MLK Community Cente

making dreams come true

The Long Beach Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center has been providing the city with programs on anything from entrepreneurial development to youth education and adult literacy since it started in 1967. Despite the pandemic, the community center continues to provide Long Beach residents with necessary services. As a non-profit charitable organization, the Community Center aims to do as much as it can to help Long Beach get through the Covid-19 pandemic.

Traditionally, the center has provided programs in youth and family recreation, youth leadership development, career development, financial literacy, family and community violence prevention, family strengthening, health and wellness promotion, and cultural awareness. As a result of Covid-19, these services are limited and others are virtual.

In keeping with the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center's commitment to teaching Long Beach residents useful skills, the center has been offering workshops via Zoom. Various do-ityourself face mask tutorials have taken place. These sessions are available in both English and Spanish — for those who cannot comfortably interact with others in English. The center hopes to hold more virtual programs in the future. Announcements for these workshops are listed on the community center's Facebook page.

Since many find themselves unable to feed their families as a result of the current conditions, the MLK Community Center has also made it a priority to initiate the Grab and Go Food Program. Rain or shine, the staff provides meals to those in need in the parking lot of the community center. The program runs Monday through Friday from noon to 2 p.m. Social distancing guidelines are followed, and each staff member is required to wear a face covering. The center also accepts donations to this program through their Cashapp $LBMLK and their PayPal @Lbmlk.org. The Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center strongly advises people to follow appropriate guidelines when picking up their meals.

The center welcomed Cedric Coad as its new board chairman, replacing James Hodge. The center also welcomed a new executive director last year, Mack Graham. The Staten Island native has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Stony Brook University and earned a master's degree in nonprofit leadership from Fordham University in 2017. At Stony Brook, he had an internship at Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group. While interning in the music industry, Graham worked with the New York Urban League. He also was a grassroots fundraiser.