Our Strategy

The Miller Foundation is committed to investing our resources to give children living within these high-need neighborhoods the opportunity to flourish, develop, and reach their full potential. Foundation funding will be primarily directed to programs that address issues within our three focused program areas that impact children in these identified vulnerable neighborhoods of greater Long Beach.

Long Beach, the 7th largest city in California, is on one hand a city of great resources: culturally rich, boasting beautiful ecological features, and home to esteemed higher educational institutions. On the other hand, it is a city of great needs: facing high levels of poverty and its multiple effects, environmental pollution, and rising housing costs.

Over the years, Long Beach has become “a tale of two cities,” where certain neighborhoods are characterized by the benefits and resources of affluence and other neighborhoods are bearing the brunt of low incomes, decreased resources, and the challenges of communities of poverty.

Long Beach’s areas of affluence—concentrated primarily on the east side of Long Beach– are characterized by high annual median family incomes, longer life expectancy, higher employment levels, and overall community safety. Children have access to a vast array of resources that promote their development including high-quality schools and after-school enrichment programs of diverse types, excellent access to health care, and safe spaces to grow up and recreate.

Areas of critical need are concentrated primarily within North, West Central, and Southwest Long Beach. These neighborhoods experience high levels of poverty, exposure to environmental pollutants, and low levels of educational attainment. Families and children in these areas face great barriers in accessing health care resources, support in early education and educational attainment, and affordable arts programming. These neighborhoods also contain the largest concentration of children in the city.