City of Lemon Grove

Pilot Community #2

Lemon Grove is a city with a small town charm and unique historic roots. Centrally located in the southwestern area of San Diego County, its size is slightly less than 5 square miles, with a population nearing 26,000 residents. Lemon Grove exhibits vast amounts of community pride, and boasts of having the "Best Climate on Earth", which has been its motto for more than 100 years. Schools are widely recognized as the "hub" of the community, and the Lemon Grove School District student population is approximately 4,000 and growing. Opportunities and current events which are sponsored by the District are recognized and sought after by local resident in the community. Residents of Lemon Grove are committed and have a long history of being willing to play an integral role in making positive changes in the community in order to achieve optimal health, wellness, safety, and security for the entire community to enjoy.

RLA is a community advocacy group designed to empower, facilitate and sustain resident stewardship of Lemon Grove.

We envision a vibrant, safe, clean, active and healthier community for everyone to enjoy!

1. Improve walkability and pedestrian safety in/around Golden Avenue Elementary School
   
   • Current Status-The City of Lemon Grove and the school district are researching the purpose of the safety routes to school (SRTS) funding that has been awarded to the Lemon Grove area for improvements at the Golden Avenue Elementary School area
2. Improve public safety, maintenance and aesthetics at Dan Kunkel and Lemon Grove Parks
   • Current Status-RLA participants have scheduled meetings with city staff to get more information on what things can be improved and what entities can make these improvements
3. Re-open the Lemon Grove Recreation Center as the "Lemon Grove Health and Sports Complex" with a volunteer-driven operational plan which offers cultural and physical activity opportunities to the general public
   
   • Current Status- RLA participants have met with representatives from Local Initiative Support Corporation (LISC) and the local rotary clubs regarding their interest to assist in achieve this type of complex for the community. The recommendation of these potential allies was to create a formal business plan relative to reopen this complex, to begin to acquire formal coordination with potential partners, funders, users, volunteers and business associates. In addition, they are coordinating efforts to bring a circuit training to the field behind the Lemon Grove Recreation Center to increase physical activity opportunities.

• Paula Murdock
• Marianne West
• Joyce Moore
• Daniel Corral
• James Davis
• Carol Flatmo
• Bill Foote
• John King
• Jeff Lettow
• Maria Carlos
• Guadalupe Perez
• Blanca Brown
• Phillip Pierce
• Emma Rios
• Racquel Vaquez
• Ma. De Lourdes Carrillo

Current Status of Graduates:

The Resident Leadership Academy in Lemon Grove has convened six coordination meetings after completion of the formal RLA curriculum in November 2011, to advance their CIPs. The RLA Lemon Grove group has made the commitment to sustain communications among group members by establishing a Group Box communication system for intra-communications as well as an email list-serve. The following steps have been achieved to sustain CIP implementation work in Lemon Grove: (1) Community Health Improvement Partners has been awarded the Kaiser HEAL Zone grant for $1 million (over the course of 3 years), which will be invested in the Lemon Grove community to make improvements related to physical activity, healthy food access and public safety; (2) The Kaiser HEAL Zone initiative launch meeting was held in Los Angeles in January 2012, and 3 RLA graduates attended (Joyce Moore, John King, Racquel Vasquez); (3) Locally, in Lemon Grove, the Steering Committee for the HEAL Zone initiative met in February 2012, which had the participation of 8 RLA graduates (4) In addition, RLA Lemon Grove participants have attended city council meetings to share information about their group and the priorities they have to make community improvements.