Even when a resource is in their own backyard, people often don’t take advantage of it.
That’s not the case for Children’s Institute in Watts.
The organization offers early childhood education and mental health programs for kids and parents, and their new building is emerging as a community center. The organization operates under the principle that children’s development is intertwined with their caregivers’ wellbeing, which is in turn influenced by their community.
To learn more about what a two-generational approach to mental health care looks like in the context of a community, reporters taking part in the USC Center for Health Journalism National Fellowship recently visited the institute’s stunning new facility, designed by architect Frank Gehry, in the heart of Watts, one of poorest areas in Los Angeles.
“What we’re really trying (to do) is to help families achieve economic mobility,” said Martine Singer, president and CEO of Children’s institute.
Singer said educational success and emotional wellbeing are the foundations for economic mobility. Mental health and economics have a two-way relationship. That is, a child’s mental health can impact their long-term economic status, and poverty can impact mental health, according to a 2018 report in the journal, Nature.
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