Reporter: William Henderson
At the October 27 Alhambra City Council Meeting, a motion was made and passed to adopt an ordinance restricting smoking in multi-unit housing, affecting buildings with 3+ conjoined units. Advocated for by the Alhambra Community Health Alliance, a community coalition led by staff from the Institute for Public Strategies (IPS), this ordinance has been the culmination of years of work from the Alhambra community.
Starting in September of 2022, Raudell Aluiso, Lahiru Kodituwakku, and Antonio Salang from IPS kicked off their project with a needs assessment, surveying the community to identify the most pressing issues and who would support the project. “A lot of our work is community-focused. We’re subject matter experts – we’re not explicitly telling residents what to do. We’re just giving them tools to educate them and provide them with the information. Then it’s up to them if they want to continue advocating for themselves,” shared Aluiso. While IPS focuses on substance prevention in general terms, the focus in Alhambra was moving towards eliminating the severe health hazards secondhand smoke poses.
Halfway through 2023, IPS transitioned its focus to running the Alhambra Community Health Alliance, engaging Alhambra residents and keeping them informed. Residents, students, and landlords came together to meet and discuss the issues at hand, working to create positive change within their community. IPS provided data to community members, helping them substantiate their desire for a healthier Alhambra with the proven science to make the changes they wanted to see.
“Alhambra has been such a warm and receptive community,” said Kodituwakku. “Every community event we’ve gone to, people have come up and said ‘Thank you for the work you’ve done and thank you for being here,’ and often share their experiences with us. People have been very open and willing to share their stories, which has made our jobs a lot easier.”
Salang agreed: “People here are very passionate, and that’s rare for a lot of cities. The warmth and the welcoming spirit that Alhambra gave us really shines… [residents] already know what to do, how to speak to their councilmembers, and who their district councilmembers are.” All three staff members from IPS said that because Alhambra is a tight-knit community, talking to the Alhambra councilmembers was very organic, as residents already had relationships to leverage, prompting decision-makers to value the significance of the issues brought to them.
In 2024, IPS shifted its focus again to policy campaigns. Antonio mentioned that their group was especially grateful for the support from the Alhambra High School Dream Center students. After going through the fires earlier in the year, the ICE raids, and much more, he anticipated they would not want to take on even more work. Still, they were eager and willing to attend meetings, support the cause, and share stories about how they had been impacted and how much this ordinance meant to them.
While this campaign has successfully concluded, going forward, there are other issues to address and more work to do. IPS staff members expressed that they’re still passionate about helping people and are always seeking new grants, contracts, RFPs, and nonprofits in the area seeking advocacy support.
To discover more about the history of this project, visit @cha_alhambra on Instagram. To read about other projects IPS is overseeing, visit https://publicstrategies.org/.
