Project Description
The City of El Monte, incorporated in 1912, is a general law municipality with a Council-Manager form of government. Located approximately 12 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, El Monte is the hub of the San Gabriel Valley, where two major freeways – Interstates 605 and 10 – intersect and is the ninth largest city (out of 88) in Los Angeles County with a population of approximately 125,000.
Health and Wellness Initiative
Policies for Livable, Active Communities and Environments (P.L.A.C.E.)
The Health and Wellness Initiative is a grant funded program through the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. The program is dedicated to fostering policy change that supports the development of healthy, active environments for all Los Angeles County residents. The City of El Monte will develop a Health and Wellness Element for the El Monte General Plan, with proposed components addressing healthy lifestyles and physical activity, access to healthy food, public safety and security, and access to recreation. Specific policies considered within these overarching topics include complete streets, possible incentives for establishing grocery stores and other healthy food choices, and establishing and expanding on existing joint-use agreements with local school districts to increase recreational space available to the public.
The lead agency for the Health and Wellness Initiative is the Community Services Department who will collaborate closely with the Community Development Department (planning and engineering), the Police Department and the City Manager’s Office throughout the grant cycle to successfully implement the initiative.
The physical project component of the Initiative is the development of a 1 mile circuit walking path with mileage markers and signage connecting various civic, educational, retail and health care facilities in the area. The physical project will be planned and construction will begin within the first full year of funding. The second and third year of funding will be marked by the development of the policy, its adoption by the City Council in the General Plan and the implementation of the policies outlined in the Element.
Partners
The California Community Foundation was formed in 1915. In July 2007, the California Community Foundation launched the El Monte Community Building Initiative. This groundbreaking $10-million, 10-year investment is a collaborative effort between the Foundation, the City of El Monte and various partners from the public, private and nonprofit sectors. This initiative takes a holistic approach to revitalizing three underserved El Monte neighborhoods by simultaneously focusing on improving physical infrastructure, engaging residents and developing their leadership, as well as providing better access to social services.
AltaMed has demonstrated 35 years of dedicated health care impacting the family system providing health care and human services to the underserved, multi-ethnic communities of Los Angeles County. It is AltaMed’s mission to serve and respond to the needs of these culturally diverse families by providing unique health programs for which it is recognized nationally. Locally, AltaMed maintains its El Monte Medical Center, and it building a new hospital in El Monte, which provides services which include, but are not limited to: pediatrics, obstetrics, general medicine, internal medicine and surgery. The staff, consisting of 8 physicians and 30 health care professionals, provides 2,200 client visits monthly. Due to the strong health care component of our proposed initiative, AltaMed will provide invaluable resources in terms of: health screening, education, outreach and advocacy.
The El Monte City School District is a suburban school district serving children from pre-school age through the eighth grade, which is over 10,500 children at seventeen school sites. The school district and the City of El Monte have collaborated on countless program and projects through the past 95 years, including several current/standing Joint Use Agreements and Memoranda of Understanding. Recently, the school district was presented with the Bronze award for wellness sponsored by the Alliance for a Healthier Generation and visited by Governor Schwarzenegger and President Clinton for their outstanding achievement. Due to fact that several components of our proposed initiatives will focus on childhood wellness and health, the El Monte City School District will serve as a partner providing nutrition education, local student health data, social marketing strategies and instruments and location(s) for our proposed physical project.
Amigos de Los Rios, committed to being a required partner, will participate in implementing the policy by being involved with the community outreach to guide the development of the Community Health and Wellness Element, in developing an innovative social marketing campaign for initiative, assisting with community based conceptual design of the “complete street” policy to make walking easier and more inviting, and coordination between PLACE collaborative and the Emerald Necklace Coalition.