VIOLENCE PREVENTION PANEL FEATURES TCWF GRANTEES AT L.A. TIMES FESTIVAL OF HEALTH

TCWF is a Major Sponsor of Inaugural Event and Has Joined with the Times to Present Actor Edward James Olmos' Production on Violence Prevention

Los Angeles - "What You Can do to Prevent Violence in Your Community," a panel featuring grantees of The California Wellness Foundation, will be one of many featured at the first Los Angeles Times Festival of Health. TCWF is a major sponsor of the Festival, free to the public, which will be held Saturday and Sunday, October 16 and 17, 1999, on the University of Southern California main campus.

The Festival will feature a variety of panels, informational booths, a special health section publication and keynote speakers addressing a variety of health and wellness topics. Thousands of people are expected to attend.

"The state of our health and the health of our state are inseparably linked," said Gary L. Yates, TCWF president and chief executive officer. "We are pleased to be a participant in an event that improves and promotes the health and wellness of Californians."

Los Angeles Times Publisher Kathryn M. Downing said the Festival reflects the Times' commitment to bring health and wellness information to the public.

"Most Americans are living longer than ever before," Downing said. "Knowledge is the key to ensuring those lives are healthy and productive. The first Los Angeles Times Festival of Health is part of our ongoing effort to provide essential information to members of our community to help them make their lives the healthiest they can be."

TCWF's major sponsorship of the Festival includes a co-presentation with the Los Angeles Times of a live performance titled "It Ain't Love" by the Faces Theater Group. The presentation addresses preventing violence in youth relationships and will be moderated by actor, producer and activist Edward James Olmos. In addition to the panel on violence prevention and live performance presentation, the Foundation will sponsor a Pavilion booth featuring health information provided by youth and adults from Los Angeles area community organizations that are grantees of the Foundation.

Violence Prevention Panel

The Festival's panel on violence prevention features many participants from the Foundation's Violence Prevention Initiative: Mary Leigh Blek, founder and co-chair of Orange County Citizens for the Prevention of Gun Violence; Dr. Barbara Staggers, director of Adolescent Medicine and Multicultural Affairs at Children's Hospital Oakland; and Jeremy Estrada, college student and previous youth spokesperson for the Foundation's violence prevention public education campaign. The panel will offer examples of what a community can do to prevent violence.

"Violence is the leading cause of death and injury of youth in California and as such is a significant public health problem," said TCWF's Yates who will moderate the panel. "These experts have valuable perspectives to share."

"It Ain't Love" Live Performance

The live performance is based upon Olmos' award-winning film, also titled "It Ain't Love," which delivers a powerful message about the need to reverse the growing incidence of relationship, date and domestic violence among young people.

"We need to view violence as a public health problem and vaccinate our children, and this film is a vaccination," said Olmos who will also be a keynote speaker at the Festival.

After the live performance, Olmos will moderate a question-and-answer session with members of the audience, which will include young people and adults who work with at-risk youth from area schools and community organizations. The session will include sensitive references to violence so parental guidance is recommended for attendees.

Olmos’ production company, along with the Foundation for Advancement in Science and Education, developed the film. TCWF made a $115,000 grant to co-fund the creation and dissemination of an education study guide/resource directory for presentation with the film that has been distributed to more than 50,000 young people in California. Olmos will distribute free video copies of the film and its companion study guide at the Festival thanks to additional support from Bank of America.

Grantees Provide Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Information at Festival Pavilion

As part of its Festival sponsorship, the Foundation will present youth and adults from four Los Angeles community-based organizations at a Pavilion booth. The organizations are grantees of the Foundation and will provide information on their programs with an emphasis on projects that improve the health of their communities. Grantees will be available for questions about their programs and health improvement information throughout the two-day Festival.

Included is Centro de Niños, a children's organization that provides affordable child development and family services to working Latino families near downtown and East Los Angeles. With TCWF funding, Centro has established the Community Keepers project whose mission is to educate and mobilize community residents on environmental conditions affecting their overall health and neighborhoods.

Centro will provide information in English and Spanish on lead poisoning prevention and the concrete steps families can take to protect their children. Included will be a display of items commonly found in the household, such as pottery and dinnerware, that contain lead.

CityLife is a summer camp program for middle- and high school-aged youth that provides activities around health issues relevant to teens. As part of the Foundation's Teenage Pregnancy Prevention area, City Life will provide information on its teen health program, including youth-oriented activities aimed at preventing teen pregnancy.

The Korean Youth and Community Center will inform Festival attendees about its Cleaners Assistance Program, which provides assistance to Korean dry cleaners in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties to eliminate work-related health risks. The Center will provide consumer information on the negative health effects of using the dry cleaning method on clothing and the healthier alternative of using the wet cleaning process.

Lastly, Students Run Los Angeles, a health promotion and self-improvement program aimed at youth, will provide information on its Los Angeles Marathon training program to help middle and high school students build resiliency skills and reduce risk-taking behaviors. Information on an upcoming 5K run and ways in which Los Angeles areas schools can set-up affiliates will be provided.

Other Los Angeles Times' Festival of Health keynote speakers, in addition to Olmos, include basketball superstar Magic Johnson, founder and chairman of the board of the Magic Johnson Foundation, Inc., and Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of the Children's Defense Fund.

Tickets are required for all indoor events, including panels. They can be obtained free of charge at more than 100 participating Ticketmaster locations throughout Southern California. Outdoor events do not require tickets.

Please visit the Los Angeles Times Festival of Health site for more information about this event.

TCWF is an independent, private foundation created in 1992, with a mission to improve the health of the people of California by making grants for health promotion, wellness education and disease prevention. The Foundation provides long-term funding in five priority areas: community health, population health improvement, teenage pregnancy prevention, violence prevention and work & health. TCWF has awarded 1,592 grants totaling more than $257.2 million since 1992.

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