Connecting to the internet became an even greater challenge for Long Beach parents and students with the Covid-19 pandemic and the move to remote education. Families faced difficult choices: access technology to help bridge the digital divide or watch their children fall behind. The Long Beach Center for Economic Inclusion (LBCEI) took on the challenge of a world…
The Los Angeles Conservation Corps provides at-risk young adults and school-aged youth with opportunities for success through job skills training, education and work experience with an emphasis on conservation and service projects that benefit the community. In the time of the Coronavirus, they’ve been asked by California Gavin Newsom to step up to the challenge…
Alfredo Velasco is President and CEO of the YMCA of Greater Long Beach. Velasco heads an organization that, according to the organization’s website, encompasses a service area with a population of nearly 850-thousand people, six branches, numerous childcare sites, as well as a number of other facilities. It is an organization that he knows well….
“Vacya Tipa is a passionate international school student whose service learning work with sea turtles in Lombok, Indonesia has been an ongoing project since she was in 6th Grade. She seeks to share the value of service learning, through her experiences, with others and highlight the power that service learning projects can have not only…
Lionel Gonzalez knows firsthand the challenges that a young person faces. When he was in high school, he was labeled at risk. “In High School, I was put on probation because I was in a car accident and my best friend died…I ran a red light [and] I missed a whole year of school.” Lionel…
Raze is a Latino-focused media company founded by “Modern Family” star Sofia Vergara and longtime entertainment execs Emiliano Calemzuk and Luis Balaguer, is going after cord-cutting millennials with the launch of its mobile-first digital portal. Raze’s first show, “Her Name Was Dolores – The Jenni I Knew” premiered on Univision in January and was produced…
Jose Eduardo speaks with the 2017 “Building The Bench” Fellows working at The Bell Policy Center and Colorado Fiscal Institute about the economics of being a millennial. How is student debt impacting our lives? How is minimum wage impacting our families? And what is the deal with saving for retirement so early? They talk budget…
Bob Cabeza has a great story about growing up. I’ve known Bob for nearly ten years and I had no clue about the story. “I was raised on a ranch in northern California outside of Angel’s Camp, California.” That’s above Stockton and below Yosemite. The Vice-President for Community Development for the Greater Long Beach YMCA,…
By Debbie Rodriguez Four years ago, Julie and Walter Larkins cofounded Education Equals Opportunity Too, a program serving socially and academically at-risk youth. It is estimated that fifty percent of 16-24 year-old African Americans and Latinos are unemployed. “We either provide funding for our future and theirs, or we provide funding for prisons, welfare, and unemployment….