Day One is a community-based nonprofit organization with a 25 year history of providing effective, high quality and culturally-sensitive public health education, intervention, policy development and environmental prevention efforts.
Day One grew out of a collective vision of concerned community leaders in 1987. Their vision was spurred by the drug epidemic in Pasadena and Altadena, especially among youth and in the Northwest area. Since then the organization has become a leader in youth advocacy and community health in the San Gabriel Valley.
Mission
Day One builds vibrant, healthy cities by advancing public health, empowering youth and igniting change.
As an agency devoted to promoting public health, Day One has instituted an array of health and environmental policies, programs and practices. At present, these consist of the following:
Waste reduction
- Office Composting – all food waste on site is composted for agency community garden.
- Office Recycling - Day One pays a significant fee every month just to be able to have a recycle bin for paper, plastic, glass, and metals.
- E-Waste – electronic waste is separated and dropped off at community E-waste disposal events.
- Recycled Paper - only recycled paper is purchased for office printers.
- Double-sided Printing – double-sided is used as much as possible.
- Low-flow Toilet – installed at office site in 2008.
- Re-usable Bags – reusable shopping bags are used by staff and distributed to participants at large Day One hosted functions such as the annual Parenting Conference and Youth Summit.
- Styrofoam/polystyrene Ban – non-biodegradable, single-use Styrofoam products such as coffee cups and plates are not purchased for events.
Environmental/Public Health
- Public/Active transportation - Located just three blocks from the Gold Line Memorial Park Station in the heart of downtown Pasadena, Day One’s headquarters is easily accessible by foot, bike, scooter, and Metro bus and train. Staff is encouraged to commute and attend meetings/work events via foot, bike, public transit (e.g., Gold Line) and even scooter! Additionally, staff encourages service recipients and community partners to attend meetings, events and functions hosted at Day One by utilizing active and public transportation.
- Office Bike Share – Day One has a mini-bike-sharing program so that agency staff, interns, and youth advocates can make short trips via bicycle.
- Bicycle Parking – Day One is a bicycle-friendly agency, allowing staff and visitors to lock bikes on the property and/or bring them into the office for safe storage.
- Power-saving – Staff is mindful of power use. For example, air conditioning, lights and computers are turned off after business hours, and only used when needed. All office computers have their power options set to energy saving mode to save electricity.
- Office Community Garden – Day One Staff and volunteers have grown an array of vegetables and planted nine fruit trees – avocado, mandarin, nectarine, plum, apple, grapefruit, and orange – at the office site since 2008. With room to grow, agency staff plans on expanding the orchard in the coming years as a teaching tool for the agency’s Youth Advocate program, as well as to provide staff and the youth they serve fresh, low-cost, and locally grown fruit at meetings and community events.
- Community Fruit Gleaning/Harvesting – Day One staff has organized community fruit gleaning outings to harvest unused/unneeded fruit from residents and donate it to the Foothill Unity Center, a local food bank.
