New Strategies to Empower Entire Communities: A Field Trip to Central Los Angeles

In session 2 of the 2008 California Health Journalism Fellowships, journalists examined the the issue of substandard housing as a public health threat. The filed trip and seminar began at Magnolia Place, a newly-launched community center based in South Los Angeles, which offers an innovative array of support services aimed at strengthening the entire surrounding neighborhood. From there, journalists ventured out to experience for themselves the housing conditions of families who live at the bottom of the economic ladder in an area of downtown Los Angeles currently undergoing massive redevelopment.