By Dianne Anderson

From the very young to the very old, Long Beach is calling on community to look around, get connected, be encouraged and discover creative ways to change the city for the better.

Over the weekend, the Neighbor to Neighbor program officially kicked off resources to develop and inspire several sustainability and environmental projects.

“We are committed to activating our diverse neighborhoods and empowering our residents – especially local youth – to get involved and make a difference,” said Mayor Rex Richardson. “We are proud to partner with California Volunteers and support their mission to build more connected, supportive and resilient neighborhoods and our Neighbor-to-Neighbor program will do just that right here in Long Beach.”

Jasmine Roashan said they want to reach the whole Long Beach community to get involved.

“The City is focusing specifically on West and Central Long Beach, as most of those communities were identified as environmentally disadvantaged per CalEnviroScreen 4.0 and are listed in the City’s Climate Action Plan as being within critical need areas affected by climate stressors, like extreme heat and storm flooding,” said Roashan, Sustainability Program Specialist.

In partnership with California Volunteers, the Office of the Governor’s Neighbor-to-Neighbor program, the effort is facilitated by Long Beach Office of Climate Action and Sustainability. Several neighborhood groups and neighborhood associations across the focus areas of West and Central Long Beach are already in the mix, and they plan to extend collaborations with more groups.

So far, nearly 600 participants have turned out for their first four events.

Upcoming they are also hosting climate action ecological restoration events, and can use all the volunteers they can get. Minors need a parental consent waiver to attend, and school credit for participating is at the discretion of the schools.

“Our volunteer events mostly focus on climate actions—we​ have a few neighborhood tree planting events coming up as well as restoration events taking place at Willow Springs Park,” she said.

Parks, Recreation and Marine Department are partners on the Neighbor-to-Neighbor grant, and will host about a dozen events through the duration of the program. Additional events may take place in city parks with support from Parks, Recreation and Marine.”

Other outreach around the city with local programs also are connecting with those most impacted in areas of mental health and violence since the pandemic. Programs are addressing some concerns of the 2020 Racial Equity and Reconciliation Report that acknowledged racism as a public health crisis.

Keith Lilly, who sits on a violence prevention committee, said that lately there is a lot of participation within the Black community around the Violence Prevention Initiative. That project is led by the health department through several projects working with nonprofits like his own.

“We’re having violence prevention meetings now. There are 17 of us [with] nonprofits, each has to do an outreach event. We brought different cultures together into the parks, and there are 21 festivals,” said Lilly, founder of Developing Future Leaders.

Funding was split between groups to host informative events and outreach, like block parties and cultural festivals throughout the city. One person held a big backpack giveaway from Burnett Library, another a mini-camp to educate kids on basketball, where he spoke and emphasized that sports are good, but education must come first.

When he’s out and about, he tries to share resources about financial aid and Cal Grant, and how students can get a free university education from the CSU and UC systems. He also commended Black Magic’s local gatherings by  Sharon Diggs Jackson for bringing together Black leaders, and nonprofits to discuss tough topics and local resources.

“They bring all Black organizations, the Black chamber, together,” he said. “They explain what’s going on with the city. They’re educating everybody on where the money is at, and where it’s coming from.”

More exciting prospects for the year ahead include anticipation of Black organizations working together to implement the MLK parade.

On October 12, his group will be out working at Silverado Park with Councilmember Roberto Uranga to create awareness of human trafficking, where he will provide more education on college opportunities.

With a grant from Port of Long Beach, Lilly hpoes to expand education on air quality and the environment for Westside Long Beach. While the Port is seeing improvement lately, he said other pollution is still heavy to bear.

“It’s effected in between freeway rail-yard and oil companies, and a lot of our kids got asthma. Our trees are suffering pollution from killing our trees,” he said. “We plant trees over here now, but we want to educate how important these trees are for the next generation.”

Everyone is equally concerned about gangs, suicide, depression and making sure that students are not getting jumped while walking to school. He said a lot of the progress in the city depends on community leadership, community funding, and that it is used properly.

“Awareness is coming, but how do we resolve the situation in our favor? Our African Americans in Long Beach, what are you doing to make sure the money works for you and is a successful community? We have to make sure it goes into the hands of the right people so we can win. It’s possible.”

To get involved with Neighbor to Neighbor, see
https://www.longbeach.gov/sustainability/about-us/about-climate-action/neighbor-to-neighbor