day – regardless of income or family status.
  • Youth Behavioral Health: Youth ages 0-25 will have access to a revamped youth behavioral health system, including an online one-stop hub and billions invested to integrate mental health services with schools.
  • College Savings Accounts: Every low-income public school student will have an account opened in their name with a seed deposit of $500 to $1,500 – cultivating a college-going mindset, building generational wealth, and promoting college affordability.
  • Tutoring + Literacy + Math: Schools are helping students accelerate academic progress and mitigate learning loss due to the COVID-19 pandemic through tutoring, increased instructional time, and other student supports.
  • More Teachers, More Counselors, and More Paraeducators: Lower staff-to-student ratios is more support for students. Ratios will be lowered across settings and $1.1 billion in annual funding for high-poverty schools to hire up to 5 more staff each.
  • Master Plan for Career Education: Aligning and simplifying the TK-12, university, and workforce systems in California to support greater access to education and jobs for all Californians.

 

See the Impact of 319 Clean California Projects on New Interactive Map

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom on May 9 unveiled a new interactive map that spotlights hundreds of beautification projects funded by Clean California. The mapping tool offers location-specific, multilayered data that demonstrates the impact these community-focused improvements and infrastructure investments are making throughout the state.

The map lists 319 projects statewide, powered by $643 million in funding from Clean California, Gov. Newsom’s $1.2 billion multiyear effort led by Caltrans to clean up, reclaim, transform and beautify public spaces. Nearly all projects benefit underserved communities.

About the map

Using the new mapping tool, users can search projects by county, city, zip code or address to locate Clean California projects in their area. The projects are color-coded based on project type, such as local grant projects, highway beautification projects, or local transit partnership projects. Each entry also includes a detailed project description, cost and government agency responsible for leading the effort.

Life After Mother, The Emptiest Day

Lyn Jensen
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Life After Mother, The Emptiest Day

I look at the calendar for May, see that Mother’s Day is coming, and an old habit makes me think what to do, what card or flowers to get. This is the fifth Mother’s Day when I’ve had to think twice and remember, I don’t have to do anything. My mother was the type who made sure I remembered Mother’s Day every year. I don’t have to remember it any more.

Doing nothing for Mother’s Day — and Father’s Day, coming up in June — affects me differently from any other holiday, because most of the others I’ve long lost any emotional tie to anyway. Those I can let pass without celebration. I can handle letting Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, Easter, and even my birthday go by without anything special. Mother’s Day, however, always used to be a time for at least a card or a phone call, maybe flowers or a meal if my health and finances permitted. Now I don’t have to do anything anymore.

In fact I do often send a card or make a phone call to my aunt, who is the mother of my cousins, or I acknowledge some friends who have children. That’s not the same thing, though.

I know about the custom to wear a white carnation on Mother’s Day, to honor your mother who has passed. Mother’s Day always falls on a Sunday, though, and this senior has for many years treated Sunday as a day for staying home in pajamas, taking long naps, mindlessly turning the TV on and off, checking e-mail. There’s no reason to buy a white carnation and pin it on my bathrobe. My Sunday habits also preclude going out to celebrate.

What’s surprising is that I feel such emptiness when I’ve long since been used to being emotionally distant from either parent. My relationship with my mother was not one of love and support — it was more about a smothering kind of controlling, one I’m still not used to being free of. My father, likewise, was someone that could only be dealt with by dealing with him as little as possible. We did “the card thing.”

That the experience of shaking free of “the card thing” would leave such emptiness is an example of the unexpected consequences of dealing with the death of a parent. My empty feeling over not needing to send a card or make a phone call is wrapped in the grief of losing a parent, even an emotionally distant one. When experts give advice about coping with the loss of your mother, they forget to tell you that Mother’s Day may turn out to be the emptiest day.

Homicide Detectives Investigate Murder of Male Adult on May 8, Atlantic Ave., LB

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Homicide Detectives Investigate Murder of Male Adult on May 8, Atlantic Ave., LB

 

Officers responded to the 800 block of Atlantic Ave., about 12:11 a.m., May 8 regarding a shots fired call. Upon arrival, officers located a male adult victim with gunshot wounds to his upper body. Officers immediately rendered medical aid to the victim. Long Beach Fire Department personnel arrived at the scene and determined the victim deceased.

The suspect fled the scene prior to officers’ arrival.

Homicide detectives responded to the scene to investigate the incident. The motive for the shooting and circumstances of the incident are still under investigation

The victim has been identified as Tyrone Parks a 28-year-old resident of Long Beach.

Anyone with information regarding the incident is urged to contact homicide detectives, Sean Magee or Juan Carlos Reyes at 562-570-7244 or anonymously at 800-222-8477 or www.LACrimeStoppers.org

Carson is the first Venue City to Sign an Agreement for the LA28 Games

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Carson is the first Venue City to Sign an Agreement for the LA28 Games

 

CARSON — The City of Carson is the first venue city to sign an agreement for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles. Carson’s venues were an important component of LA28’s winning bid venue plan that helped Los Angeles secure the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

“We are excited and enthusiastic about being named as the first official Venue City associated with the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic and Paralympic Games,” said Lula Davis-Holmes, Mayor of the City of Carson. “The City of Carson is an integral part of the LA28 story, which has a mission to celebrate our community’s diversity and creativity. As one of the most diverse cities in the Country, Carson reflects the spirit of the Games and is honored to become LA28’s first Venue City.”

The City of Los Angeles is the Host City for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, with select competitions and events located in other Southern California venue cities. As a venue city, The City of Carson will support LA28’s vision of delivering a more sustainable and inclusive Olympic and Paralympic Games. Through this partnership, Carson will play a role in showcasing the vibrant diversity of the community and contributing to a legacy that benefits both the city and the wider region.

Details: www.la28.org.

Food 4 Less Employees Rally for Fairness: 4,000 Workers Demand Just Contract Terms as Contract Deadline Looms

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Food 4 Less Employees Rally for Fairness: 4,000 Workers Demand Just Contract Terms as Contract Deadline Looms

 

On May 8, exactly one month before Food 4 Less workers’ contract expires, Food 4 Less workers, the contract bargaining committee and community supporters delivered 836 petitions containing 4184 signatures in Orange County to store management and company representatives demanding a contract that respects their work and provides equity with other union grocery stores in California.

The Kroger Co.-owned Food 4 Less stores, frequently situated in lower-income communities of color, maintain prices that are often comparable to higher-end Ralphs stores. Yet, the disparity in wages, especially for the predominantly Black and Latino workforce at Food 4 Less stores, highlights a staggering reality where these essential workers are overwhelmingly cost-burdened, facing housing insecurity, and struggling to provide food for their families despite playing crucial roles in providing food access to their communities.

Negotiations for a new contract for Southern California Food 4 Less/Foods Co. workers represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union or UFCW began April 10 and have yet to yield any meaningful progress. Workers have been frustrated by the company’s unwillingness to discuss key issues like fair wages and equity with other grocery stores in the first several bargaining sessions, even though the contract is set to expire in exactly one month. In an unusual move, store management has even refused to accept petitions from workers at stores throughout Los Angeles and Orange County.

“We are here today to deliver a petition demanding equity with California’s other union grocery stores. After six days of negotiations with the company and limited discussion of wages, we don’t feel like they are listening to us,” said Richelle Vasquez, a scan coordinator from Food 4 Less in West Covina and a member of the UFCW bargaining committee. “These petitions, signed by 4,184 of our Food 4 Less/Foods Co. co-workers across Southern California show the power of our unity and solidarity, and that we’re not going to back down until we get a fair contract.”

The petitions, signed by 4,184 workers represented by seven UFCW locals across Southern California, tell Kroger that workers need a fair contract that gives them equity with other union grocery store workers, respects their essential work, provides them with the wages and benefits needed to raise families and the staffing and store safety required to improve customers’ shopping experience.

Food 4 Less, Foods Co., and their parent company Kroger, have made record-breaking profits in recent years. Food prices are at a 30-year high, and Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen is making over $19 million a year, while the average Kroger employee makes just $19 an hour. Food 4 Less/Foods Co. workers do not earn nearly as much as Kroger-owned Ralphs workers – in some cases $4-$7 per hour less, despite Kroger turning a higher wage per profit at many Food 4 Less/Foods Co. stores than Ralphs in comparable areas.

The worker-led bargaining committee goes back to the table to continue negotiations with the company on May 22.

California Sets ZEV Milestones: Unveils Nation’s First Solar-Powered EV Truck Stop and World’s Largest Amazon EV Truck Fleet

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California Sets ZEV Milestones: Unveils Nation’s First Solar-Powered EV Truck Stop and World’s Largest Amazon EV Truck Fleet

 

SACRAMENTO – In the last two days, California has seen two firsts related to zero-emission vehicles: the nation’s first solar-powered electric truck charging depot and Amazon’s largest electric truck fleet in any country.

In recent years, the state has ramped up its work to build a bigger, better electric vehicle or EV charging network to support both light-duty and heavy-duty ZEVs.

The work is critical to achieving the state’s goals of 100% ZEV new car sales by 2035 and 100% ZEV medium and heavy-duty trucks by 2045. Find more ZEV projects in your community at build.ca.gov.

 

Nation’s first solar-powered EV truck charging depot opens in Bakersfield

California officials helped celebrate the grand opening of WattEV’s third and largest electric truck charging depot in Bakersfield on Monday. This will be the nation’s first electric truck stop featuring a solar-powered microgrid with a battery energy storage system. The truck depot will serve heavy-duty electric trucks with routes connecting the San Joaquin Valley’s agricultural sector and growing distribution warehouse region to the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, and inland destinations throughout Southern California and the West.

The depot was supported by a $5 million grant from the California Energy Commission – part of the Governor’s multi-billion-dollar California climate commitment.

California Air Resources Board Chair Liane Randolph highlighted this project’s significance in the drive to zero-emission truck transport and helping meet California’s climate goals.

World’s largest fleet of Amazon electric trucks hit Los Angeles roads

California officials joined Los Angeles Mayor Bass and partners from the Biden Administration and the Port of Los Angeles to launch Amazon’s largest fleet of heavy-duty electric trucks in the world May 7. The company is rolling out nearly 50 heavy-duty electric trucks in Southern California, adding to hundreds of electric vans already deployed throughout the state.

The heavy-duty trucks are part of the company’s first- and middle-mile delivery operations – moving goods from where they’re first manufactured into the company’s fulfillment network. Amazon already has deployed hundreds of electric vans throughout the state that serve the last portion of delivery operations – delivering goods from fulfillment centers to people’s homes.

County to Bring High Speed Internet Options to Areas Impacted by the Digital Divide

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County to Bring High Speed Internet Options to Areas Impacted by the Digital Divide

The County of Los Angeles and WeLink Communications have partnered to bring affordable and reliable broadband internet to underserved areas in East Los Angeles/Boyle Heights and South Los Angeles. These areas have been greatly impacted by the digital divide, which was further heightened by the COVID-19 pandemic. WeLink will offer a ground-breaking low-cost internet plan for qualifying households and ultra-high speed broadband internet across 68 square miles, where there are over 275,000 households and small businesses. The services will feature multilingual support, fixed pricing, and consumer-friendly terms.

The Los Angeles County community broadband networks or CBN initiative was created to help address the hundreds of thousands of households in the county estimated to be without home internet service. The County Board of Supervisors passed a series of motions beginning in 2021 to address this issue. ISD was tasked with finding ways to provide reliable broadband internet to low-income communities where over 20% of households do not subscribe to home internet. Through an extensive competitive process, the County selected WeLink as the partner for these first two CBN areas.

WeLink will offer a low-cost home internet plan starting at $25 per month to 50,000 qualified households in South Los Angeles and East Los Angeles/Boyle Heights, surpassing the initial goal in 2022 of serving 12,500 households. They will also offer plans starting at $65 per month to households without qualification requirements. Plans have no promotional rates: Monthly rates, excluding any government fees or taxes, are fixed until at least September 2027.

WeLink offers internet speeds ranging from 500 megabits per second (Mbps) to 2 gigabits per second (Gbps) – up to 20 times faster download speed and up to 100 times faster upload speed than the new Federal Communications Commission broadband benchmark. All plans allow multiple household members to use high-bandwidth applications at the same time, thanks to fast speeds that are the same for both downloads and uploads. Every plan includes unlimited data, a Wi-Fi router, parental controls, and multilingual customer support without credit checks or cash deposits.

This partnership covers all or portions of these communities in Unincorporated L.A. County or in the City of Los Angeles:

  • Supervisorial District 1: East Los Angeles, Boyle Heights, Lincoln Heights, Montecito Heights, and El Sereno;
  • Supervisorial District 2: Adams-Normandie, University Park, Historic South-Central, Exposition Park, Vermont Square, South Park, Central-Alameda, Chesterfield Square, Harvard Park, Vermont-Slauson, Florence, Florence-Firestone, Manchester Square, Vermont Knolls, Gramercy Park, Westmont, Vermont Vista, Broadway-Manchester, Green Meadows, Watts, Athens, Willowbrook, and West Rancho Dominguez; and
  • Supervisorial District 4: Walnut Park

Construction is expected to begin in Summer 2024, with internet service rolling out beginning in Fall 2024. Major funding is provided by the American Rescue Plan Act. Also, funding for this project has been provided in part through a grant for local agency technical assistance from a program administered by the California Public Utilities Commission.

Interested households in the two service areas can sign up for updates and be notified by WeLink when service is available at https://WeLink.com/LACounty/ .

Hahn Spearheads Sacramento Delegation: Metro Line Talks and Mental Health Campus Proposal at Forefront

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Hahn Spearheads Sacramento Delegation: Metro Line Talks and Mental Health Campus Proposal at Forefront

SACRAMENTO — Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn is in Sacramento May 8 and 9 meeting with state officials about the Southeast Gateway Line and Hahn’s proposal to use a piece of vacant state property for mental health treatment facilities.

Day 1: Southeast Gateway Line

Supervisor Hahn May 8 is leading a delegation of city leaders from Southeast Los Angeles and the Gateway Cities to meet with legislators about the Southeast Gateway Line, which received unanimous final approval from the Metro Board last month. The $7.1 billion project, which will break ground this year, will connect southeast LA County to Downtown Los Angeles from Artesia through Cerritos, Bellflower, Paramount, Downey, South Gate, Cudahy, Bell, Huntington Park and Vernon to Union Station.

Nearly half the residents in the neighborhoods that will be served by this line live below the poverty level, including one-in-five residents who are transit dependent and don’t have access to their own car.

Day 2: New Mental Health Campus on State Property

Tomorrow, Supervisor Hahn May 9 will meet with members of Gov. Newsom’s administration and Sen. Bob Archuleta about her proposal to use six vacant buildings on the massive Metro State Hospital property in Norwalk to provide treatment, care, and housing to individuals with mental illness.

Hahn is meeting with state officials to discuss the possibility of the state leasing a portion of the Metro State Hospital campus to Los Angeles County to build this community.

Hahn is proposing that the “LA County Care Community” on the Metro State Hospital campus provide both mental health treatment and housing with two buildings dedicated to subacute beds, two buildings dedicated to interim housing, and two buildings dedicated to permanent supportive housing.

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