$10 Million Awarded to St. John’s Community Health for Climate Resiliency
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Friday, April 26 2024
Contact: Cabot Petoia, clpetoia@gmail.com, 828-899-9239
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Los Angeles – Today, St. John’s Community Health – a network of community health centers serving South, Central, and East Los Angeles; the Inland Empire; and the Coachella Valley – announced they have been awarded $10 million by the California Strategic Growth Council (SGC) to help build a community resilience center in South Los Angeles.
“To protect communities made most vulnerable to climate change by racist policies and practices, we must be proactive in treating environmental disparities and implementing climate preparedness plans,” said Jim Mangia, president and CEO of St. John’s Community Health. “We will build the Avalon Health Access and Resilience Center alongside the community it is meant to serve, offering a diversity of programs and services to treat both the symptoms and the root causes of the climate crisis.”
The abundance of concrete, heavy traffic corridors, and lack of green space in South Los Angeles causes more extreme heat than in other areas of Los Angeles. Further, rapid gentrification has caused spikes in homelessness, leaving many people forced to live on the street and face dangerously hot weather with no respite. Increasing risk of wildfires also put people experiencing homelessness and low-income children at greater risk for respiratory illnesses.
St. John’s Community Health is one of nine applicants being awarded a community resilience center implementation grant.
Through this grant, St. John’s Community Health plans to build the Avalon Health Access and Resilience Center near their existing community health center and drop-in clinic serving unhoused people. The center will be a community-driven safe haven in South Los Angeles with the infrastructural capacity to prepare for, respond to, and recover from climate, public health, and other emergencies.
The climate and community resilience center will incorporate wide-ranging disaster relief and environmentally sustaining campus amenities and services, including: accessible and adaptable indoor and outdoor spaces for cooling, emergency shelter, climate and community resilience classes and events, and a community garden. Physical infrastructure elements will be integrated with year-round medical, dental, and behavioral health services, case management, educational programming, peer support, workforce training, basic-needs services, and other programs to address lack of access to resources for low-income people of color from a diverse group of priority populations living and working in South Los Angeles.
This first-of-its-kind center represents a significant step in expediting recovery efforts and building resilience among communities in South Los Angeles. Moreover, the center will serve as a catalyst for community cohesion, bringing residents together to collaborate, share resources, and support one another. St. John’s anticipates serving at least 15,000 members from the priority populations at the Avalon Health Access and Resilience Center annually.
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St. John’s Community Health is a network of 24 community health centers and 4 mobile clinics providing free and low-cost health care in South, Central, and East Los Angeles; the Inland Empire; and the Coachella Valley.
The California Strategic Growth Council (SGC) is a 10-member council comprised of seven state agencies and three public members with the mission to build healthy, thriving, and resilient communities for all.