After a nearly one-hour discussion, Boyle Heights neighborhood council members approved an overhaul of their social media plan in order to better engage community residents and raise awareness about issues that affect them.

The plan is to give council members more access to the council’s four social media platforms.

“It’s going to make us more visible in the community… For me, I think is going to be a very positive thing,” Daisy Chavez, president of the council, said in an interview.

One of the issues Chavez raised during the meeting is that most posts are only available in English but Spanish speakers make up a hefty chunk of the community.

“We have a limited amount of folks who can actually post. With this new rule, it makes it so that more people can post… it’s going to give us the opportunity to then make everything more standard and regularly use Spanish,” Chavez said.

The change will allow community members to have access to information in their preferred language, she said, adding that Google Translate can be unreliable.

Board member Sol Marquez said it’s great that “we will be able to have all of us, especially all the chairs of the different committees,” post and participate more on the council’s social media accounts.

Daniel Abner, a local resident who attended the meeting, said the rule is a great way to reach younger folks in the community. “A lot of them have a social media presence so… just bringing this into light gives us awareness that social media is an important platform to reach out to youth,” he said.

Abner noted that the lack of young people involved in the council was apparent by looking around the meeting room. He added: “I think just reaching out is going to really have them notice the issues that are going around in our communities such as gentrification, affordable housing etc.”

Community News reporters are enrolled in JOUR 3910 – University Times. They produce stories about under-covered neighborhoods and small cities on the Eastside and South Los Angeles. Please email feedback, corrections and story tips to [email protected].