California State University, Long Beach
EN-10: Community Partnerships

This partnership is a collaboration between Building Healthy Communities Long Beach, the CSULB Center for Community Engagement, and the College of Health and Human Services' Center for Health Equity Research. The mission of the Building Healthy Communities Long Beach collaborative is to reduce health disparities and improve community health overall through systemic changes fueled by adult and youth resident engagement, collaboration and resource sharing, and strategic communication about community needs and solutions. CSULB shares resources through leadership training, service learning, and internships, as well as evaluation and assessment.

This partnership engages the Century Villages and Cabrillo, CSULB Center for Community Engagement, College of Business Administration, College of Liberal Arts, and College of Health and Human Services. Century Villages at Cabrillo creates the physical and social conditions where collaborating programs can succeed in overcoming homelessness. As a social enterprise, CVC engages in property management, real estate development, and community development activities, all uniformly geared around the vision of breaking the cycle of homelessness. The CSULB/CVC partnership focuses on addressing environmental factors, sustainable practices, and promoting health and economic well-being for homeless and recently homeless individuals, families, and military veterans.

The Campus-Community Coalition Coalition for Climate Resilience was established to support the university's and the city of Long Beach's simultaneous efforts to pursue adaptation strategies and promote resilience in response to the inevitable impacts of climate change. The Coalition is currently operationalized in two ways. The first is through the university's Resilience Working Group, which is tasked with conducting a campus vulnerability assessment and using that assessment to design a plan for making CSULB more resilience to shocks, as required under the Second Nature Climate Commitment. Membership of the Resilience Working Group includes CSULB faculty, staff and students, as well as representatives from the City of Long Beach's Planning Department and Sustainability City Commission. The second is through the City of Long Beach's Scientific Advisory Committee, which was created to inform the city's efforts to develop its first ever Climate Action and Adaptation Plan. CSULB faculty from several disciplines sit on this committee.

To advance sustainability and resilience education, outreach, and research opportunities, CSULB has developed a strong partnership with the Aquarium of the Pacific, located in downtown Long Beach. This partnership aligns the sustainability goals of the University and the aquarium to expand established and develop new educational and leadership opportunities focused on climate change mitigation and adaptation. Through the partnership, CSULB co-facilitated a two-day Climate Resilience Leadership Workshop on campus in November 2016, which engaged over 50 students, faculty, staff and members of the community. Currently, CSULB faculty, students, and staff are working with the Aquarium and UC Riverside researchers to conduct “Operation Healthy Air,” a research project that aims to characterize the urban heat island effect and air pollution across diverse neighborhoods in Long Beach. CSULB also participates in and showcases university programs at sustainability-focused events at the Aquarium, such as the “Climate Resilience and Sustainability Late Night Event” that took place in January 2017.