Watts Healthcare (South Los Angeles Community Tobacco Control Program)

This project primarily addresses the following priority populations of focus: African

Americans and Latino/ Hispanics. Project work will be accomplished in Service Planning

Area (SPA) 6 in South Los Angeles County. SPA 6 serves the communities of Athens,

Compton, Crenshaw, Florence, Hyde Park, Lynwood, Paramount, and Watts. With

1,009,550 residents in 2013, SPA 6 has a larger population than seven entire states. The

population of SPA 6 is 67.7% Latino/ Hispanic and 28.5% African American. 96.2% of the

residents in the area Watts HealthCare Corporation (WHCC) proposes to serve are

members of the priority populations of focus. Just 46.5% “mostly speak English at home.”

Just 51% of adults in SPA 6 are employed; the second lowest rate among the eight

Service Planning Areas in LA County, and 31.1% of the SPA 6 population resides in

households with incomes less than 100% of the federal poverty level compared to 18% in

the County at large. The South Los Angeles Health Equity Scorecard report produced by

the Community Health Councils, Inc. in December, 2008 summarized these

circumstances as follows: “The area known as South Los Angeles has become an icon for

the plight and struggle of the inner city. …South Los Angeles encapsulates the health

consequences resulting from the disturbing inequality in the distribution of power, income,

goods, and services in Los Angeles County. Options and opportunities for healthy choices

are constrained by fewer and often inferior basic healthcare and physical resources.