One Year in LA County: What We’ve Learned And Where We’re Heading
A year ago right after we launched the One Degree expansion to Los Angeles County, I flew down to visit with some of our partners and supporters. One Degree’s LA headquarters that week was my rented Hyundai Elantra. And my trusty Elantra and I went from West LA to San Gabriel, from Claremont to Agoura Hills, and from Koreatown to Van Nuys. All in all, in just four days, we logged over 300 miles on the road.
At one of my visits, I stopped by one of our partners’ offices in Van Nuys, a sunny city north of central LA in the middle of the suburban San Fernando Valley. As I showed him new features on the One Degree platform, I watched his eyes light up. I’ll never forget what he said next: “Rey, this is incredible. When it comes to innovation, Los Angeles feels like the ugly stepchild next to Silicon Valley. No one builds technology for our community in LA. And One Degree is the innovation our community needs.”
For me, expanding One Degree to LA is a bit of a homecoming. When my family immigrated to the US, we first landed in LA, and 15 years ago, I graduated from the University of Southern California, which is in south LA. As the first kid in my family to go to college, it was a big deal for me to go to USC. To make sure I was successful, my parents worked multiple jobs, clipped coupons, and scraped all the resources they could find to put me through college while keeping a roof over our heads.
At 17 years old, I had no idea that Los Angeles was the most populous county in the country. While LA is home to the glitz and glamor of Hollywood, even after 15 years, LA is still struggling with rising housing prices, inequitable transportation infrastructure, and a byzantine social service sector. My family and I endured many challenges navigating this sprawling system as we were going through our immigration and citizenship journey.
So not only is it exciting to see that we can scale One Degree beyond the Bay Area, it’s also personally important for me that we get to bring innovation to LA. I would have used One Degree in Los Angeles when I was growing up. And we built One Degree to help the millions of hardworking people in LA who just need a leg up to access vital resources, like food, shelter, and immigration services.
LA’s struggles mirror that of the rest of the country. And a year after launching in LA, I’m even more certain that One Degree can provide the technology and infrastructure to help communities provide a path toward opportunity.
In just a year, we’re seeing some great traction in LA County. We’ve seen an 18% month-over-month growth in members in LA — we’ve almost tripled membership. We’ve strengthened our existing partnerships and built new ones in the region, and I want to specifically highlight our work with Los Angeles County Department of Health Services.
Powering Whole Person Care in LA
The healthcare community in LA County is doing incredible work on behalf of Angelenos. LA County Department of Health Services (LA DHS) has an innovative vision for serving LA’s low-income and marginalized communities through a Whole Person Care lens. They launched a five-year initiative that brings together health and social service providers across the county to build a more community-centered system of care, and the One Degree platform is a natural fit. Working together, it’s now easier to coordinate care for low-income and at-risk Angelenos.
We worked closely with LA DHS to build One Degree’s comprehensive database of 6,500+ resources, now available to any community organization, government agency, or nonprofit in LA County. As part of our close partnership with LA DHS, staff members at all 37 county departments are able to use One Degree’s Pro Tools, a set of robust features that enable practitioners to make, manage, and keep track of social service referrals. This means the process of sharing resources with those in need is much more streamlined for both providers and the people they serve.
More than 1,000 professionals that are providing vital support in LA’s communities have One Degree accounts. This means that community health workers, social workers, and clinicians have signed up to use One Degree’s tools. More than 10% of those professionals work at one of the 37 county departments.
“We are committed to our partnership with One Degree and strongly support the continued growth of the One Degree platform to help address the needs of LA County residents and health and social service providers. We believe One Degree will help stimulate increased collaboration between public and private health delivery communities.”
— Clemens Hong M.D. M.P.H. & Director, Whole Person Care, Medical Director, Community Health Improvement, Los Angeles County Department of Health Services
We’re Here to Stay, LA County, and We Need Your Help
Because community is at the heart of everything we do we believe in working alongside communities to build One Degree into the local safety net. Cecilia Mejia is hard at work as One Degree’s LA Community Navigator, connecting with organizations all over LA County.
We’re looking for partners at all levels, and here are ways you can help bring One Degree to more people in LA County:
- Want more information about free online training? Just email us at info@1degree.org. Interested in hosting a live demo or training at your organization? Let us know!
- Have a website? Put one of our badges on your site to help more people find One Degree. (Check out a badge in the wild on the Antelope Valley Health Neighborhood website!)
- Have a waiting room or do you talk to families that should know about us? Consider distributing our beautiful fliers, business cards, and other free marketing materials to help us spread the word. Get free fliers and other marketing materials in our online store. They’re in both English and Spanish:
