Who We Are
The Long Beach Martin Luther King Center, Inc.: The MLK, Inc. is a charitable non-governmental community-based organization dedicated to improving the health, human welfare, and educational attainment of all residents in the City of Long Beach— especially the underserved youth, families, and individuals of the North Park community. The organization achieves this by sponsoring innovative programming designed to combat the unique social and economic challenges faced by its target population. Support services include counseling, mentoring, early childhood development, cultural enrichment, youth empowerment, career development opportunities, entrepreneurial exploration, and hands-on training opportunities in science, technology engineering, and math— especially designed for youth and young adults.
Our Goals
To provide educational, recreational, cultural, health and lifelong learning opportunities for youth and adults.
To offer educational advancement opportunities and entrepreneurial training for youth, adults, and seniors.
To ensure that no child, youth or young adult in Long Beach is underserved and/or undereducated
To ensure the development of safe and healthy individuals who can achieve their full potential as connected and contributing members of thriving, violence-free families, schools, and communities.
Collaborate with local city and county courts to provide support services and community service opportunities, recidivism and job training for youth and adults currently under court-ordered supervision and those re-entering the community.
What We Do
We provide services and workshops that fall under the following categories:
-
Youth Education and Adult Literacy
-
Youth, Family Recreation
-
Youth Leadership Development
-
Entrepreneurial Development
-
Career Development and Job Training, Youth Employment
-
Economic Empowerment and Financial Literacy
-
Youth, Family & Community Violence Prevention
-
Family Strengthening
-
Health and Wellness Promotion
-
Cultural Development and Awareness
Our Principles
Fiscal Integrity
Sustaining well functioning funded programs and maximizing revenue Action Steps Understand and apply fiscal and accounting principles, guidelines and requirements Increase productivity in order for some programs to become self-sustaining Identify new revenue sources as well as all reimbursable services.
Effective Communications
Strengthening the Board and staff’s awareness and understanding of the agency’s services Action Steps Become the voice of human services delivery in Nassau County Become more strategically visible to local, state, federal and funding officials. Increase agency impact on public policy as it affects education, literacy, affordable housing, employment opportunities, health and wellness promotion, community and family violence Increase the engagement of other entities in work partnerships Increase the quality and consistency of communications (written, electronic, oral or broadcast) Redevelop the Web Site to make it more user friendly, interactive with more links, and include downloadable flyers and program brochures.
Quality Service
Improving the ways in which we deliver services to clients Action Steps Define quality standards and establish benchmarks Deliver services in a professional manner that will have a positive impact on clients’ socioeconomic needs Maintain a process for self-evaluation and correction.
Efficiency
Performing better using our resources wisely Action Steps Eliminate redundancy; improve coordination Streamline administrative and service delivery processes Develop, use and continuously update standard operating procedures Cross train staff on systems, procedures and services Use data and technology to assess, measure and improve the overall efficiency of LBMLK Incorporate an annual process of reflection, reassessment and recreation of LBMLK plans.
Effectiveness
Improving the socioeconomic status of individuals and families Action Steps Set clear, deliverable and measurable goals for educational, occupational and social services. Determine the types and levels of service impacts (outcomes) based upon data-driven programming. Establish quarterly benchmarks and evaluate annually.
