SJLI partners with Food Forward, which works with wholesale food markets to recover quality produce that is not selected by grocers and restaurants. Recognizing that affordable access remains an issue in Inglewood, SJLI partners with the local school district to host a monthly produce pickup for students’ families. Produce not selected by families is composted back into soil used in 100 Seeds of Change gardens.
Inglewood Certified Farmers’ Market
SJLI operates a bi-weekly farmers’ market that offers affordable, healthy food to communities that are not regularly exposed to low-cost healthy food options. The farmers’ market increases healthy food access for local community members, and serves as another avenue to distribute the affordable produce that SJLI grows, produces and aggregates from our network of community and school gardens.
Urban Health Fellowship
The Urban Health Fellowship (UHF) started in 2014 out of the Powerful Health Peer Leadership Program (PHPLP), serving 30 young males of color with the skills to prevent heart disease and stroke. UHF began as a six-week summer program and, in 2019, transitioned to a school-based, credit-based program.
UHF is now a credit-bearing, school-based course serving Augustus Hawkins High School students interested in pursuing a career in the allied health or medical fields.
UHF prepares young men and women of color to transition into 2-year, 4-year and certificate programs in health and medical disciplines following graduation while also addressing health disparities by training youth to become health advocates. The UHF program offers:
In addition to exposure to the allied health and medical fields, Social Justice Learning Institute supports youth in applying for college, financial aid, and scholarships.
Our partnership with Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science has helped make the UHF program a success, where three physicians meet with our students weekly and help guide the program with various lab demonstrations, such as sutures, phlebotomy and more. Students get the hands-on experience they need to be successful in the world of medicine.
Additional partners include:
Continuing to secure partnerships is vital to the Urban Health Fellowship’s ability to provide career resources and materials for our young men to enhance the trajectories of their future health careers.
Lavelle is one of our UHF alumni that has been a part of our organization since 2017. Since joining the program, he has passed the written exam for the Red Tails Foundation scholarship. Before receiving this news, he planned to take the semester off as he couldn’t afford the spring semester fees at Tuskegee University. After receiving the call, he mobilized by contacting different organizations, departments and mentors for support. He and his mom started a GoFundMe, and a family friend connected him to someone at the Black College Expo. From that connection, Black College Expo paid the remaining amount on his balance, and Lavelle was able to continue his education at Tuskegee.
Contact Julius Young or Lesly Sanchez.
Healthy Eating & Active Living Education
Healthy Eating Active Living (HEAL) nutritional education provides community members with opportunities to expand their knowledge, understanding, and access to healthy living activities. We aim to increase physical activity, nutritional awareness, gardening knowledge and community engagement around nutrition and health within our communities. HEAL classes seek to empower community members to make the healthiest decisions available within their capacity to do so.