TITLE
Recommendation to receive and file a presentation from the Long Beach Center for Economic Inclusion on their progress and activities in their first two years of operation.
DISCUSSION
In June 2019, the Council unanimously approved the ‘Everyone In’ Implementation Plan, which concluded a two-year community outreach process that created the plan as an outline for addressing the economic disparities between neighborhoods in our city. The plan included a set of key recommendations in the areas of:
- Small Business and Diverse Entrepreneurship
- Procurement
- Workforce and Youth Development
- Connectedness (Economic Resiliency)
- Housing and Homeownership
- The establishment of a Community Development Corporation (CDC)
Since then, the Long Beach Center for Economic Inclusion has assumed its role as Long Beach’s first CDC during the COVID-19 pandemic, a situation which posed unique challenges to the Center’s mission, as the pandemic’s impacts fell disproportionately on the very neighborhoods LBCEI was mandated to uplift.
Thankfully, the project was able to hit the ground running, quickly developing a strong local board of directors; engaging with more than 25 community partners including Wells Fargo, LISC Los Angeles, and the Long Beach Community Action Partnership; and establishing the Long Beach Food Support Network which currently operates nine free food pantries across the city and has distributed more than 650,000 pounds of free food to the community over the past two years, in addition to PPE and hygiene products. LBCEI has thus far deployed over $1 million dollars of resources into the community and serves approximately 1,500 Long Beach families every single week. The Center also hosted a Small Business Resiliency Forum to assist over 200 minority and women-owned businesses struggling during the pandemic, by offering interest free loans, business navigation, and technical assistance. The Center has also operated a free housing call center featuring HUD cer...
Click here for full text