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By Taylor Walker, WitnessLA, February 5,2020 On Tuesday, Feb. 4, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a plan to launch a Youth Commission to advise the board and county departments on matters of policy, budget, programs, and other issues that affect the county’s youth and their families. With this commission, the county has the opportunity to create a “trailblazing model” for jurisdictions across the nation, Supervisors Janice Hahn and Sheila Kuehl wrote in their motion. “In...

By Nicholas Slayton, Los Angeles Downtown News, February 5, 2020 Homelessness among women has increased in the last year, with 10,845 women experiencing homelessness in the City of Los Angeles, and more women experiencing homelessness for the first time, according to a new report from the Downtown Women’s Center. The Downtown Women’s Center, in partnership with the University of Southern California, unveiled the 2019 Los Angeles City Women’s Needs Assessment on Thursday, Jan. 30 at its...

By Sara Tiano, The Chronicle of Social Change, January 10, 2020 Nearly three months after the Los Angeles Police Department vowed to find out why the department had not investigated 4,000 reported cases of child abuse, an in-depth audit of the cases is still not ready to deliver to county child welfare officials. The department has canceled a scheduled presentation of the audit’s findings Monday, Jan. 13, before the Los Angeles County Commission for Children and Families citing the need to...

By Prevention Institute, January 2020 The BEPAF Request for Proposals was released on January 8, 2020 and can be accessed in the list of Resources on this page. The BEPAF Informational Webinar for Applicants will be held on January 13, 2020, from 10:00-11:00am. Register at www.tinyurl.com/BEPAFLOIWebinar . A recording of the webinar will be posted here on January 14. Please contact BEPAF@preventioninstitute.org for additional information. Built Environment Policy Advocacy Fund (BEPAF)...

By Sonali Kohli, Los Angeles Times, December 12, 2019 A high school senior decided recently that she wants to become sexually active with her boyfriend. But she is not yet comfortable talking to her mom about birth control and would be unable to get to a doctor’s appointment on her own. Instead, she walked over to the new well-being center at school during a free period. It was easy. Planned Parenthood runs a sexual healthcare clinic at Esteban Torres High School in East L.A. once a week.

By Mariana Dale, LAist, December 12, 2019 Almost 31,000 children attend some kind of early childhood program in the Los Angeles Unified School District, but that system isn't well connected to the district's elementary and high schools. That means it's hard for teachers to understand a student's background and where they need help when they enter K-12 schools. Now the district has a strategic plan to change that. LAUSD's Birth to Eight Roadmap recommends new teaching methods, data collection...

By Mariana Dale, LAist, December 12, 2019 Almost 31,000 children attend some kind of early childhood program in the Los Angeles Unified School District, but that system isn't well connected to the district's elementary and high schools. That means it's hard for teachers to understand a student's background and where they need help when they enter K-12 schools. Now the district has a strategic plan to change that. LAUSD's Birth to Eight Roadmap recommends new teaching methods, data collection...

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to add 500 mental health treatment beds over the next two years, as part of a larger effort to increase services for Angelenos who need psychiatric help. The supervisors approved recommendations in a report from the County Department of Mental Health, which said there's a serious shortage of psychiatric treatment beds. Emergency rooms are overloaded and about one-quarter of the county's adult homeless people have a serious mental...

By Jeremy Loudenback, The Chronicle of Social Change, November 15, 2019 The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted to boost housing options for transition-age foster youth at its meeting on Tuesday. Two separate investments totaling nearly $9.4 million will open up 237 transitional beds for foster youth at the greatest risk of homelessness over the next year. “Youth transitioning out of foster care have often experienced significant trauma throughout their young lives,” said...

That’s why LaRayia Gaston decided to fuse the low costs of bodegas with the health of Whole Foods. She launched LaRayia’s Bodega, a healthy take on the traditional convenience store. The store is part of Love Without Reason , a nonprofit started by Gaston about four years ago. Outside of the bodega, the nonprofit also provides vegan meals to people experiencing homelessness on Skid Row, a 50-block area with over 4,750 homeless individuals. Gaston and volunteers gather food from grocery...

A year after 85 people died in the wildfire that swept through Paradise, CA, and nearby towns, one of the town’s survivors will talk about how she and others are using resilience practices in their recovery from the trauma. On Wednesday, Nov. 13, Paradise resident Kelly Doty will have a conversation with Elaine Miller-Karas, who developed the Community Resiliency Model (CRM). Doty, who lost her home in the fire, and Miller-Karas will discuss resilience education skills designed to help...

By Alysha Conner, Contributing Writer, Los Angeles Sentinel Published October 31, 2019 African-American students in Los Angeles County are currently facing a dual-threat of inadequate educational opportunities and support. It has been proven that social and environmental factors have also placed their educational and social development at significant risk. A recent study published by UCLA graduates exhibits Black students in LA County disproportionately attending schools that the state...