On Saturday, The Wellness Center celebrated 10 years of serving Boyle Heights residents with a community event. The 10th anniversary celebration featured food vendors, musical performances, a health and resource fair, and more.
Located within the Los Angeles General Medical Center on State Street, The Wellness Center is a resource hub that provides health services to low-income Latino communities on the Eastside. The program was created in partnership between the Medical Center and leadership from Los Angeles County Supervisor District 1.
More than 100 people attended The Wellness Center to participate in the festivities. Attendees enjoyed free lunch and agua frescas while watching performances of Taiko drummers and Mexican folkloric dancing, among others. On the sunny weekend afternoon, children ran around with colorful paletas while their parents took to the dance floor.
Rosa Soto, the Executive Director, has led the center for the last eight years and is proud of the work the program has done.
“I think Boyle Heights is one of the most extraordinary communities in L.A. because there is so much passion and, and commitment and just incredible people,” Soto told Boyle Heights Beat. “We wanted to ensure that there were services here outside of the doctor’s office for our patients in our community to access that would help improve the quality of care and the quality of their health and wellbeing.”
Attendee Judy Escobedo Ramos has been visiting The Wellness Center since it opened a decade ago and has enjoyed participating in the cooking and exercise classes there. For her, the center is a safe space for creativity and easy access to free healthcare. “They help a lot of people,” Escobedo Ramos said.
Gloria Valadez and Leo Santana brought their family to the weekend celebration. Although it was the family’s first time at The Wellness Center, Valadez said her parents recently joined a program there that assisted in rental payments. She said she and her family would likely utilize services provided by the program.
“I might use some of the mental health [services] or therapy they have here. Maybe some housing help if I find any,” Valadez said. “There’s a lot of help right here, so it’s good,” Santana added.
Non-profit organizations that work out of the center provide mental health therapy, healthcare enrollment and legal services, chronic disease management and prevention, and more.
District 1 Supervisor Hilda L. Solis expressed appreciation for the Wellness Center staff, volunteers, and non-profit organizations based there. “The Wellness Center was established to help not just Boyle Heights or East LA but this general area, so they have come in contact with thousands of people, and you all have been a part of that,” Solis said.
Rem Nuñez, an Associate Medical Director at Alma Family Services, was at the event representing his organization and its work. Alma Family Services has two offices on site where it plans its programming and a counselor stationed to provide one-on-one therapy.
Nuñez, who was born in El Salvador and raised in Southgate, talked about the importance of addressing trauma accumulated from the migratory experience.
“It’s important that folks understand all the resources that are available to them because you have señoras dealing with anxiety, depression; you have folks that have lost to brothers to gang violence, to jail, and they’re dealing with what they’re carrying [emotionally] on a daily basis,” Nuñez said.
Karla Gonzalez, The Wellness Center’s Medical Director, said she’s particularly proud of their work regarding treating chronic illnesses such as diabetes, obesity, hypertension, and high blood pressure. According to data from the U.S. Department of Health Human Services Office of Minority Health, Hispanics are 1.2 more likely to be obese than non-Hispanic whites.
To treat individuals with chronic illnesses, Gonzalez and her team implement strategies that consider the cultural customs and language needs of their Latino clientele, many of whom are Mexican and Central American. “We have very good medications for diabetes, but we also have a lot of prevention strategies, and not all of them are going to work for everybody,” Gonzalez said. “I do spend a lot more time with my patients that perhaps might be Spanish speaking patients only that may have a harder time navigating the health system.”
Executive Director Soto said she believes The Wellness Center has had a positive impact on the community and hopes it will keep serving residents.
Something central to our work over the past 10 years is that it isn’t about a model of serving one and done, but it is a model of connecting and building a relationship with our community so that we can not only respond but together we can address the issues and improve the overall health of our community.
Rosa Soto, Executive Director at The Wellness Center
