Dear Friend --

Yesterday, as part of our efforts to address both the ongoing health crisis and long standing issues of racial equity, I announced two new funds to support people in our community.

Both funds will start with one million dollars each, through funding our city is receiving from the State of California. My thanks to Governor Newsom and the State Legislature for their support for Long Beach.

First and foremost, I am establishing a Black Health Equity Initiative within the Long Beach Health Department. Our Health Department has been working on health equity for years and will make meaningful investments to achieve better health outcomes for Black Americans, whose health outcomes have long lagged behind those for other groups.

For example, our Black residents are almost twice as likely to die from COVID-19 than any other group. And the Black infant mortality rate in our city and across the country is a health crisis on its own.

Long Beach advocated strongly for the State to address these health inequities with direct financial support and I'm grateful these funds will come to our city to support the health of Black Long Beach residents.

This initiative is aligned with the Framework for Reconciliation and will help health providers increase their capacity and improve their services for Black patients and customers.

We are also creating a one million dollar Coronavirus Relief Fund within the city structure to support community based non-profit groups assisting with the coronavirus response.

More details about these initiatives will be available in the weeks ahead.

Long Beach will continue to seek every possible resource to rigorously address inequities in health care and elsewhere and to ensure our community has the support it needs during the coronavirus crisis. We still have much work to do, but I'm proud of the steps we are taking towards equality and justice for all.

Thank you,