The Avalon Gardens Men's Association: A Community Health Psychology Case Study

This article follows the development and progress of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development's 'Healthy and Safe Communities' initiative as it was implemented by a community empowerment organization during a four-year community revitalization project in the aftermath of the Los Angeles riots. The author explores practical aspects of Community Health Psychology through assessing the ways in which its organizing principles were manifest in community-wide processes of individual and community change in one low-income housing project in South Central Los Angeles called Avalon Gardens. Specifically highlighted is how a group of African American and Latino men in the community created a group forum that helped foster, support and sustain an empowerment process that supported health promotion, health consciousness and significant health improvement in the community.