Rooted in more than a decade of community organizing, Long Beach Forward is excited to now be an independent nonprofit to better serve our community health and safety needs! This new chapter is built upon a foundation of people power in Long Beach, thanks to people like you.
As you may know, we formed in 2010 as a community “hub” through the California Endowment’s “Building Healthy Communities: Long Beach” initiative, and since then have overcome challenges (including legal uncertainty when health and racial equity was seen as “too political”) and become more established with community backing, while keeping people at the center. Because of people-power, we have successfully been able to collaborate across our community in our work in movement building issues related to economic and racial inclusion and equity, language justice, parent engagement, organizing strategy, community leadership development, and other social change issues.
Your donations will help us continue to work in coalition spaces, provide resources to partner organizations and volunteer-led groups, and keep people at the forefront of Long Beach issues related to defunding the police, Sanctuary Long Beach, parent organizing, land use, language access, environmental justice and other community priorities. Your contributions keep our work collaborative, so we can continue to pull together a diverse community of people from various racial, religious, sexual orientation, age, gender identity, immigration status, and economic backgrounds.
“We are a unique organization that does difficult work. And we know that change takes time. Our work isn’t to make things popular; we make popular what needs to be done. Our past work, track record, history, and relationships show the boundaries we’re willing to push, the critical issues we’re going to help people advocate for, and the community we’re here to stand with, especially when we’re standing up against the status quo and the unjust ways of the institutions around us.” - James Suazo, Executive Director
“I’ve been involved with Long Beach Forward for years through the Best Start Central Long Beach program, and I’ve even brought my son on board. Now as a Leadership Team member, I am able to be hands-on with decision making as a community partner for the betterment of local children and families. Long Beach Forward gives people the opportunity to be part of change-making through leadership development, collaborating on projects, and educational programming.” - Juanita Wilson, Long time community volunteer with Long Beach Forward