Best Start Central Long Beach

An initiative of First 5 LA, Best Start Central Long Beach (BSCLB) is working to create the best possible community for young children and their families. Best Start brings together parents, community organizations, institutions, and others to improve local policies and resources to better support parents and create a community where children and families can thrive. Best Start also provides the skills-building and leadership training to help the group achieve its goals and ensure that children are safe, healthy, and ready to learn.

Invest in Your Child, Invest in Your Future

You Have an Important Role to Play

It takes caring, committed people like you to create a community where young children, starting at ages 0-5, and their families can thrive.

Download the Best Start Central Long Beach Resource Guide below.

Update: Community Change Funds RFP

BSCLB is looking for community project proposals that will create social change for children and their families and be voted on by BSCLB community members.

Be a Part of Making Community Change

Our four community change agenda goals guide our strategy to make “system change” in Long Beach:

1. Build community knowledge on child development and parenting skills
 
2. Prevent child abuse and neglect
 
3. Increase access to quality and affordable childcare
 
4. Increase access to quality and affordable housing and economic security

Best Start doesn’t just meet community where they’re at –
they address the root problems at hand to ensure children and families succeed in school and life.

Our BSCLB Calendar

Partnership Meetings

Best Start’s success rests on a firm foundation of community members who form our Community Partnership. Members of the community are invited to join the monthly Partnership Meeting to find a space to contribute to this movement. Members of the Partnership have shared that their participation is always “meaningful” and a “reminder that it is possible to change our community.” It’s also a space to make connections to others with similar experiences and learn about resources in the community.

While in-person monthly community partnership meetings are on hold due to the pandemic, you can learn more about our ongoing work through our video series on YouTube or Facebook. We are also continuing to connect community members to one another and to important resources.

BSCLB Leadership Team Members

Listen to Best Start Leadership Team Member Angelica Murrillo and Partnership Member Lilia Ocampo talk about the impact of their involvement in the Best Start Community in this video.

September Partnership Meeting

Thursday, September 28 at 4:30pm (registration & dinner), meeting 5-7pm

RSVPbit.ly/BSCLBRSVP (Childcare and transportation are available by request through this form.)

Check out the recap video of our January 2023 Partnership Meeting, our first in-person meeting in 3 years!

The 2023 Community

Change Fund recipients:

  • Central Long Beach Neighborhood Tenant Council (Long Beach Residents Empowered): LiBRE plans to expand their tenant organizing efforts by creating neighborhood-based tenant councils, including renters in small buildings and single-family homes, to advocate for housing justice policies and empower communities of color.
 
  • Dive into Learning (LB Public Library Foundation): Dive into Learning will support early childhood education holistically through workshops, resources, and activities that address the need for increased childhood literacy, engage parents in positive parenting practices, and prepare children for kindergarten by providing essential academic, practical, and social skills.
 
  • Long Beach Food Distribution (LB Community Table): LBCT will support vulnerable individuals through their core Food Distribution Programs, which include a Food Pantry, Parks Program, and Homebound Delivery – emphasizing the importance of economic security for community and seek funds to ensure the continuity of their services, which not only provides 6,000 pounds of food each week but also create jobs and a connected community. 
 
  • Motherhood Together (M.O.R.E. Mothers): Mothers and their children in Central Long Beach will be provided with free monthly deliveries of essential items like feminine hygiene products, diapers, wipes, etc, that will address economic challenges and systemic inequities. The program also offers educational materials, regular check-ins, and monthly workshops to empower mothers and help them thrive.

Community Change Funds

Parents and caregivers vote to fund $182,000 in Community Change Projects

The Best Start Central Long Beach (BSCLB) Network Provides Community Change Funds to organizations serving young children and their families.

Who Can Join Best Start Central Long Beach

Best Start brings together parents, community organizations, institutions, and others to improve local policies and resources to better support parents and create a community where children and families can thrive.

We provide translation and interpretation in Khmer and Spanish as well.

We focus on children ages 0-5 because we know that engaging them with their families and caregivers early-on will provide them resources they need to overcome any barriers in life.

Best Start also provides skills-building and leadership training to help the group achieve its goals and ensure that children are safe, healthy, and ready to learn.

Opportunities:

Skills Building & Leadership Training

Civic engagement workshops like the Parent Leadership Academy train parents to learn how to develop self-efficacy as a leader, the ins and outs of Long Beach Governance structures, how to develop an action plan for advocacy, and how to work together with community for positive change.

Community-Led Programs

Leaders for Change aims to create a strong group of community leaders who will help alleviate the Housing Crisis in Long Beach. They will build leadership skills, increase their knowledge on Housing Justice issues and will be trained as trainers to pass this knowledge to their neighbors in the city.

Helpful Resources

Learn about resources to help children be safe, healthy, and ready to learn via our monthly e-newsletter. Also, find out about scholarships and other funding opportunities to support youth programming.

Contact Us

Participate in our projects! Get to know the Leadership Team! Get ready for monthly partnership meetings! This is a space to make connections to others with similar experiences, get resources, be able to learn from community.

Contact Nubia Flores, Associate Director and learn how to get involved.

Learn all of our latest updates, community events/resources, and more on our Facebook page and via our monthly Best Start Central Long Beach e-newsletter. Sign up today to stay in the loop!