COMMUNITY NEEDS ASSESSMENT FOR FELICITAS AND GONZALO MENDEZ

LEARNING CENTER

Community Needs Assessment For Felicitas and Gonzalo Mendez Learning Center.
Joshlyn McCray
NTRS 418
Winter Quarter 2015
California State University, Los Angeles

COMMUNITY NEEDS ASSESSMENT FOR FELICITAS AND GONZALO MENDEZ

LEARNING CENTER

Program of Background
SOS Mentor is a program the targets low-income children and teens in Los Angeles by
guiding them to make healthier lifestyle choices through educating students on nutrition and
fitness. This program also encourages leadership and advocacy with in their community. Imagine
Health is one of many programs under SOS Mentor that helps achieve this goal. This specific
program focuses on felicitating a study on the benefits of stress-reduction techniques that can
encourage students to become active and make better nutritional choices. Studies are done at
several local high schools, but for the case of this assessment, we focus on the program at
Felicitas and Gonzalo Mendez Learning Center.
My Community
Felicitas and Gonzalo Mendez Learning Center is located in 90033 zip code of Los
Angeles, CA; a small portion of the city of Los Angeles in the metro area surrounded by Arts
District, Lincoln Heights and East Los Angeles. The metro area has a high incidence of AIDS
and tuberculosis, diabetes mortality and low birth weight among African-Americas according to
the County of Los Angeles Public Health. The primary health behavior in this area is overweight
children in grades 5,7 and 9 at roughly 24.3% according to the County of Los Angeles Public
Health. The area of Felicitas and Gonzalo Mendez Learning Center is a low-income
neighborhood of Boyle Heights community with a total population of 48,852;based on the 2010
census, and high population and influence of Latino culture. The target population for this
assessment is Latino high school students between the ages of 14-17 living in the community of
Boyle Heights in the city of Los Angeles. Students of Felicitas and Gonzalo Mendez Learning
Center have improper eating habits because of the lack of health food resources that is lead this
community to an increase of overweight children.

COMMUNITY NEEDS ASSESSMENT FOR FELICITAS AND GONZALO MENDEZ

LEARNING CENTER

Parameters of Assessment
The goal of this assessment is examine the nutritional need of zip code 90033 and how to
promote and educate students in high school, ages 14-17, to become healthier and active students
to later encourage and educate younger peers. The types of data needed for this assessment is the
resources surrounding the school that includes, what healthy food sources are available, what are
the main food sources, the amount and distance of parks for physical activity and the availability
of healthcare centers. Information about the actually community is needed as well, including lack
of education, safety of the community and average income of residents. Information will be
collected by online research to determine community information, the County of Los Angeles
Public Health to provide health concerns, driving to determine the distance of resources and
personal observation working with students.
Data Collection
On the southeast corner of the school there is a quick market that sales items like
toothbrushes, bleach, fast food items and liquor. Other things with in walking distances are;
roughly three more Mexican fast food places, one more liquor store and one Mexican grocery
store. If you keep heading east on 1st street you see more Mexican restaurants, fast food and
mini-markets. The average income is $28,005 (U.S Census Bureau), which is below the state and
federal poverty level. The closes grocery store is a Food 4 Less, 1.5 miles away from the school.
Families will have to travel roughly 6-8 miles to a Ralphs or Albertsons to get good produce
(Google Maps). Other grocery stores are El super, Superior and Northgate Gonzalez Market
(Google Maps). Based on the U.S Census Bureau 66.8% in that community drive a car but
within each household more than 4 people are living in a home.

COMMUNITY NEEDS ASSESSMENT FOR FELICITAS AND GONZALO MENDEZ

LEARNING CENTER

Driving around I seen a lot of police patrolling in the community, indicating that this
community might have a high crime activity. There is a total of nine parks/recreation centers for
the youth all different sizes but based on the information provided by Los Angeles County of
Public Health, 65.2% of the parents felt unsafe in their neighborhood and 74.8% cant get to a
park, playground or other place to play. There are three major hospitals: Promise Hospital of
East Los Angeles, White Memorial Medical Center and LAC+USC Medical Center, and several
other centers and clinics (Google Maps). Based on Los Angeles County of Public Health, 38% of
adults reported difficulty of accessing medical. Only 47% graduate from high school or higher
and 7.4% obtain a bachelors degree or higher (U.S. Census Bureau). Adults and children are
uninsured, without regular source of health care and do not obtain dental care (Los Angeles
County of Public Health).
Analysis
The major health outcomes in this community are high incidence of AIDS and
tuberculosis, low birth weight among African-Americans and diabetes mortality. Overweight
children and high diabetes mortality is the major nutrition related problems in this community.
There are many reasons on why this community has such high rates of overweight children and
diabetes mortality; to start, it is the lack of nutritious food options that makes this community a
food desert. Having several Mexican restaurants, fast food and liquor stores within walking
distance makes it easily accessible for the community to partake in unhealthy foods. Also, lack
of good quality grocery store like Ralphs or Albertsons that provide good quality foods explains
the lack of nutritious foods; Food 4 Less grocery stores usually lack good quality produce/food.
Being that Boyle Heights is a low-income community, it explains why there is less nutritious

COMMUNITY NEEDS ASSESSMENT FOR FELICITAS AND GONZALO MENDEZ

LEARNING CENTER

foods are easily accessible and affordable; people simply cant afford nutrient dense food when
the average income is below the state poverty line.
The lack of safety in this community limits the physical activity of children. Most parents
feel unsafe in their community and this leads to a decrease of physical activity for the children.
Ones social environment controls ones health; so without physical activity in the community,
the increase in overweight children will continue to rise.
There are a high percentage of students who do not graduate high school and those who
do, do not pursue higher education. The lack of education in this community implies that the job
opportunities are slim and the types of jobs will not provide them with great healthcare benefits.
Overall, people of the Boyle Heights community are lacking the access of great quality
healthcare services and nutritious food, as well as physical activity. This puts the community at
high risk for overweight children & continuous increase of diabetes morality.
Program Intervention/Evaluation Report
SOS Mentor Imagine Health Program is designed to educate low-income high school
students on adapting a health diet and becoming a physically active student. Local college
students of nutritional science major come in as mentors to help encourage students to achieve
these goals. Students are first given a pre-test questionnaire asking about their nutritional diet
and their physical activity level. At the end of the 6 weeks program, students are give a similar
questionnaire based on their nutritional diet and physical activity level to see if there is a
positive, negative or no change at all.
Students are also given a food journal, where they write weekly goals and food items they
eat during the day that satisfies the five food groups (dairy, protein, grain, fruit and vegetable).
After every meal students record their level of hungry once food is consumed. The idea of this

COMMUNITY NEEDS ASSESSMENT FOR FELICITAS AND GONZALO MENDEZ

LEARNING CENTER

evaluation is to see if students are reaching their nutritional and physical activity goal, and to see
if their diet is shifting as they learn more about nutrition during the 6 weeks course.
Stress is part of the SOS Mentor intervention; students are tested on cortisol level through
their saliva along with a pre-test questionnaire based on current stress level. Students are given
the cortisol level test again along with post-questionnaire do to see if level of stress has change.
Results of these evaluations are not yet completed at the moment, but hopefully these
evaluations of the intervention will come back with positive feedback.

COMMUNITY NEEDS ASSESSMENT FOR FELICITAS AND GONZALO MENDEZ

LEARNING CENTER
References
90033 Zip Code Detailed Profile. (n.d.). Retrieved March 12, 2015,
from http://www.city-data.com/zips/90033.html
American FactFinder - Results. (n.d.). Retrieved March 12, 2015, from
http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?src=CF
Key Indicators of Health. (n.d.). Retrieved March 12, 2015, from
http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/wwwfiles/ph/hae/ha/keyhealth.pdf
SOS Mentor, Los Angeles, CA. (n.d.). Retrieved March 12, 2015,
from http://www.sosmentor.org/