CDC gives South LA’s Community Coalition $3 million grant



Karen Bass check CDC | Taylor Haney

Karen Bass hands over a check to Community Coalition. | Taylor Haney

The Centers for Disease Control gave the South Los Angeles-based Community Coalition a $3 million grant last week to improve health in the region.

The REACH grant, short for “Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health,” is one of seven awarded by the CDC around the country.

Community Coalition applied for the grant with the help of the L.A. Public Health Department. Now it falls to them to distribute the funds to deserving programs in the region.

Rep. Karen Bass came to the celebration at King Park to hand over the giant check from the CDC to Community Coalition. Local fifth-grade students also came to kick things off. [Read more…]

Political outsider, community insider aims for District 8 seat



Marqueece Harris Dawson | Matthew Tinoco

Marqueece Harris-Dawson greets South L.A. residents to announce his candidacy. | Matthew Tinoco

The idea was to prevent kids from seeing pictures glorifying tobacco when they were at school. Marqueece Harris-Dawson was only just learning about the nuances of community organizing when his bosses told him to go to then assembly-member Herb Wesson’s office, and make the case to remove tobacco advertisements from public buses that are routed past schools.

He entered Wesson’s office and gave his pitch. Wesson thought it was a great idea, and he soon delivered to the Metro Board a motion proposing all ads for tobacco products be banned from public buses. It passed.

That was more than fifteen years ago. Now Harris-Dawson hopes to bring his talents to the L.A. City Council. He announced his candidacy on Saturday morning to a packed church in Baldwin Hills. [Read more…]

“Don’t Hold Us Back” Movement Rallies at LAUSD Meeting



Listen to an audio story by Annenberg Radio News

image “Don’t Hold Us Back” is a coalition of parents, civil rights groups and community organizations that is calling for involvement in contract negotiations. At a rally this morning, the group spoke out to insure that the agreements provide students with quality education.

Marqueece Harris-Dawson is the president of community coalition.

“Typically community members are left out of this process. We are trying to insert ourselves and make it clear that we have opinions about it. We want to and expect to be heard…our kids only get one shot at this education to that’s important to us.”

Parents at the rally said they want to have a bigger role in the process. Felicia Jones is a parent of a LAUSD graduate.

“Parents need to be heard in this matter. For so long this has been a union and district issue but really parents are the ones who are ultimately impacted, students are impacted. And we want our voice heard. We want them to know what we care about as they negotiate.”

Jones says the campaign wants the contract to provide educators and administrators with more flexibility. She believes this will allow teachers to reach their full potential and offer better education.

The United Teachers of L.A. says it welcomes parent’s involvement. However, one point of contention with “Don’t Hold Us Back” is teacher seniority. The campaign calls for an end to the “last hired, first fired” rule. Harris-Dawson says it forces schools that frequently hire inexperienced teachers to bear the brunt of lay offs. The union firmly stands behind the policy and supports tenure for educators.

“Don’t Hold Us Back” also wants to include an objective, fair teacher evaluation system to reward teachers doing well and help those who aren’t.