The Long Beach Advancing Peace Initiative is a systems-level approach to promote peace for all in the city.

The initiative provides support to:

• Long Beach residents
• Community-Based Organizations (CBO)
• Long Beach residents who are victims of violence
• Schools and neighboring areas who report high incidents of community and gun violence

If you are a Long Beach resident or CBO interested in the Long Beach Advancing Peace Initiative contact us at LBpeace@longbeach.gov.

About Us

What is the City of Long Beach Advancing Peace Initiative?

The City of Long Beach Violence Prevention Initiative is also known as Long Beach Advancing Peace (LBAP). We help organizations by providing support through funding, training, and administrative assistance.

The LBAP works together with residents and organizations to achieve four goals.

• Create Social Connectedness
• Support Economic Opportunity
• Build Safe and Healthy Neighborhoods
• Use Trauma-Informed Systems

Below are some examples of how LBAP and our Steering Committee work toward our goals.

We support social connectedness by assisting community-based organizations and groups to host events in the community that bring us closer. These events help us get to know our neighbors better, support family togetherness and help us get out of the house and have some fun. Please find below a few examples of how LBAP promotes social connectedness.

• Providing administrative support
• Connecting CBOs and residents to agencies in the city to help meet the needs of the community
• Guidance on permits
• Event planning assistance

Currently, there are many ways that the City of Long Beach can increase economic opportunity. Below are several grant opportunities.

• Youth 100 Grants
• Measure US
• Long Beach Recovery Act
• Pacific Gateway

LBAP helps organizations and residents build safe and healthy neighborhoods. We support violence prevention and public safety by providing training such as:

• Violence prevention volunteer training
• Defensive pedestrian training
• Conflict resolution
• Restorative justice
• Grant preparation
• Procurement process information
• Funding training
• Event planning support

The Long Beach Advancing Peace (LBAP) Initiative is a community-driven system created to improve safety. LBAP uses a public health and trauma-informed approach.

What is a system?

• A systems approach brings together different perspectives to support a solution that will work. For instance, LBAP will support the residents, City departments, private businesses, and community-based organizations to work collectively to create a solution that works for their neighborhoods.

What is a public health approach?

• A public health approach recognizes that violence affects the health, safety, and well-being of those directly affected by violence as well as that of the surrounding community.

What is Trauma-Informed Practices (TIP)?

• TIPs are approaches based on the knowledge of the impact of trauma in affecting behaviors and engagement in services.
• We help organizations create environments and services that are welcoming for service recipients and staff.
• LBAP understands that trauma can impact people’s physical, emotional and mental health.
• We know that current service systems can retraumatize a person seeking services.

LBAP believes that:

• Long Beach residents and organizations know what their community needs.
• Residents and organizations can work together to create programs that will have positive outcomes in their neighborhoods.
• Everyone deserves to feel safe.

• Four Goals of the LBAP

  Social Connectedness

  We will work to increase participation in community anti-violence programs by:

  • Promoting community events citywide
  • Providing research to identify and address community violence
  • Working with residents or CBO to support their event or service by connecting the program with existing services to increase the scope of the program or event
  • Supporting programs with funding, as funding allows, or suggesting other grant opportunities

  Economic Opportunity

  LBAP understands that a lack of economic opportunity can increase violence.

  We will help increase economic opportunity for Long Beach Residents. Services that help increase opportunities include:

  • Affordable childcare
  • Workshops on financial literacy focusing on topics such as credit, retirement, and banking
  • Jobs for youth, people newly released from jail or prison, (also known as re-entry populations), and others facing barriers to employment
  • Connecting unemployed and underemployed job seekers with career opportunities

  We connect organizations and residents to agencies that provide the services listed above. We also add these services to our newsletter to promote opportunities. If you would like us to promote programs that increase economic opportunity, please email us at lbpeace@longbeach.gov.

  Safe & Healthy Neighborhoods

  In partnership with other neighborhood organizations, we will increase safety in the city of Long Beach. Currently we are:

  • Increasing adult supervision along school routes
  • Promoting the safe use of public spaces and community gathering areas
  • Investing in physical improvements and revitalizing neighborhoods most impacted by violence
  • Decreasing litter and other physical blight in public streets and alleyways

  Trauma-Informed Systems

  We work with City departments and contract providers to incorporate trauma informed practices and policies in violence prevention efforts. We will meet with organizations to provide training and resources.

  Contact us at lbpeace@longbeach.gov

• LBAP Steering Committee

  

  The Long Beach Advancing Peace Steering Committee helps set the agenda for the Collaborative Network and directs the implementation of violence prevention strategies in neighborhoods.

  Martha Cota Jesus Esparza James Marks Jonathan Gray Dr. Dinesa Thomas-Whitman

  Alma Orozco, MSW, ASW Paula Wood Hilda Gaytan Jesvin Selda Jessica Quintana

• LBAP Collaborative Network

  

  The LBAP Collaborative network allows us to harness the power of working together! Together, we can achieve goals that are greater than the sum of our parts.
  
  The purpose of the Collaborative Network is to create partnerships that can help interrupt community violence.
  
  Collaborative Network members include nonprofit leaders, neighborhood associations, resident leaders and City staff all working to reimagine public safety in Long Beach.
  
  We will achieve this by coordinating our resources and services.
  
  Led by the Health Department, the Collaborative Network:

  • Meets quarterly
  • Creates a violence prevention strategy
  • Collects data to evaluate progress
  • Promotes relationships among collaborative members
  • Shares grant opportunities

  +Join the Collaborative Network

  
  
  

Programs

• Safe Passage

  The Health Department will launch the Long Beach Advancing Peace Safe Passage Program in partnership with a nonprofit organization and program volunteers in 2023. The Safe Passage Program will help make walking to and from school safer for middle and high school students who live in areas most at risk for crime and pedestrian injuries. Safe Passage services are to be conducted before and after school as parents, children and youth walk to and from school.

  +Become a Safe Passage Volunteer

  Safe Passage’s Safe Haven Businesses

  Along school routes, students may need to find a safe place to call a parent or call for help. If you would like to become a Volunteer Safe Haven Business, please complete an interest form.

  +Become a Safe Passage Safe Haven Business

  Are you concerned about an area in your neighborhood?

  If your concern is an emergency, please call the police or 9-1-1. However, if you have concerns about youth safety, please fill out this form

  +Request Safe Passage Services

• Long Beach Activating Safe Communities

  The Long Beach Activating Safe Communities (LBASC) Program, initiated by the Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services' Community Impact Division, aims to prevent and reduce community violence. Initially focused on the Washington Neighborhood, it implemented the Gun Violence Response Protocol (GVRP) to address gun-involved incidents, provide case coordination, and foster multisector partnerships to enhance community resilience. With support from the California Board of State and Community Corrections, the program has successfully extended its reach to North and Central-East Long Beach areas. Targeted towards communities affected by gun violence, including youth and families, LBASC has demonstrated notable success. The expanded program will be executed until June 2025, providing community outreach, park programming, youth mentoring, and economic engagement, thereby fostering safer and healthier neighborhoods.  

• Healing Response

  The Healing Response is a brand-new service. The goal is to help provide public health resources and information to victims and their families.

  If the victim’s family consent to services, we follow up with phone calls and resources.

  +Do you know a gun violence victim that needs support services?

• CommUNITY Unite for Peace Campaign

  Purpose

  In partnership with the Steering Committee, the Health Department developed a communication campaign to increase the peace in Long Beach.

  Goals

  • Develop an anti-violence awareness and educational campaign
  • Increase collaboration and nurture relationships amongst the residents in Long Beach
  • Compile information and data to unify violence prevention messagin

  Use of Material

  • High resolution campaign materials can be downloaded.
  • These materials shall be used by collaborative members in implementing community safety/violence prevention strategies.

Resources and Events

• Resources

  • Neighborhood Improvement Programs:
    • Neighborhood Clean-Up Assistance Program:
      Keeping your neighborhood clean is vital to ensuring the safety of your community. That’s why we have the Neighborhood Clean-Up Assistance Program, which provides materials and supplies to community organizations and volunteer groups that take the initiative to actively improve their neighborhood. Whether it’s an alley clean-up, trash pickup, weed removal or graffiti paint-out, we offer the resources you need to help you accomplish your goal.
    • Graffiti Removal Program
      In an effort to keep our City free of unwanted graffiti, we have several programs dedicated to this cause: a Free Paint Program for property owners who want to remove the graffiti themselves and a Graffiti Removal Program which enlists a commissioned paint contractor to ensure a perfect paint match for the coverup when necessary
    • Neighborhood Leadership Program (NLP):
      The NLP provides the tools and training to make a positive difference in your neighborhood. Visit the Neighborhood Leadership Program page to learn more.
    • I Dig Long Beach:
      Our Housing and Neighborhood Services Bureau partners with neighborhood and community groups and hundreds of volunteers to help plant new street trees in your neighborhood through the “I Dig Long Beach – 10,000 Trees by 2022” initiative. The Port of Long Beach and CAL FIRE have provided funding to plant 10,000 trees in Long Beach neighborhoods through 2022.
    • Whose Job is It?:
      
    • Go Long Beach App:
      The Go Long Beach App provides help with the following matters.
      Animal Care Services
      Graffiti
      Park & Public Property Maintenance
      Illegal Fireworks
      Streets, Sidewalks & Lights
      Trash, Debris & Dumped Items
      Trees, Vegetation & Irrigation
      Other
      To learn more, please download the Go Long Beach App on your mobile device.
    • Report Graffiti to the Long Beach Police Department
      The Long Beach Police Department offers three programs to address graffiti throughout the City. These programs include
      • Free Paint Program:
        This program provides property owners choosing to remove the graffiti themselves free paint to be used specifically for removing graffiti from building exteriors.
      • Graffiti Removal Program:
        This program deploys a professional paint contractor to ensure paint match when necessary
      • Graffiti Hotline:
        Use this hotline number to report "graffiti sightings" or request free paint.
    • Resource Line
      The LB Resource Line is a hotline that supports anyone in Long Beach who needs help finding local, City, and community resources. Calls are answered Monday-Friday from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. You can also submit your contact information through us Assistance Request Form.
    • Unite Us
      Filling out this form means you are asking to be connected to a service provider in your area who is able to meet a social or medical need that you or someone in your care may have. Once completed, this form is sent to the Resource Line at the Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services who will process your request and assist you with accessing care or services. Someone from the Resource Line will contact you within 24 hours, Monday-Friday (or by the next working day if received during the weekend).
    • Long Beach Recovery Act:
      To ensure an economic and public health recovery in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, federal, state, and county relief funds are available through the Long Beach Recovery Act.

• Events

  +The Re-Entry Summit

To learn more, or get involved, please contact us.

Contact information:
lbpeace@longbeach.gov
Phone: (562) 570-7439