EASTSIDE : Group Strives to Coordinate Services

Like the freeway interchanges that border Eastside neighborhoods, a 2-month-old group hopes to bring together organizations that work to improve the health and well-being of Eastside residents.

Eastside Intercambios--Spanish for interchange-- was formed out of a desire by several Eastside nonprofit organizations to share information and resources.

“We’re all out there and this brings us all together in one place,” said Blanca Gomez, assistant director of House of Ruth, a homeless shelter for women in Boyle Heights.

The shelter will have the use of four physician’s assistants from White Memorial Medical Center during the summer because of the Intercambios meetings. Gomez also knew to call on Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alatorre’s office for help in transporting clients to the circus recently after meeting one of his aides at an Intercambios session.

Other organizations have been able to recruit help for fund-raisers or sign up more volunteers for projects, such as last weekend’s beautification of Cesar Chavez Avenue, as a result of the meetings, said Socorro Macias, one of the group’s founders.

“We asked people to come together and see what we’re doing,” said Macias, who runs White Memorial’s Building a Healthier Community program. “There was no calendar of events that showed what everyone was doing, and we were not talking to each other about the work that we do.”

Other organizations involved in the meetings are the Hollenbeck Youth Center, the East Los Angeles cluster of Building Up L.A., the Los Angeles Police Department’s Hollenbeck Division, Alatorre’s office and White Memorial Medical Center.

They started meeting in March after the study “L.A. Kids” described inadequate services for children and youths in the city. Alatorre field deputy Rosa Morales called the groups together to assess what was being done for Eastside youth.

The first meeting drew 100 people and the second attracted 85 from a wide variety of agencies, such as Boys and Girls clubs, libraries, parks and recreation and the police, Macias said.

“I know there are other efforts going on (to network), but there must have been a need for this if we get 100 people attending,” she said. “People are swapping cards, and they’re talking.”

Although still a new organization, Eastside Intercambios has an ambitious plan to set regular meetings and devise monthly calendars of events. It has opened the doors to new acquaintances working toward similar goals to improve services to youth.

“I think it’s going to be a good group for the Eastside,” said Father Carmine Vairo, executive director of Salesian Boys and Girls Club.