Bits 'n' Pieces

Children Hospitals Plan Strategic Affiliation

Two leading children’s hospitals —Miller Children’s & Women’s Hospital Long Beach, part of MemorialCare Health System and UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital, part of UCLA Health — announced their intent to form a strategic affiliation that brings together their academic, clinical and research expertise, and resources to enhance children’s health care services in Southern California.

The two organizations, which share similar missions and values, plan to establish a wider geographic pediatric collaboration that strengthens and broadens their ability to offer the highest quality, patient- and family-centered care to their respective and shared communities. In addition to working together with physicians, patients and families, the collaboration will work closely with employers, health plans, public health agencies and other organizations to offer children and families high quality and compassionate care close to home.

The UCLA Mattel–Miller Children’s Health alliance plans to focus on growing pediatric specialty care and the network of pediatricians and pediatric specialists available in the community, adding more outpatient facilities, expanding efforts to manage the health of children, and addressing other opportunities that offer families easier access to highly specialized children’s health services.

In partnership with UC Irvine Health, the organizations intend to collaboratively expand their pediatric residency and medical education programs, as well as their nationally recognized centers of excellence for clinical education of residents and fellows in pediatric medicine. This includes residency rotations for pediatric experiences in related medical and surgical specialties, as well as the establishment of medical and surgical fellowship training programs. UC Irvine Health and Miller Children’s long-standing pediatric residency and teaching relationship will continue and be integrated into the pediatric collaboration.

Through joint strategic planning and an expansion of services, both organizations will leverage existing expertise at Miller Children’s and complementary specialty and acute care services from UCLA Mattel to bolster existing programs, further grow clinical and research programs and identify opportunities for future growth of community-based facilities and services.

Lakewood Resident ‘Veteran of the Year’

Sam Sachs, Lakewood’s 102 year old resident, was honored as the 2017 Veteran of the Year for the 63rd Assembly District by Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon.

Sam and Ivonne Meader, owner and administrator of Mom & Dad’s House, Elderly Home where he resides, flew on JetBlue to the Sacramento for the day. JetBlue’s captain and airplane staff greeted Sachs with a big smile, a “thank you for your services,” and a public acknowledgement of his presence in the airplane, where all passengers stood up and applauded.

“Sam helped the world fend off tyranny, then came back home to impact the lives of hundreds of young people as a public school teacher,” Speaker Rendon said. “Now in his second century, Sam’s bravery, love of his country and sense of humor continue to be on display for all to see.”

Sachs joined the U.S. Army at age 17 and served in the 325th Glider Infantry of the 82nd Airborne, which was also known as the Flying Coffins. He landed in Normandy on D-Day and was instrumental in the planning of the invasion with the glider force, overseeing logistics for men, ammunition, food and transportation. As they moved into Germany, Sachs took part in liberating a concentration camp. After completing his service with the Army, Sachs became a school teacher in Southern California.

Rendon represents the 63rd Assembly District, which includes the cities and communities of Bell, Cudahy, Hawaiian Gardens, Lakewood, North Long Beach, Lynwood, Maywood, Paramount, and South Gate.

ChildNet Awarded Assessment Services Contract

After recently being awarded the Resource Home Assessment Services (RHAS) contract from the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), ChildNet has already secured office space, hired the initial team of staff members and are serving over 300 families in the greater Long Beach area, known as Service Plan Area 8 (SPA 8).

The program is designed to assist DCFS in assessing a foster child’s relatives for their suitability and commitment to provide a safe, nurturing home. RHAS helps to minimize any disruption to the child’s life, including education and peer groups, at a challenging time in their lives and the lives of their parents.

ChildNet provides these relatives with an overview of the child welfare process and information resources, conducts a home environment assessment, provides training, and assists the family with retrieval of documents necessary to meet newly established California State Resource Family Approval (RFA) requirements.

“Since the majority of foster youth in the child welfare system are living with relative caregivers, ChildNet is excited to provide the training and support services these families need,” said Kathy Hughes president and CEO of ChildNet.

The mission of ChildNet Youth and Family Services is to provide safe homes, education and counseling to vulnerable children and their families. For more information about this program or how to become a foster parent call (562) 498-5500

Two New Members in Golf Hall of Fame

The Long Beach Golf Hall of Fame, created in 1996 to recognize those individuals who left their mark on Golf in Long Beach, will be welcoming Larry Grant and Mike McMonegal, according to Superintendent of Golf Operations Bob Livingstone.

Larry Grant was born in Long Beach and introduced to the game at age 12. To afford lessons, he became a caddy at the Virginia Country Club. He has been a member of both Recreation Park and El Dorado Men’s Clubs for many years and won the club championship at Rec Park six times and their Senior Club Championship twice. He now lives in Westminster and is a member of Meadowlark Men’s Club where he has won the Club Championship 15 times.

Grant has currently shot his age or better 184 times and has ten holes-in-one, including one on a par 4. He won the Long Beach Men’s City Championship in 1979 and the Long Beach Men’s Senior Championship in 1998 and 2000, and won the Los Angeles County Senior Championship three times (2001, 2005, 2012). He also won the Southern California Golf Association’s Senior Tournament of Club Champions in 2011 and the National Left-Handed Championship in 1995.

Mike McMonegal began playing at age 7 at Skylinks GC; since his dad was a fireman at adjoining Station 19, the course was a natural playground. Through his job as assistant golf director for the County of Los Angeles Department of Parks and Recreation, he has created and manages the LA County Junior Golf program, which has provided instruction and playing opportunities to over 40,000 juniors.

Through this program, McMonegal mentored many recognized golfers like USGA Championship winners James Oh and Briana Do and local teaching professional Jennifer Birmingham, as well as providing employment to many local players who became golf professionals. The county’s junior program won the So Cal PGA’s Bill Bryant Award in 2013 for its contributions to junior golf, including the vision for creating and growing the hugely popular Knabe Cup for high school golf. He convinced the county to create a championship series with six events for men, women, seniors and teams conducted annually on courses throughout their golf operation.

The Golf Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will follow the conclusion of the $165,000 Long Beach Open professional golf tournament at El Dorado Park GC on Sunday, July 30^, at approximately 2:30 p.m.

For more information on the Long Beach Golf Hall of Fame and its members, please visit: http://cityoflongbeachgolf.com/hall-of-fame/general-information.

Gonzalez Proposes Elevator Repair Ordinance

Councilwoman Lena Gonzalez has introduced the Reliable Elevator Ordinance, requiring the timely repair of elevators in buildings that house seniors and people living with ambulatory disabilities. As presented, the item requires repairs to be completed within seven days for residential and commercial buildings that house or serve seniors and people living with disabilities and 14 days for all additional residential and commercial buildings.

The ordinance also seeks incentives for property owners to modernize equipment and requests policy recommendations for hardship reimbursements to those who have spent money on medical and quality of life services during the time an elevator is out of service.

In Long Beach, there are roughly 45,593 people living with disabilities, 55 percent of whom live with ambulatory disabilities, and a total of 42,835 seniors over 65. These individuals often live in large multi-family buildings including the over 30 senior buildings in Long Beach because most single family homes are inaccessible to those with disabilities.

Raise Teacher Respect Across America

Erin Gruwell, the Long Beach teacher who was on the Top 50 shortlist for the Varkey Foundation Global Teacher Prize in 2017, has highlighted the need to urgently raise teacher respect across America to attract the best candidates into the profession and “help young minds navigate a world in total flux.”

Gruwell made the comments as she encouraged American parents and pupils to put forward their most inspirational teacher for the 2018 award on the day that nominations and applications opened.

A teacher at the Freedom Writers Foundation and Bay Path University, Gruwell was motivated to become a teacher after seeing the social unrest of the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles. She realized that such things could be prevented if the economic playing field was made more equal by giving children educational opportunities. She has taught in environments of at-risk students ever since. Many of her students have had first-hand exposure to gang violence and racially divided communities. Some have lost many friends to gang warfare.

Gruwell tackled the contrast between schoolwork and the ordinary lives of her students by focusing on issues and struggles that had some relation to their own circumstances. She encouraged journaling as a way for them to express themselves, which in turn led to a book co-authored with her students, The Freedom Writer’s Diary, which became a New York Times best seller and achieved coverage around the world.

The book and its creation were turned into the 2007 film Freedom Writers with Oscar winner Hilary Swank playing the role of Erin. Subsequently, 100 percent of Gruwell’s students (who were failing classes previously) have successfully graduated high school, and she has adapted her methods to a progressive teaching curriculum called The Freedom Writer’s Method.

Nominations have opened for the $1 million award, which is now in its fourth year and the largest prize of its kind in education. Nominations can be made at www.globalteacherprize.org and the closing date for applications is October 8.

Credit Union Awards Scholarships

At the close of the 2017 school year, LBS Financial Credit Union awarded scholarships to 36 students in Long Beach, Lakewood, Cerritos, and surrounding communities.

Each year, LBS Financial encourages local area high schools, adult schools, and community colleges to participate in their scholarship program by selecting a deserving student to receive an award.  This year, 32 high school, 2 college, and 2 adult school students were awarded scholarships for up to $500. The credit union works directly with each school to select the recipient and present a plaque with the check to the student.

The credit union also offers a $1,000 scholarship each year. Any LBS Financial member in their final year of high school or first three years of college is eligible to apply. One winner is selected for the $1,000 scholarship by a credit union employee committee. Jennifer Tang of Norwalk, California is the 2017 LBS Financial Credit Union Scholarship winner. She graduated from Norwalk High School in June and will be attending University of California, Los Angeles to study pre-medicine starting in fall 2017.

Throughout May and June 2017, many of the scholarships were presented by LBS Financial staff, along with a plaque, to students at their school’s award ceremony.