Long Beach youth and seniors presented their hopes for the future at the May 13 City Council meeting, and and suggested specific policy changes to meet those needs.
While seniors from the community and the Health Department presented the new Age-Friendly Action Plan, youth were joined by the Office of Youth Development and the Youth Advisory Council gave a four-year update on the Youth and Emerging Adults Strategic Plan.
The plan has one more year left, but youth and City staff expressed an interest to update and renew the plan next year.
Youth Update Highlights Public Safety & Mental Health Needs
“Across Long Beach there’s a generation of young people who are ready to lead, ready to be heard and ready to build a future we believe in,” said Edrick Selgado, a Youth Advisory councilmember as he introduced updates on the Youth and Emerging Adults Strategic Plan.
A group of young residents behind him brought the same passion to Long Beach’s city council meeting Tuesday night. The plan is in year four out of five, and ready to take on more, with the goal to create a city where all youth are healthy and empowered with necessary resources to develop into their authentic selves.
Proud of the progress they’ve made, the Youth Advisory members were clear that there’s more to be done. Their plans for improving the lives and safety of Long Beach’s youth focused on public safety outside of police, mental health, education on personal finances and budgeting, and work opportunities.
The Youth Advisory Council and Office of Youth Development shared that one of their biggest challenges is reaching youth who need their services most. According to data gathered by the Office of Youth Development, there are 5,166 youth in Long Beach ages 16-24 who are not in school and don’t work, with 74% of them being between the ages of 20 and 24. With school and work nonexistent as a place to reach youth, they have to get creative.
Councilmember Tunua Thrash Ntuk commented on the aforementioned statistic, saying, “I’m constantly talking to friends about the fact that too many young people are falling through the cracks and they don’t have a pathway forward.”
Programs that have manifested or grown from the plan include Youth Participatory Budgeting, the Youth Advisory Council, Youth Week, the City Employees Youth Mentoring Program and the newly developed Youth Development Data Dashboard at longbeach.gov/youth. The $2.9 million budget for programs come from grants, including the Long Beach Recovery Act, as well as Measure US and general fund allocations.
Each member who spoke at the meeting recalled feeling unsafe while growing up in Long Beach while walking through their neighborhoods, riding public transit or within their schools.
“The truth is no matter how much we invest in youth, no matter how many programs we create, our communities still aren’t safe and the work isn’t done,” said Youth Advisory Councilmember Destiny Rodriguez.
She said Brandon Boyd’s death at the hands of the police officers, who he allegedly called for a mental health emergency, happened in her neighborhood, creating an environment of fear and confusion for her and her children. “What are we teaching our children when someone calls out for help and gets bullets instead? What are they supposed to believe when the people that are supposed to protect us respond with violence?”
Rodriguez asked the council to expand Community Crisis Response Teams, which are unarmed individuals who respond to mental health emergencies and wellness checks. She also asked the City to strengthen de-escalation and mental health training for officers and invest in youth healing programs such as mentorships, therapy and safe spaces, especially in communities that have been hit hardest by police brutality.
According to the Community Crisis Response dashboard, the teams have responded to roughly 514 incidents since July 2023, with 48% of those calls going to Black residents, 32% to white residents and 16% to Latino residents. Only 4% of these calls were made for youth ages 24 years and under.
Youth Advisory Councilmember David Word asked the council to work with the Long Beach Unified School District to create classes that offer personal finance and budgeting skills.
Opportunity Youth Coordinator Yonique Edwards said they’ve also been doing work well outside the items laid out in the plan, and they see reason to update the plan next year to set additional goals.
