Environmental Prevention

The Partners for Innovative Communities (PIC) believes that all children and families in our region should have the right to live in communities with ample resources, including quality educational institutions; health care systems that are responsive to the needs of families; afterschool activities and programs that stimulate and challenge young people; secure neighborhood spaces to play and gather; adequate housing, and nurturing home environments.

In many communities across the region, young people live in communities where the infrastructure that should provide opportunities for healthy development is under-resourced, and where social, economic, and political conditions pose daily struggles and numerous threats to their health and long-term well-being.

The stress in these environments can erode healthy development for young people and adults alike. The presence of gangs, ease of access to both illegal drugs and violence exponentially increases the level of stress, contributing to morbidity and mortality by violence and drug use. In these communities children and youth experience disproportionately poor outcomes.

Call to Action:

The Partners for Innovative Communities (PIC) work to date has demonstrated the commitment and innovative determination of our members; the Strategic Planning Summit in September 2010 allowed us to create a formal process to engage stakeholders. In September 2011, in our PIC Planning Retreat, we developed a comprehensive plan to expand our area of focus for reducing violence and substance use in Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside County with focus on specific cities such as:

The strategic plan will assure that our cities address the negative underlying factors and systems that create and perpetuate violence, injury, and substance abuse to shift norms, build resilience, and increase the effectiveness of prevention efforts in our region.

Preventing gang violence and drug use will require a concerted, concentrated and long-term effort with communities at the locus of control. We must work in partnership with a vast array of resources responsive to each community’s unique need to create safe, peaceful, and healthy environments.

Focus Areas: parts of Riverside County, San Bernardino County and the Pomona valley.

For more information on the Partners for Innovative Communities, please email
pic@we-reachout.org or contact Omar Gonzalez at 909.982.8641

The Fontana Community Coalition

Reach Out is also part of the Fontana Community Coalition which focuses on creating and maintaining safe, healthy and drug-free communities. Currently, the Coalition is working on reducing underage access to alcohol through development of a Social Host Ordinance as well as promotion of alcohol-free events.

Fontana Community Coalition Monthly Meetings
4th Wednesday of every month
Meetings are held at the Fontana City Hall
Development Services Organization Building in the “D.A.B.” room
8353 Sierra Avenue, Fontana

For more information on the Fontana Community Coalition, please email fcc@we-reachout.org or contact Mike Parmer at 909.982.8641

The Reach Out Environmental Prevention program, supported in part by the San Bernardino County Department of Behavioral Health, is focused on reducing and preventing underage alcohol use. Cities we are partnering with include Chino, Chino Hills, Fontana, Rancho Cucamonga, Ontario, Montclair, and Upland.