PARTNERS IN HEALTH

Aren’t you tired of having others write about us like they have walked in our shoes and lived in our communities? Isn’t it frustrating to have policy makers make decisions that affect the well being of our community and we were never included in the discussion? Well, the Urban League understands your frustrations and we are responding! The Los Angeles Urban League’s Neighborhood@Works Health team is proud to announce that we have partnered with residents of Park Mesa Heights and some dynamic UCLA Researchers to launch its first Community-Partnered Participatory Research (CPPR) project, sponsored by The California Endowment.

The report for Year 2 of the Los Angeles Urban League's Neighborhoods@Work initative is now available. From Chief Neighborhood Officer Pamela Bakewell:

The Neighborhoods@Work Report for Year Two includes an overview of our work from July 2008 through June 2009. We are proud to report our key accomplishments and key learnings to date, which demonstrate how we are “moving the needle”—the theme of this report. In Year One, we concentrated our efforts on infrastructure development; in Year Two, we implemented integrated activities and programs to achieve measurable impact in each of the five disciplines—Education, Employment, Health, Housing and Safety. In Year Two, we also moved further into the evaluation process of our model. We engaged experts who helped design intricate logic models for each discipline. We are excited to share a key learning of our work which indicated the need to develop a strategic approach to outreach. This resulted in the decision to add a sixth discipline in Year Three—Community Engagement and Outreach.

National Influenza Vaccination Week (NIVW) is a national observance that was established to highlight the importance of continuing influenza vaccination, as well as fostering greater use of flu vaccine after the holiday season into January and beyond. This year's NIVW is scheduled for January 10–16, 2010.

Two years ago, civic leaders in south Los Angeles started an integrated social service program for improving literacy and job-career readiness in an impoverished neighborhood of about 10,000 people.

Today, program sponsors are looking to close a key gap in coverage – a lack of broadband and internet access that not only inhibits adults getting and retaining good jobs but also presents big educational challenges to the area’s youth.

“There’s a technology access gap that continues to persist today in urban communities across America,” said Blair Taylor, president of the L.A. Urban League, which launched the Neighborhoods@Work program in 2006. “We are convinced that a large part of the income disparity and educational issues can be bridged, if we are able to get timely information to people in low-income communities,” he said.

The Los Angeles Urban League applauds the passage by the House of the landmark health care bill (H.R. 3962) that will extend insurance coverage to 36 million uninsured Americans. With respect to healthcare access, this legislation has the potential to help close the gap between people of color and the rest of the population - a gap that has continued to widen at an alarming rate.

Whether it is mortality rates, lack of prenatal care, life expectancy, the stratospheric rise of HIV among minority women, higher death rates from preventable diseases, or our rising number of families without health insurance, studies show that minorities continue to face alarming health statistics all across this nation. African Americans in particular face health disparities that literally threaten survival. It is time for serious action, and we are pleased to see the House answering the call.