DAYS Long Beach, CLIMB Central Long Beach, and Long Beach Forward are part of the City of Long Beach Health Department citywide Safe Passage Initiative, launched in Spring 2024. Our Safe Passage Initiative, called Community Ambassador Program, increased the presence of adults along routes that children, youth, parents, and caregivers travel through on their way to and from school. The role of adult supervision is to reduce the chance that students, parents, and community members experience violence, harassment, and other unsafe situations. Community Ambassador Program volunteers monitor street intersections and walkways near Lincoln and Whittier Elementary School and Franklin Middle School.

Working with the Community Ambassador team, volunteers continue to enhance community trust, build relationships with students, parents, community residents, and school staff. Community Ambassadors reduce student harassment, increase pedestrian safety, and the community’s perception of neighborhood safety.

Nationally, 10%–14% of car trips during morning rush hour are for school travel. The Community Ambassador program helps ensure safer routes for students and their families. Volunteers are trained to help encourage our community to use safe ways to travel to and from school. We focus on school sites including Whittier Elementary, Lincoln Elementary, and Franklin Middle School. Community Ambassador Benefits Increased safety from crime & violence due to more eyes and people on the streets. Less harrassment, bullying, or violence traveling to school. Reduced traffic incidents and congestion. Stronger student relationships by traveling to school together. Positive social community connections with families & neighbors. Better academic performance - students will be better focused and attentive to studies. Fewer absences and reduced tardiness. Healthier students!

Our Area of Focus

Community Ambassador Partnership

DAYS Long Beach, CLIMB Central Long Beach, and Long Beach Forward, have a long history of working and collaborating with families, educators, businesses, and community organizations to promote opportunity and end disparities. Since the beginning of the COVID19 pandemic, these three organizations partnered to provide essential services to thousands of students and parents, benefiting the entire community. These three organizations, along with the City of Long Beach, formed Community Ambassadors to enhance student safety. Learn more about these community organizations below.

For over fifty years, DAYS Long Beach mission has been to create and strengthen relationships with Greater Long Beach area children, youth, young adults, and their parents through programs that support physical and mental well-being, academic success, personal empowerment, and leadership development. DAYS Long Beach offers programs in 3 areas: Youth Education and Development, Leadership and Academic Success, and Community Engagement support. Our services reduce the achievement gap and promote academic achievement for under resourced youth. DAYS Long Beach aims to increase student engagement, provide tools to address anti-social behaviors, reduce community violence, and break the cycle of poverty in the community by providing supportive, constructive programs that improve quality of life, increase life skills and instill leadership and community involvement.

Since 2011, CLIMB Central Long Beach has been a growing community leader in the city, helping emerging neighborhood associations throughout the city to organize and support their most vulnerable neighbors with food distribution, children’s literacy fairs, neighborhood beautification (e.g., tree planting and watering), and clean-ups supported by strong relationships with local businesses and organizations.  CLIMB continues to evolve into an organization focused on advocacy, and this shift has been especially intentional during the pandemic, as health-related inequities were highlighted by COVID-19 and significantly impacted the communities served.

Long Beach Forward has focused on supporting low-income communities of color by strengthening community knowledge, leadership, and power. Initially created as the hub organization for Building Healthy Communities: Long Beach (an initiative funded by The California Endowment) and rebranding in 2018, Long Beach Forward continues to improve the health and safety of communities through advocacy work, community and parent organizing, and leadership development.