Walking down the various streets of echo park, I found It increasingly difficult to ignore the lack of community resources available to ordinary people who called echo park “home”.
Walking through the neighborhood, I saw several restaurants, clothing stores, family owned businesses, car repair shops. I observed how difficult transportation was for many people evidenced by a middle aged man whom I saw running for the metro bus. A bus stop with no benches and hardly readable bus signs which could easily have been missed by the blink of an eye. As I continued walking, I observed a small shop with no business name and decided to speak with the owner. She was a middle aged woman who informed me she spoke very little English. She had informed me about coming to America five years ago and was currently running this family business which had been in her family for several years. She informed me about living in echo park and stated “I enjoy it because of the people and it reminds me of home”. I couldn’t help but wonder about my family and relatives who had moved to America in hopes of a better future for themselves and their families. The more I walked down echo park, the more I felt a sense of hard work, family importance, and the sacrifices people made to build a better life for themselves.
As I continued walking through echo park, I realized I had passed by one post office and one church. I attempted to enter the church but it was locked. I thought about the role of the church in the lives of individuals and the role God plays in people’s lives. I began to question “how important was spirituality and religious beliefs within the echo park community?” I observed a homeless man sitting on the steps of the church and because of my own fears, I decided not to interview him His presence at the church step allowed me to realize how much the community lacked resources for individuals and families in need of support with basic needs, food, shelter, clothes.
Walking down the neighborhoods, it would be easy for any one to drive past Gateways Mental Health hospital . Gateways hospital was located in a quiet residential home tucked in the back surrounded by trees. The group received a tour of the facility and interviewed with the director of the program. I thought about how efficient and meaningful having a program such as Gateways assisting children and adults integrate back into the community despite their history with mental health. I inquired with the director how much the budget cut had impacted some of the programs offered at Gateways Mental Health and like most of the other agencies in the community, they had suffered some of the cuts by having to decrease services to families. Yet, the director let it be known, the staff and herself were here to service the community and not allow the impact of the economy deter services offered to families. The tour of the facility made me realize there are still individuals and social workers who continue striving hard for the community and who still believe in servicing the people.
A tour of the 826LA had just as much impact on my thoughts about echo park. 826LA was a facility which provided children the opportunity to “imagine” and at the same time a place of learning with the assistance of volunteers. The program inspired me because of the inspiration it provided to children allowing them to think about importance of living as children but not forgetting to give back to the community. The program had a library which published books written by the children creating a sense of importance and individuality with those children. Just like the children of 826LA, I was impacted meeting the children whose mission was to clean graffiti and assist their neighborhoods with maintaining a clean community for themselves and others. These were children who described their moods as “happy”, “not been bored at home”, “hanging with friends” and “working hard”. These were children who looked forward to coming out into the facility because it began teaching them responsibilities they would face as adults. It allowed me to feel a sense of bringing children together, building healthy relationships, and strengthening those relationships through interests and goals.
Ending my walk through echo park, I walked down residential neighborhoods. I thought about how different each street was from the first day I began my walk to now. At the beginning of the walk, I observed gated houses, old buildings, dogs sitting outside each house as if guarding the homes, fairly neat streets, and homes located next to Gateways Mental Health hospital. The end of the walk brought me to a community whose homes were much bigger, cleaner, quiet. The similarities with both neighborhoods was the lack of people outside their homes. There were little interactions with neighbors. It allowed me to think about the relationships within that community and how neighbors imagined each other. It allowed me to realize the importance of building facilities and institutions which would increase the interactions of people who lived in echo park. I thought about creating family based programs, recreational facilities, communities resources for the needy. I thought about the children and their families and how much voice each had in the community. I thought about how much a community impacted children and adults.
By: Sonia Gliqan
The walk down echo park prepared me for the challenges. Challenges as a social worker but most importantly challenged my thought as an individual. The role community plays in our lives would impact the decisions and choices we would make as social workers and as individuals.
I enjoyed the walk around Echo Park city. I thought it was a great experience. It made me realize how important it is to know one’s city and community. The people who were born and raised in Echo Park had a completely different experience than I did. At Central City Action Committee Youth Program I spoke to two little girls around the age of 12. These girls told me that they took the bus or walked to all their destinations. To these girls this is normal; many people in the city transport themselves in those two ways. When I was young I was fortunate to have parents who had a car and time to transport me everywhere, so I never walked or took the bus. I observed many people waiting at the bus stops. I actually even saw a man running to catch the bus, and luckily the man driving the bus opened the doors in the middle of the street. I spoke to a woman sitting at the bus stop. She said that she lived in Echo Park and worked in Century City. She said she took the bus because it was too expensive to pay for parking if she drove her car. This was actually the case for many people, either they lived in Echo Park and worked outside the city, or they lived outside the city and worked in Echo Park.
The outsiders’ perceptions were very interesting. I spoke to an Asian man who worked at the Department of Mental Health. He lives in Orange County and takes the Metro to work at Echo Park. He made the comment that the people who worked there were completely different than the people who lived in the area. At first hearing this comment shocked me, but unfortunately it was expected from a person who comes from Orange County. Orange County is different than Los Angeles. I also spoke to a girl and asked if she was from Echo Park and she said no. I asked her where she lived and she said across the freeway on Temple. I believed this demonstrated the sense of boundaries in the city. Even though she lived so close she did not want to associate herself with Echo Park. I asked her if she knew any resources or places she could go for help and the only place she said was El Centro del Pueblo. She said that she goes there just to hang out. I asked her if she thought many people in the community knew about these types of resources and she said no.
I could not believe all the resources this city offered and it pleased me to see this. I enjoyed going into all of them and hearing what each one had to offer. I did notice that many of them were hidden and I think people would probably have to hear about them in order to know about them. I spoke to a resident and she believes that the long-term residents know about these services through the church or talk around the community. Some places are El Center Del Pueblo, Gateway Hospital, Dream Center, Echo Park Time Bank, Clinica Santa Maria Women’s Center, 826LA, Central City Action Committee Youth Program, and many more. There is also Echo Park Family Medical Clinic, which according to a resident, most of the community go here for medical reasons. Women in financial need can apply for WIC which is located on Glendale Blvd. I also noticed a thrift store, Out of the Closet, had signs for free HIV testing. When I went in the store they had pamphlets about safe sex. To learn more about these programs go to the websites listed below.
Along with these programs, a lot of people turn to the church for help. Most of the residents turn to the church because of their culture they are to prideful to admit they have problems and ask for help. Also in some cases it is not accepted to go outside of the family to ask for help. In other cultures, especially Hispanic, “the problems in the house stay in the house”. Churches are a great resource for these families because they provide different types of services, as well as, offering them information that refers them to different services. St. Paul’s Cathedral is one church of many that have food banks for the homeless or people in need. They provide people with a bag full of food about once a week. Another church I walked by was the Echo Park United Methodist Church. This church had posters for a foundation of early childhood education and for the community beautification grant awardee.
The community also has each other for help. However, on the walk I noticed that almost all the houses had fences. I spoke to a resident and she said that her neighbors have fences so they can have more privacy. Personally, I see fences as unwelcoming or are there for safety concerns. I also did not notice people outside their homes conversing with anyone. This could have been because of the time of day. People were probably at work or at school.
http://www.elcentrodelpueblo.org/
http://www.dreamcenter.org/
http://www.gatewayshospital.org/
http://www.echoparktimebank.com/
http://www.826la.org/
http://www.centralcityaction.com/
http://www.wicworks.ca.gov/
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