Young Adults in Lake Balboa 1

Young Adults in Lake Balboa

Luisedmundo Vicente

CSU Channel Islands

HLTH 102

Photovoice: Community Assessment

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Community, it’s a term that can be described as a group of individuals living within the

same area, as well as having a common goal to invest in the best interests of improving the area

of current stay. The community that I had the privilege to grow up in was a small community in

the city of Lake Balboa. As I have grown, the community has grown too. I saw this community

growing in a positive way, and how great it treated me along the way. When growing up,

people change, and as people change the community also changes. As I have been living in

Camarillo away from my home community while attending school, I can see changes in my

community while I was away. I started to view it in a realistic manner than I did when I was

younger. To better understand my community I have asked three young adults between the

ages of 20 to 24, that have been living in Lake Balboa for more than 5 years now. Three

members from my community with different backgrounds came together to share their take on

the community of Lake Balboa. To better understand the community of Lake Balboa, I will be

sharing information about the city of Lake Balboa before continuing each member's

statements.

The city of Lake Balboa is geographically located within Los Angeles County in California.

In a 2008 population report from LA times, there are 26,195 ethnicity groups of Lake Balboa

that consists of 49.0% White, 34.1% Latino, 8.8% Asian, 3.5% Black, and 4.6% other. The ages

within the populations are 3,912 for children ages 10 or younger, 2,347 for ages 11-18, 5,618

for ages 19-34, 6,474 for ages 35-49, 3,226 for ages 50-64 , and 2,660 for ages 65 and up. The

city of Lake Balboa is highly diverse in the city of Los Angeles and for LA county. As for the age
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population it was stated that the median age is 35. With the information, we can now have a

more personal point of view of Lake Balboa through its community members.

Before proceeding further on with the statements from the three individuals that I have

chosen, I will not be disclosing the names of these three individuals as for privacy reasons,

instead I will be addressing them as community members one through three. Community

Member One has submitted a photo of a smoke shop located in the area of Lake Balboa.

Community Member One expresses their concerns and feelings about how smoking is

detrimental to the community’s health. He explains that it is an outlet to get people who smoke

more accessibility, and believes it ruins the environment for everyone else with their

secondhand smoke. He also mentions that he witnessed many times where middle-schoolers

and high-schoolers were able to gain access to smoking. Some of the people, whom he

mentioned, were actually close friends that he witnessed change from somebody he once

knew, to someone he no longer recognizes. He mentioned that some of the community

members from Lake Balboa went with others who often smoke and formulated groups.

Community Members One explains how his friend started an addiction and would often

purchase a carton of smokes every week, and would sometimes exchange different brands of

cigarettes with his group. He says that sadly there are still young teens today that he sees from

his old highschool and middle school following the same path as his friend did and is worried

that his little sister attending those schools may be influenced by her peers to smoke at such a

young age, as it is common to see around her.

Community Member Two submitted a photo to me of an LA Fitness gym recently

opening up in the area of Lake Balboa. He shares his enthusiasm of an LA Fitness opening, as he
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explains that it is one of the biggest gyms located in Lake Balboa. He explained that he had

previous membership for the gym, but would have to travel at least 20 to 30 mins to get there.

However, since the opening of the new gym, travel time has been cut 5 to 7 mins between the

LA Fitness and his home. He shares that the main reason why he was enthusiastic about an LA

Fitness opening up, was because of an injury he suffered in his leg. Due to his injury he has

constantly engaged in physical activity to work out the muscles in his leg. By having a gym

located closer to his residence, he explains that it makes it much easier for him to perform his

physical activities that he needs to do to keep his leg muscles active. He further explains that

this is good news for most people around the area of Lake Balboa as most gyms around are

pretty small or not that well known, and sometimes just hard to find. With LA Fitness being one

of the popular gyms around, he believes that people shouldn’t find that as a problem anymore

due to how popular the gym is.He further goes on to say that since the area that he lives in

consist of many fast food chains, too much of those fatty foods can lead to obesity. He explains

that the new gym opening up will help many of those the same way as it did for him. It will help

those who may seek physical fitness to maintain a healthy lifestyle and reduce risk of obesity

due to all the fast food chains around the areas. Overall, this gym gives an opportunity to

community members to have a gym close by and participate in.

Community Member Three submitted a photo of one of Lake Balboa known parks

named, “Anthony C. Belsson Park''. She began to share her feelings about this park and how

much this park helped her cope through times of depression. The beauty of the park calmed

her down and felt peace with her surroundings. She claims that this park has helped many

others find peace of mind, as she witnessed many others from our community coming to the
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park to enjoy the beauty of its open free landscape. This park was once a place where you can

be free and have a calm state of mind, but has recently transformed over the years. She states

that with the current increase of homelessness in Los Angeles, the homeless population are

locating areas where there is free space, and have located the Anthony C. Belson Park as a

place to stay. She explained to me about a recent incident that took place at the park. She

explains how a homeless encampment had been set on fire by another homeless person. She is

afraid that incidents like this can turn into something far worse, sadly it did. The fire that

started in the encampment spread and caused burns across an entire acre of the park.

Immediately news came to cover the story. She states that 75 encampments were set on fire,

and the fire marshall closed off the entire area for 48+ hours as it was considered a biohazard.

Feces, unknown substances, and medical supplies were all burned within those encampments,

making the air coming out completely toxic. Furthermore,the neighborhood was advised to

check into a local urgent care to be sure everyone and their families had received their flu

shots. Free face masks were being provided, as well as a “care package” that contained alcohol

wipes, a mask, a pamphlet on the Flu Virus, and gloves. She then finishes by telling me that,

what was once a park that brought community members together and has helped many

through times of stress has now become an area of fear and danger. To conclude her

statement, she can no longer go to the park without thinking of her safety and the safety of her

little sisters, as they too enjoyed going to the park in their free time.

When analyzing the environmental determinants report of Lake Balboa it provides a

more highlighted background to further reinforce some understanding of the community.

When focusing on the socioeconomic status of Lake Balboa, economically it has a median
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income of $50,552 and has a lower percentage of the population living below the poverty level

than the Metropolitan area of LA. The percent margin of 17% to 20% according to the “Lake

Balboa Neighborhood Profile 2013”. Furthermore, the physical environment is stated on the

profile of Lake Balboa, “The neighborhood is home to a number of recreational activities and

settings, including parks and sport fields”. As an individual who lives there, I can confirm that

the neighborhood fits the profile. Lastly with the overview of Lake Balboa comes the

Neighborhood Council, which stated on the Lake Balboa Neighborhood Profile of 2013 that, it is

to provide an open forum for residents to connect with the City of Los Angeles, “improve the

well-being of the neighborhood, and participate as representatives of Lake Balboa in City

meetings, events, and local affairs,” (Empower L.A., 2012). In simple terms, the main goal of the

Neighborhood Council of Lake Balboa is to establish a community engagement with its

residents. With the evaluation of the Environmental Determinants of Health for Lake Balboa, it

can provide a broader spectrum of what the community of Lake Balboa is about, which now

leaves the focus on the various health services that are provided to the community.

When researching health care services provided in the community of Lake Balboa I can

say I never truly realize how little we have in health care services. The first location of health

care services is the Lake Balboa Care Center, which has a variety of services in providing

nursing, social, rehabilitation, and long term and end of life care services. The main belief is

maintaining and providing open forums for residents to connect with the City of Los Angeles, to

improve the well-being of the neighborhood, as well as participate as representatives of Lake

Balboa in City meetings, events, and local affairs (Empower L.A., 2012). Child and Family

guidance centers provide services in individual, family and group therapy, psychiatric services,
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Medi-cal insurance enrollment, community resource centers, wraparound services, and adult

services. The vision that they want to achieve is children and families flourishing in vibrant

communities, while their goal is to empower children and families to achieve health and well-

being through innovative mental health services and community programs. These were the

very few that are in Lake Balboa that have provided a well informative page as others seem to

have not provided what their health care services do or have completely closed down.

Nevertheless, this is a disaster to see that within Lake Balboa we have very few to little health

care services that can really provide towards its overall community, which shows signs that it

needs improvement.

After listening to the voices of my community and looking into the research of the

community of Lake Balboa I can say that I have truly learned more about the community I live

in, but most importantly I now see that there is much needed room for improvement in my

community. Recommendations of improvement in my community that I would like to see

progress is additional health organizations and awareness. Health care organizations are

needed in this community after its recent incidents. Again this community only has a nursing

home and a child and family guidance centers. In the case of an emergency situation these care

organizations wouldn’t be able to care for those of the rest of the community as it does not fit

within their guidelines. I think the community of Lake Balboa should invest more into health

organizations such as local clinics that can better treat our community and in times of

emergency when we need them the most. The community should also invest in homeless

shelters to deal with the current increase of homelessness in Lake Balboa so we can better care

for them in a safe setting. We should also keep those who are underage aware of the harm
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when taking account of certain substances, possibly provide individuals with personal

experience to share their story of overusing the substances, brochure, and programs to guide

those who are currently taking into these substances that would like to stop and have the help

that they need. We should also keep aware of the current situation in our neighborhood as it is

a community effort to be aware and to act quickly. Since living in Lake Balboa I have never

known that we had a neighborhood organization that gives current events of what's been going

on and emergency scenarios to be ready for, I think more people in our community should be

aware of this organization that is here to listen to its members and help them. Overall, I have

learned much from my community and my home. However, as any other hometown there are

times when you need to renovate, therefore change needs to happen in the community of Lake

Balboa.
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Community Member One Photo:

Community Member Two Photo:

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Community Member Three Photo:

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References

Lake Balboa. (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://maps.latimes.com/neighborhoods/neighborhood/lake-balboa/#population.

Chandlee, S., Smith, S., Walter, N. (2013),LakeBalboaNeighborhoodProfile. Retrieved

from https://empowerla.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/The-State-of-Lake-

Balboa.pdf

WELL. Magazine. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.childguidance.org/.

Home: Lake Balboa Care Center. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://www.lakebalboacare.com/.