A Best Start Community Discussion

With markers and large sheets of paper, groups of parents, business leaders, child service providers and educators from the Southeast Los Angeles Best Start community discussed and listed what their community does well, and where it fails, when it comes to children 0-5 being healthy, safe and ready for school. By the end of the exercise, the inside of the Bell Community Center was wallpapered with the lists.

Written under the heading, “What are the needs of the community?” were references to medical care, especially prenatal, as well as education partners, transportation, mental health services and parenting classes. In response to the question, “What is working well?” the lists included Head Start, First 5 LA, state-funded preschool, neighborhood action councils and, on one list, “the residents themselves.”

“We have a lot to learn about your community,” First 5 LA and Best Start Program Officer Marcella Manzanedo told the approximately 45 people attending the Best Start Community Discussion earlier this month for the Best Start community that includes Bell, Bell Gardens, Cudahy and Maywood. “And you, sitting in this room, are the experts we want to hear from and learn from.”

Over the past several months, discussions like this were held across Los Angeles County in First 5 LA’s new Best Start communities. More than 1,150 people have come to the table and added their voices to the process and budding partnerships. Best Start is First 5 LA’s new place-based investment approach that focuses on the 14 selected communities’ existing strengths, and builds on them, to ensure that children 5 and younger meet the four goals of being born healthy, maintaining a healthy weight, being safe from abuse and neglect and ready for kindergarten.

Manzanedo explained that investing in children’s lives early pays off for everyone, and the best place to start is where they live. “Everything that exists in a community impacts a child,” she added.

Program Officer Roberto Roque said that this was just the beginning of a very long process. By the middle of 2011, each community will have selected a community facilitator to support the partnership through the process and a fiscal agent to manage the funds. Additionally, each community will also have a community assessment liaison provided by First 5 LA.

Leanne Negron, a senior program officer, led a discussion with the entire group about how to keep communications open and get more people involved – especially the families Best Start aims to serve. Some participants hoped to continue interacting online, while Bell Gardens City Councilman Sergio Infanzon suggested that the best way to reach families is to knock on doors.

“This is just the beginning,” Negron said. “This is a very long-term effort.”

‹‹ Back to this week's Monday Morning Report.