
Hundreds of schoolchildren received backpacks filled with school supplies at last Saturday’s “Back To School Summer Blast” event for families living in affordable housing developments in Long Beach. The event at Davenport Park featured performances by youth groups from the housing developments’ after-school programs.

The Making Connections Alliance, which hosted the event, was started as a way to bring social service coordinators and property managers of the developments together and provide the group with information about service-enriched programming available through diverse nonprofit organizations and service providers. The back-to-school event is designed to bring information to their residents in a family-friendly environment and offer a variety of resource booths, food, prizes, games and entertainment for the whole family.
The affordable housing developments taking part in the event were Northpointe Apartment Homes, Andy St. Community Association, Pacific City Lights, Family Commons of the Villages at Cabrillo, and Long Beach & Burnett Apartments. The event is supported by The Long Beach Housing Development Company, the Department of Parks, Recreation & Marine, and the Department of Development Services.