Jubilation and a shared sense of belonging were in the air at Dodger Stadium last Saturday, when residents across the Los Angeles community gathered to move together. That was the goal for Saturday’s Move It 5K Health and Wellness Festival at Dodger Stadium, where the Los Angeles Unified School District welcomed over 10,000 guests and about 80 community partners, including Direct Relief, to its annual event.

Students, their families, and community members were encouraged to get active through movement while interacting with local health and social service organizations.

“The goal this year is to not only expose our students and their families to the resources around health and wellness that the district offers, but the resources that are in their community,” said William Celestine, director of health and wellness programs within the district.

The annual event was introduced in 2017 and was held at Dodger Stadium until 2020 when the spread of Covid-19 prevented community gatherings. District staff revamped the event in May 2025 at the LA Coliseum. Saturday’s event is the first year that the 5k event has returned to Dodger Stadium in six years.  

This year’s event also marked just over a year since the Eaton fire destroyed three of the district’s school buildings and affected the lives of thousands of residents.

Comprehensive Community Health Centers was one of the many community health organizations at the event. Two of the health center’s six locations were affected by the fires, but staff say that hasn’t stopped them from engaging the community. During Saturday’s event, the health center sent certified enrollment counselors to the 5k to help participants enroll in health insurance coverage.

During the fires, CCHC collaborated with local nonprofits to provide hygiene products, shoes, and backpacks, among other daily necessities, to district families. The health center has also partnered with the school district to provide primary care services for students through mobile clinics on school grounds.

Pedro Ramirez, director of outreach and community engagement, said they strive to be a trusted source in the community. Ramirez said their ongoing work is to ensure residents feel comfortable asking questions and seeking care when needed.

This year’s 5K event featured student performances and had an intentional focus on local health and wellness partnerships. LAUSD officials say this year is another opportunity to remind residents that they have access to resources, since many are still recovering from the fires.  

“We’re just trying to bring attention to our school communities that were impacted by the fire, understanding that it’s been more than a year, but letting them know that they haven’t been forgotten,” said Celestine.  

When the fires broke out across the northwestern communities of Los Angeles, LAUSD contacted first responders who worked with residents from the Paradise fires to learn how to best provide mental health support.

Dr. Smitra Malhotra, chief medical officer for the district, said that district schools are pillars within communities. She said that it was important for staff to maintain consistency for students and to be a reliable source of help and information when their daily lives are constantly in flux. Over the past year, the district has prioritized community-building events to bring resources to students and their families.

LAUSD educates nearly 550,000 students across 1,535 schools and centers in the Los Angeles metro area. Staff from the large school district say they have a whole child philosophy, and that acknowledging their students’ needs outside the classroom helps students succeed at school.

The district also distributed wellness coaches and psychiatric social workers to schools to ensure students and their families had access to crisis support and mental and physical health resources following the fires.

“It’s a community where there’s devastation around (the students), houses that are still not built. You can see the scars from the fires still around them,” said Dr. Malhotra. “But then you drive up to the school, and you can hear laughter. You can hear parents greeting each other. You can hear children talking to each other, and it just feels like hope.”

Housing is just one of the systemic issues affecting the health and well-being of Los Angeles residents, before and after the fires, according to Julie Kirk. She’s the chief community and patient engagement officer at Westside Family Health Center, and said that job losses and food insecurity have also worsened since the fires, creating a source of anxiety.

“A lot of people’s jobs were lost because they just didn’t exist anymore,” she said.

Kirk and members of the Westside staff also attended the event last weekend. Kirk said that she was excited to participate to further engage the neighborhoods that Westside serves. Every staff member of her team also lives within the community and has a deep understanding of what their neighbors have experienced over the past year. She hopes that through continued engagement, people will feel safe and welcomed to receive care.

Westside also has an ongoing relationship with the school district. Since 2011, the health center has sent a mobile unit to Venice High School to support immunizations, physicals, and reproductive health needs. Like CCHC, Westside also has enrollment counselors to help people find care. Kirk added that their work is all-encompassing and that the health center is working to address systemic issues to support healthier communities.

“If you’re houseless, is your medical care your top priority? Not really,” Kirk said. “Our providers want to treat the chronic conditions, and they want to make sure that if a person needs mental health services, they’re making a direct hand-off to the mental health provider.”

Direct Relief has delivered more than $18 million in aid to communities throughout Los Angeles County since the January 2025 wildfires. Direct Relief was a co-sponsor of the LAUSD Move It 5K Health and Wellness Fair, and also donated medical aid to the Westside Family Health Center and Comprehensive Community Health Centers.