Neighborhood Networks4Kids

The purpose of Neighborhood Networks4Kids is to ensure that every child and adolescent has something to do, someone to do it with, and a safe place to do it.

• The Commission for Children, Youth and Their Families' vision is that every Los Angeles child should reach adulthood having experienced a safe, healthy, and nurturing childhood that has prepared him/her to become a responsible and contributing member of the community. In order to work towards this vision at the neighborhood level, the Commission created Neighborhood Networks4Kids.
  
  
• Neighborhood Networks4Kids' focus is on bringing together the public and private sectors to create a collaborative, team approach to strengthening neighborhoods by:
  
  
  
  1. Increasing the utilization and coordination of city, county, school, and community resources and facilities.
  2. Involving community residents, including youth, in building a stronger local infrastructure for problem-solving and improving the quality of life for children and youth in the city.
     
     

• Networks are intended to help create local self-sustained infrastructures that take seriously their role in improving the lives of children and families through maximizing existing services.
  
  

• Neighborhood Networks4Kids brings together community residents, parents, and youth with representatives of city departments, local businesses, schools, community-based organizations, and the local City Council office in order to develop solutions to problems in their community.
  
  

• Neighborhoods are selected based on information gathered from the local schools, city entities, the council field office, existing collaborations, and others. Selection criteria focuses on:
  

  1. Structure: target population, neighborhood composition, size, and presence of public entities.
  2. Function: residents' identification of the neighborhood, local leadership, and potential for resources to support the effort.
  
  

• Neighborhood Networks4Kids plans to build Networks that are focused on the promotion of the following areas:
  

  1. Children are safe and secure in supportive communities.
  2. Young people are welcomed in and contribute to their communities' decisions and activities.
  3. Families have access to, and a way of paying for, quality childcare.