National Disability Employment Awareness Month

We recognize National Disability Employment Awareness Month each October to commemorate the many contributions of people with disabilities to America’s workplaces and economy. The theme for NDEAM 2022, “Disability: Part of the Equity Equation,” recognizes the important role people with disabilities play in a diverse and inclusive American workforce.

Digital Inclusion Week

This week is Digital Inclusion Week! Digital Inclusion Week (DIW) is a week of awareness, recognition, and celebration for entities across the country to promote their digital equity and inclusion efforts. DIW is hosted annually by the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA) and this year’s theme is Turning Our Moment into Movement, signaling a time of action for digital inclusion in the field. 

Additionally, as part of the City’s recovery efforts, the City is contracting with nine community partners who have been implementing the digital inclusion programming activities: 

• Purchasing and distributing free hotspots and Chromebooks to residents, businesses, and non-profits. 
• Conducting equitable and inclusive community outreach. 
• Administering multilingual in-person and virtual computer literacy training. 
• Deploying bilingual technical support services. 

These efforts are part of the City’s Digital Inclusion Initiative. Through this initiative, the City is striving to ensure that every individual in Long Beach, regardless of background, neighborhood or identity has high-quality, accessible, technology resources and services to be civically engaged and socially and economically empowered.  

The Long Beach Technology & Innovation Department is hosting a data walk through Downtown Long Beach to learn more about the City’s emerging technologies, data privacy policies, and the new Digital Rights Platform. 

The walks will be facilitated by CSULB’s Dr. Gwen Shaffer and Long Beach staff. The event will be 90 minutes long and food will be available. Child watch and interpretation services are available upon request. All participants will receive a $25 gift card from Target!  

Sign ups are available for the following dates: 

Thurs, October 6 at 6:00 PM  

Fri, October 7 at 10:00 AM  

Sat, October 8 at 10:00 AM & 12:00 PM 

Location: Billie Jean King Main Library, 200 W Broadway, Long Beach, CA, 90802

Every month, our newsletter will introduce you to the incredible people and innovative programs that are advancing equity across the City. This month, we are highlighting Joy Contreras, the Community Relations Officer for the Department of Public Works!

Joy Contreras serves as the Community Relations Officer for the Department of Public Works at the City of Long Beach. Joy's team is responsible for internal and external communication on department wide priorities and capital improvement projects, oversees community outreach and events, and ensures compliance with the City's Language Access Policy, ADA Accessibility and Racial Equity best practices. She started with the City of Long Beach as a Management Assistant working on the 2020 Census. 

Joy earned her Master of Science in Management and Leadership (MSML) from Pepperdine University Graziadio School of Business. She studied change management with an emphasis on employee engagement and information systems consulting. Prior to her current position, Joy was a project manager at an environmental marketing firm that specializes in multilingual community based social marketing and conducts public education. Joy also serves her community as a Leadership Long Beach Class of 2017 alumni and currently serving as a Board Member. 

Joy's public service career first started when she served as an AmeriCorps Member and Team Leader for City Year Los Angeles, a national organization focused on defeating the high school drop out crisis. She earned her B.S. in Political Science from Reed College in Portland, Oregon.  

Joy was born, raised, and lives in Long Beach where she enjoys walking, gardening, and cuddling with her dog, Rodney. 

Saturday, October 15, 2022  

1-4 PM 

Billie Jean King Main Library  

Celebrate Hispanic and Latinx heritage at Mercadito Literario! A book fair for the whole family highlighting Hispanic and Latinx bilingual and Spanish-speaking community resources and vendors. 

Long Beach Airport’s (LGB) award-winning Festival of Flight is coming in for a landing Saturday, October 29, 2022. No tickets are required. The popular free event is returning with aircraft on static display, live music, food and beer trucks, activities for kids and helicopter rides for purchase. 

More Info here.

The Long Beach Health Department Reentry Advisory Council will host a Reentry Symposium from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2022, at Billie Jean King Main Library (200 W. Broadway). The symposium, titled Strengthening the Reentry Landscape in Long Beach, will focus on ways community partners can help people live productive, healthy lives after being released from jail or prison. The symposium is intended for service providers, formerly incarcerated people who work in the field of reentry, youth leaders, educators, residents, civic leaders and government agency representatives working in reentry.

Online registration is now open. Registration is limited to 100 participants and is available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Library Expanded Teen Programs

Summer 2022

The Long Beach Public Library (LBPL) is expanding its programming for teens at several branch locations. The summer and after-school programs will add a variety of enrichment activities for youth ages 12 and older with a strong focus on wellbeing, creativity, STEAM learning and collaborative interaction. Library branches that will feature expanded teen programming starting this summer include Billie Jean King Main Library, Burnett, Harte, Los Altos, Mark Twain and Michelle Obama. The new programs include the following: Read Beyond the Beaten Path is the LBPL’s Summer Reading Program, SEED STEAM Community, and Teen Advisory Groups (TAG). Expanded programming for teens at the neighborhood libraries is made possible by the Long Beach Recovery Act (Recovery Act), a plan to fund economic and public health initiatives for residents, workers and businesses critically impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The City of Long Beach Department of Parks, Recreation and Marine (PRM), in partnership with California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) LifeFit Center @ The Beach, is launching a new exercise class program to provide evidence-based physical activity programming for older adults. The exercise class program supports the City’s Age-Friendly Initiative and emphasizes helping seniors maintain their independence and aging well at home. The program, funded by the Long Beach Recovery Act to support older adults impacted during the pandemic, will be held Thursdays at the McBride Park Senior Center and Tuesdays at the Chavez Park Senior Center from 11 to11:50 a.m. starting July 19 and July 21, respectively. Pre-registration is not required, and classes will be available on a first-come, first-served basis until capacity is reached. Additional information about the CSULB LifeFit Center is available on its website. More details regarding the City’s Age Friendly Initiative are available here.

Beginning Sept. 19, 2022, the City of Long Beach will offer a nine-month Teen Academy for 100 teens ages 13 to 18. The Teen Academy program, offered through the Department of Parks, Recreation and Marine (PRM), is designed to provide teens with experiences, activities and resources that support their wellness and future success. Participants of the program will engage in recreational and social activities to help mitigate the negative effects of isolation brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and will also have increased access to resources in areas such as mental health, financial literacy, educational opportunities and job pathways. Applications and waivers to be signed by parents will be available during normal hours at all six PRM Teen Centers beginning Tuesday, Sept. 6. Registration will remain open until all spots are filled. More information about teen center programming is available on the PRM Youth and Teen Center Programs webpage.

The City of Long Beach has soft launched the Recovery Data Dashboard a new tool for Long Beach community members to track spending and key performance metrics related to the Long Beach Recovery Act. The Recovery Data Dashboard is part of the City’s efforts in enhancing transparency in the Long Beach Recovery Act to ensure a results-driven, equitable, and transparent approach in Recovery funding.   

In this soft launch iteration, the dashboard shows an overview of all LB Recovery Act budget and spending, as well as represents key performance data for 8 out of 77 Recovery Programs. The dashboard also includes community impact stories to show qualitative data on the progress toward equity and collective impact goals. Feedback on this soft launch version is welcome at LBrecovery@longbeach.gov. The dashboard is intended to be iterative and it will be updated in November 2022. To learn more about the the Long Beach Recovery Data Dashboard click here.

The City of Long Beach, in partnership with the Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD), recently launched its Space Beach Teacher Externship Program, a professional development program for K-12 educators to create streamlined, easy-to-navigate career pathways for students interested in aerospace and related industries. The Space Beach Teacher Externship Program kicked off on Aug. 9 with a three-day workshop held across multiple employer sites in Long Beach including special visits to Boeing, Relativity Space, Rocket Lab, SpinLaunch and Virgin Orbit. There were 16 LBUSD educators selected to collaborate with Pacific Gateway and Long Beach aerospace employers to participate in the program and raise awareness of aerospace industry knowledge and trends. This three-day opportunity provided teachers with extended exposure to aerospace manufacturing, rocket launch trends, work environments and types of careers their students may want to pursue in aerospace. Teachers participated in workshops with industry leaders, engaged in discussions on workforce and existing needs, and had the opportunity to gain hands-on experience that will help educators contextualize the academic content they teach.

The City of Long Beach is seeking a qualified partner that can lead the research and evaluation of the Long Beach Guaranteed Income Pilot Program (Pilot), which will provide a select number of Long Beach families living at or below the poverty line and residing in the 90813 zip code the opportunity to receive $500 a month for 12 months. The selected partner will need to have experience providing academically reviewed and supported research as well as experience in overall research and evaluation design, survey-instrument development and launch, community-informed key performance indicators, analysis of survey participant data, research reporting and other services. All criteria and specific details, including project scope, eligibility requirements and submission instructions are available in a Request for Proposal that was launched today and posted on Long Beach Buys. Eligible organizations are encouraged submit proposals through Long Beach Buys, by 11 a.m. (PST) on Oct. 6, 2022.

The City of Long Beach invites Long Beach families and community members of all ages to its first World Mental Health Day Resource Fair on Saturday, Oct. 15, 2022, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Admiral Kidd Park (2125 Santa Fe Ave). This free event will raise awareness of mental health resources for people in the community and provide information tables from local community-based organizations and exhibitors. The World Mental Health Day Resource Fair is an interdepartmental effort that will feature art, sound baths, music, games, sports and more. The event also will offer free merchandise and self-care prizes. In addition, vendors, exhibitors and community members who attend will have a chance to be the City’s first Mental Health Champions by taking a pledge to advocate and promote mental health in their communities. Those who take the pledge will receive window-clings and flyers for display to help community members identify spaces in Long Beach that are actively creating safe and responsive environments for mental health. 

The Long Beach Health Department has expanded eligibility for the monkeypox (MPX) vaccine. The MPX vaccine is now available for the following people: 

• New: People living with HIV, especially people with uncontrolled or advanced HIV disease. 
• Update: People who had skin-to-skin or intimate contact with someone with suspected or confirmed monkeypox, including those who have not yet been confirmed by the Health Department. 
• Update: People of any gender or sexual orientation who engage in commercial and/or transactional sex (e.g., sex in exchange for money, shelter, food and other goods or needs). 

For a full list of MPX vaccine requirements and more information, click here. 

On Sept. 20, 2022, California Department of Public Health (CDPH) released the updated Guidance for the Use of Face Masks. Effective immediately, masking in public transit settings and transportation hubs is no longer required in the city. Masking recommendations in indoor general public settings, including public transit and indoor public transportation hubs, will be based on the City’s current COVID-19 Community Level. 

Click here for more information. 

The Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services (Health Department) is hosting several community flu vaccination clinics at no charge for people without health insurance or those whose health care provider does not offer flu vaccines. The flu vaccination clinics will offer walk-up options for everyone ages 6 months and older, no appointment is necessary.  

Please visit longbeach.gov/flu for the most up-to-date clinic schedule. 

Additionally, the Health Department will offer free flu vaccine at all City-run COVID-19 vaccine sites starting Monday, Oct. 10, while supplies last. Appointments for both COVID-19 and flu vaccines will be available on MyTurn. To view the full list of City-run COVID-19 vaccine sites, visit longbeach.gov/vaxLB. People may safely get vaccinated for the flu and COVID-19 on the same day. 

Click here for more information. 

The Mission of the Equity and Human Relations Commission is “to inspire and support social justice and equity in the City of Long Beach and foster mutual understanding and respect for all.” 

This week, the Equity and Human Relations Commission will be joined by members of the community and service providers to discuss their work with older adults in Long Beach.  

Meeting ID: 944 2715 5103 

Dial-in: US: +1 213 338 8477  

Zoom Link: https://longbeach-gov.zoom.us/j/94427155103 

Please join the Citizens’ Advisory Commission on Disability for a resource fair highlighting National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM) on Tuesday, October 11th at 3:30pm – 5pm in the Long Beach City Hall lobby. This year’s NDEAM theme is “Disability: Part of the Equity Equation.” Observed annually in October, NDEAM celebrates the contributions of America’s workers with disabilities past and present and showcases supportive, inclusive employment policies and practices. This event is free and open to the public. Free parking is located at the Civic Center Parking Structure on Broadway and Chestnut. If you are taking Access Paratransit or LBT Dial-a-Ride, please have them pick-up/drop-off at Stand 2 located on Chestnut or Stand 3 on Magnolia.