As policy director for the San Francisco-based California Pan-Ethnic Health Network (CPEHN), Martin “Marty” Martinez travels throughout the state, organizing community events. He’s always looking for convenient, reliable and inexpensive meeting spaces. Over the past year, Marty says Los Angeles has gone from being one of the most difficult cities in which to plan meetings to one of the easiest, thanks to the Center for Healthy Communities’ new conference facilities in downtown L.A.

“In other cities it’s been a real challenge finding spaces for our events. Sometimes the place we’ve booked makes last-minute changes on us, or the space is just too loud or too far from public transportation,” Marty explains. “In Los Angeles, the Center has really been a lifesaver for us. It’s convenient, reliable, accessible, well kept. It just has a good feel to it.”

Since its opening in April 2006, hundreds of organizations have held events at the Center for Healthy Communities, welcoming more than 80,000 guests.

Six years in the making, the conference center was created by The California Endowment as a direct result of feedback from dozens of community groups throughout California and local leaders who were asked about their most pressing needs. The prohibitive cost of meeting space, especially in L.A., was a top concern and was an obstacle to communities mobilizing and collaborating around health issues. By building a conference venue within its new headquarters and providing that space at no cost to qualified groups, The Endowment has virtually eliminated that obstacle.

On the leading edge of health care reform efforts in California today, CPEHN serves as a powerful advocate for communities of color. “We operate on a tight budget so having access to quality space like this makes a huge difference to us and our community partners,” says Marty. Conference center capabilities—digital video projection, audio and video recording, simultaneous translation and wireless Internet access—are a bonus. “And if we need technical assistance, there are people on staff we can ask. They’re very responsive to our needs.”

Not “Just a Conference Center”
In addition to its conference center, research and training facilities, the Center for Healthy Communities also works to build constituencies —bringing together grantees, community stakeholders, researchers, advocates, policymakers and business interests around focused topics—to foster increased collaboration across sectors and disciplines. To reach this objective, the Center offers various public programming and educational exhibits throughout the year.

The Center’s inaugural public program in January 2007 focused on health reform in California – the panel featured Mark DiCamillo, director of the Field Poll; Wendy Lazarus, president and co-founder of the Children’s Partnership; Robert K. Ross, M.D., president and CEO of The Endowment; Gary Toebben, president and CEO of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce; Maria Elena Durazo, executive secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. Future public series include topics on food policy and the 2008 elections.

The Health ExChange Academy—which helps strengthen the capacity of organizations to better serve their communities—provides training for activists, community leaders and nonprofit organizations. The Academy’s curriculum includes Advocating for Change, Commun-icating for Change and Evaluating for Change. In addition to building individual skills, these training sessions and modules are designed to deepen overall understanding of the health policy arena and help organizations move their own agendas forward to improve the systems that impact the health of their communities.

A full-service user of the Center’s resources, Marty Martinez has attended a number of training workshops, including Communicating for Change. “At CPEHN we’re now using what I learned about framing messages to influence policy around health care reform.”