Join Our e-List Today

 

Best Start

An initiative of First 5 LA, Best Start Central Long Beach 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.

​

​

Partnership Meeting

Best Start's success rests on a firm foundation of community members who form out 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.

​

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:

​

Participatory Budgeting

Participatory Budgeting is a process for the community, by the community. 

​

Participatory Budgeting is a democratic process in which community members directly decide how to spend resources within a budget. It’s a way to empower people within a community to get involved in budget decisions that will impact their lives. 

​

Starting in 2019, Best Start Central Long Beach began using the Participatory Budgeting process to decide how to spend a significant portion of our budget on community identified projects. Through the Participatory Budgeting process, Best Start has been able to directly create and fund projects that help implement our community change agenda and improve the lives of children and their families.

Stay tuned for more videos about the projects we’ve funded with Participatory Budgeting. You can also learn more about all of our nine winning projects for our 2019 cycle here: English / Español.

Sign up for our email list here.

For more information, follow Best Start Central Long Beach on Facebook for more updates, or contact the Best Start Team at beststart@lbforward.org.
 

What is Participatory Budgeting? Video above