Our History
Comité Organizador Latino de City Heights (COLCH) is part of the UC San Diego Community Health Center. COLCH is a non-profit organization of Latina mothers from City Heights founded in 2014. The California Endowment funds us to connect parents, schools, and students to improve student academic success and become a healthier community.
The Childhood Obesity Initiative (COI) provides COLCH with training to organize, inform, and empower the community about their right to participate in school processes regarding the education and health of their children. The Comite’s goal is to continue to provide access to resources in the community, raise awareness about childhood obesity, and continue the conversations around health and education.
Our Vision
COLCH was created in response to the socioeconomic disparities that affect City Heights, specifically impacting the health and wellbeing of their children. Some of the experiences that motivate the Comité to continue with their work are: that they have personally seen that the children of City Heights are falling behind academically and not receiving the help and support that they needed from their schools, as well the Comité is highly concerned about the health issues that affect the children of City Heights such as childhood obesity and the development of chronic illnesses. The Comité hopes for a future where the basic needs of all the City Heights residents are met, and their children develop into happy, healthy, and productive citizens. To achieve this vision, the Comité advocates for the community and empowers them through workshops on health and education issues
What We Do
Comité Organizador Latino de City Heights is a group of women who are highly committed to the health and education of their community’s children. They advocate for a network of up to 600 Latinx families to whom they offer training and education on health and educational issues. They also help community members learn to navigate the education system to support student success. Since City Heights comprises many immigrants, primarily from Latin America, the Comité has uniquely served this population by providing these workshops to monolingual Spanish-speaking community members. However, the workshops are open to all community residents regardless of the language. Comité makes sure to provide interpreting services in the language spoken by the participants.