Young People Give Tour To Uplift North Long Beach

LONG BEACH, CA — Young people are giving Long Beach residents the opportunity to explore their city by giving tours of the neighborhoods they live in to raise awareness, pride and knowledge of its cultural and structural makeup.

The City of Long Beach Health Department partnered with the Youth Leadership Institute to host the "My Hood, My City" program that implements youth-led storytelling to showcase what makes their neighborhood special.

“The My Hood, My City program is helping young people across Long Beach uplift their neighborhoods and increase pride in our communities,” said Mayor Robert Garcia. “These tours will be a great opportunity to share stories about the neighborhoods they grew up in.”

On Friday, Oct. 28 the youth-led tour of North Long Beach will start at Michelle Obama Library at 5870 Atlantic Ave. from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Tours include an in-person walk of the neighborhood and end with a showcase of photos, videos and other visual assets created by the young people to tell the full story of their community. The tour will be about 20 to 40 minutes long according to the city.

Similar tours took place in the Washington and West neighborhoods on Oct. 20 and 22.

Young people aged 14 to 20 participated in the My Hood, My City neighborhood storytelling program this summer to explore different multimedia platforms to tell their stories in preparation for the tours.

The program was funded thanks to the Long Beach Recovery Act which allocated $5 million for violence prevention and safe cities as well as funded public health initiatives.

Registration is required to attend the tours as space is limited, according to the city. To sign up for the free tour, residents should complete the registration form.