Tagged With "TIC Task Force of Greater LA"
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Advancing a Plan for Addressing Trauma and Building Resilience within L.A. County Systems [prnewswire.com]
LOS ANGELES , Oct. 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- First 5 LA, the California Community Foundation, The California Endowment, The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation along with other local, state and nationally-recognized expert organizations today released a report to advance a comprehensive trauma and resiliency-informed approach in Los Angeles County . Building on research and the experience of experts from Los Angeles , the report defines trauma as the effects of a...
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Advancing a Plan for Addressing Trauma and Building Resilience within L.A. County Systems (prnewswire.com)
Center for Collective Wisdom Releases Extensive Report Outlining Research and Recommendations First 5 LA, the California Community Foundation, The California Endowment, The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation along with other local, state and nationally-recognized expert organizations today released a report to advance a comprehensive trauma and resiliency-informed approach in Los Angeles County . "Trauma is a serious health concern affecting many children and...
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At "Healing our Communities” conference in LA, youth, parents work with social service providers to impact change!
More than 300 people gathered for the 4th Annual Public Safety/Re-Entry, “Healing our Communities” conference in Los Angeles. The first three conferences were for USC students in the School of Social Work and people who provide social services in the LA area. This year the conference included youth and parents served by those providers. The community safety conference highlighted re-entry initiatives and programs in Los Angeles County organized by agencies such as Homeboy Industries, Project...
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Berkeley Media Studies Group (BMSG) Blogging Tips and Talking about Trauma
Berkeley Media Studies Group facilitated a southern and northern California Strategic Communications Workshop in October 2015. Attached, please find their powerpoint, created by co-facilitators Julieta Kusnir and Pamela Mejia, titled "Talking about Trauma: Tips & Tools for Communicating Effectively" and "Blogging Tips for Media Advocates" articulating tips on content, headlines, length and tone of blogs.
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Biggest Jailer in the World: Los Angeles (citywatchla.org)
JUSTICE THROUGH UNITY-The people of the County of Los Angeles and beyond need to understand that spending $3.5 billion on new jails instead of focusing on local services that could prevent mostly black and brown people from ending up behind bars in the first place is in the best interest of all of us—and not just black and brown people. According to historian and UCLA Professor Kelly Lytle Hernandez, LA County isn’t just the biggest jailer in the United States—it is the biggest jailer in the...
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Bikers Against Child Abuse
In times like these where accessible mental health resources are dwindling or filled to capacity, I am compelled to seek outside the box as a mental health professional. And what I am finding astonishes me. I met with the LA Chapter of B.A.C.A., Bikers Against Child Abuse and what they do, free of charge, for children who have been physically or sexually abused needs to be known. Any child who has a current case in the system (which is a cold and frightening process) is eligible for their...
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Black students and families need more support — and they need it now. An unprecedented coalition dives in with a new LAUSD task force. [laschoolreport.com]
An unprecedented coalition of community members, educators, parents, and students at LA Unified have convened a new task force to urgently address why African-American youth continue to have the lowest test scores and why black students and families continue to feel ignored by the education system. Black students persist in having LA Unified’s highest rates of dropouts and suspensions. They are most likely to be identified as needing special education services, and they are least likely to...
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Black Youth In Los Angeles County Face An ‘Accumulation Of Disadvantage’ [scienceblog.com]
By Science Blog, October 14, 2019 Black youth in Los Angeles County face an accumulation of disadvantage, undermining their academic, social and economic success and placing them at greater risk of structural disenfranchisement — not in school, not working and ensnared in the criminal justice system, according to a new study Beyond the Schoolhouse: Overcoming Challenges & Expanding Opportunity for Black Youth in Los Angeles County, released today by researchers at the UCLA Graduate...
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Broadening Your Network and Identifying Partners for More Resilient, Healthier Communities
Who should you partner with to create lasting change through resilience in your community? The Building Community Resilience (BCR) initiative aims to address, prevent, and reduce the effects of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and adverse community environments (ACEs) on children’s health and wellbeing ( The “Pair of ACEs” ). An essential element of the successes of BCR’s five test sites around the country has been strategic collaborations. In your work to build resilience, identifying...
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Built Environment Policy Advocacy Fund (BEPAF) Program Overview [preventioninstitute.org]
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)...
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California issues update on state residents' ACE scores from 2011 & 2013 surveys
The latest adverse childhood experiences survey from the California Department of Public Health shows that 42% of the population has an ACE score of 3 or higher; 16% have an ACE score of 4 or higher. Those with an ACE score of 4 or higher are: 3x more likely to be current smokers 4x more likely to have a depressive disorder 2x more likely to have asthma 2x more likely to be obese 4x more likely to have COPD 3x more likely to have a stroke Here are a few other highlights from the six-page...
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Changing Minds and Creating Trauma-Informed Communities Convenings - South and North
Last week, on two separate days in Los Angeles and in San Francisco, about 150 people (total) convened to listen and brainstorm about creating trauma-informed communities. Futures Without Violence, which is rolling out its Changing Minds campaign later this year, hosted both events. Some very interesting and important themes emerged from the two days: Residents with lived experiences should participate in the decision-making bodies of service providers and vested...
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Coming to LA July 8!!! Paper Tigers trailer...a peek into documentary about Lincoln High School
Please visit the LA County ACEs Connection group calendar for more info on the July 8 screening... Documentary filmmaker James Redford released the trailer for Paper Tigers , a documentary that follows four teens who attend Lincoln High School in...
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Community Roundtable Launch - A rousing success!
The Los Angeles Trauma Informed Task Force launched their first Community Roundtable on Tuesday, July 14th, from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm. A rousing success, their location was at City Council Member Mike Bonin's Westchester Field Office located at...
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Community weighs in on plans to address homelessness (latimes.com)
Community members got their first chance Wednesday to weigh in on new plans by the city and county of Los Angeles to address the region's growing problem with homelessness. During two public hearings, advocates for the homeless praised the proposals while others pointed to gaps in the plans, including a lack of strategies to help women who are forced out of their homes because of domestic violence. The county's draft, released last week, proposed spending $150 million in county and state...
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County Supes Create Financial Safety Net for Millions of Low Income and Struggling Angelenos (citywatchla.org)
GUEST WORDS-- Since joining the LA County Board of Supervisors 18 months ago, I, along with my colleagues on the Board, have taken a series of steps to build prosperity and economic security for residents by raising the minimum wage and establishing programs to promote social enterprises, help small businesses thrive and prevent people from falling into homelessness when they encounter short-term financial crises, like the loss of a job or a catastrophic medical condition. Last week, the...
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Curious about the property LA owns? Here’s how you can see it (dailynews.org)
City Controller Ron Galperin on Thursday released PropertyPanel.LA , the most sweeping map ever made of city properties. He also called upon city officials to hire an asset manager to oversee 9,000 holdings. “Now everyone can know what we all own a piece of,” said Galperin, in a statement. “The extent of the holdings revealed by this map shows that we as a City have the opportunity to engage in widespread economic and community development, as well as to generate revenue for much-needed city...
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CYW releases "Children Can Thrive: A Vision for California's Response to ACEs"
The Center for Youth Wellness released a new report “Children Can Thrive: A Vision for California’s Response to ACEs”. This report is a follow up to last November’s Children Can Thrive Summit. ...
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Documentary, "Portraits of Professional CAREgivers" Airing on Public Television
CAREgivers film will be airing on most public television stations around the US beginning this month in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Orlando, Cleveland, Spokane, Boise, Springfield-Holyoke, Youngstown, Idaho Falls, Twin Falls, Fairbanks, ETC. Please check your local public TV stations for future dates and times. Broadcast times will also be posted in advance whenever possible at: http://caregiversfilm.com/screenings/see-the-film/ This documentary addresses secondary trauma (aka...
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Early education is affordable for more families under new state budget: Guest commentary (dailybreeze.com)
Here in Los Angeles County, the extreme shortage of early learning opportunities for children, prenatal to age 5, is an urgent issue. According to the L.A. County Child Care Planning Committee's most recent State of Early Care and Education in Los Angeles County report , 59 percent of preschoolers lack access to state-subsidized early learning opportunities; and 87 percent of working parents with infants and toddlers lack access to a licensed child-care center seat of any kind. The $183...
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Echo Conference 2017 Highlights
When Echo first announced the theme for this year’s conference – Social & Historical Trauma – some were worried about whether we could pull off an event built around such a difficult and sensitive topic. Yet we felt we had to tackle this subject since every year at our childhood trauma conference participants always raise the questions, “What about racism? What about community trauma and poverty? How do these things contribute to Adverse Childhood Experiences?” Kanwarpal Dhaliwal from...
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Echo Parenting Changing the Paradigm Conference: March 5-6, 2015
10% discount for all LA County ACES Connection group members! Enter code "ACEs" when completing the online registration . Childhood trauma is responsible for many of our physical, mental and societal problems and interferes with a parent or...
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FATHERHOOD MATTERS: Dr. Jorja Leap Gives Readers a Remarkable Window into the Lives of the Fathers of Jordan Downs [WitnessLA.com]
FATHERS WITHOUT FATHERS Every Wednesday night around two dozen men from the Jordan Downs housing project meet to teach each other, and themselves, how to be fathers. “See, most of the men in the group never had fathers,” Mike...
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Fed Up With Probation’s Ongoing Failure To Spend Juvenile Justice $ Millions On Proven Programs For LA County’s Kids, The Supes Make A Radical Move [witnessla.com]
On Tuesday afternoon, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors passed a new motion that will put most of the power to choose how a large pot of state money gets spent into the hands of the county’s Juvenile Justice Coordinating Counsel (JJCC), a mostly unknown voting body that is crammed with youth experts and advocates. Prior to this shift, the funds were almost entirely controlled by LA County Probation, a situation that the board decided wasn’t working. “I find it unacceptable,” said...
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First 5 LA's Strategic Plan: Trauma-Informed Care Is 1 of 4 Target Outcomes
First 5 LA’s Strategic Plan Highlights Target Outcomes: Families: Increased family Protective Factors Communities: Increased community capacity to support and promote the safety, healthy development, and well-being of children prenatal to age...
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First Phase of L.A. County’s Homeless Initiative to Start June 30 (chronicleofsocialchange.org)
Almost 47,000 individuals and families are homeless in Los Angeles County, according to the 2016 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count, which was conducted by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) and released on May 4. That count shows a 6 percent rise in the county’s homeless population from 2015. The total in 2015 – 44,359 – showed a 12 percent surge from just two years prior. The 2015 results played a major role in pushing Los Angeles County to create a plan to address the...
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Leadership Commitment to Creating a Trauma Informed Los Angeles County
The California Community Foundation , First 5 LA , The California Endowment and The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation sponsored a convening of leaders from county departments, philanthropic foundations and community organizations to discuss and learn how Los Angeles County could become a model for identifying and addressing trauma in children and families in a systematic way. The event was held at the California Community Foundation in Los Angeles. A full summary is available here:...
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Foster kids need face time with parents, but in LA County that's not easy (scpr.org)
According to a recent Los Angeles County report, nearly 10,000 children in the county's foster care system are receiving "reunification services" designed to help repair their families and return them to their parents — and visitation is a core, legally required component. "It's one of the most essential services we can provide," said Diane Iglesias, senior deputy director of the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services. Visits help keep children connected with their...
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Free Shuttle to Shelter for Malibu Homeless (malibutimes.com)
Julie Ellerton / TMT Several agencies worked together during a recent meeting at Malibu City Hall to discuss the needs of homeless in Malibu. Pictured, from left: Timothy Lippman, Leah Randall, Gail Block, Tony Walczuk, Mark Winn and Carol Moss. Although the predicted El Niño has only resulted in a few days of rain in Malibu so far, an interagency group is concerned how the Malibu homeless might fare in the face of heavy downpours, flooding and mudslides that could still occur over...
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FREE tickets to the LA Film Festival premiere of Wrestling Ghosts!
Hi ACEs Los Angeles community! Would you be our VIP guests at the Los Angeles Premiere of Wrestling Ghosts on Thursday Sept. 27th @7:30pm at the Santa Monica ArcLight? We have a limited number of FREE tickets that we want to share with you. You are the forefront of the resilience movement and we would be honored to have you for the premiere! Please email charlotte@wrestlingghosts.com if you’d like a ticket (first come first serve). And PLEASE, let us know if there’s anyone in LA we should be...
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Historic Vote To Direct Millions In State Funding To LA’s Community-Based Youth Programs [witnessla.com]
On Monday, at an unexpectedly-packed meeting held at the City of Carson Community Center, the members of LA County’s Juvenile Justice Coordinating Council (JJCC) voted to pass a budget plan that many youth advocates are calling “historic.” The plan lays out how LA County will spend the approximately $28 to $31 million in Juvenile Justice Crime Prevention Act funds that Los Angeles receives each year from the State of California. Yet, the priorities embraced by this budget plan are...
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How One Connection at CYW’s ACEs Conference Sparked Awareness into Action
Origins offers a number of training and consulting services. We developed The Basics as a half-day session to provide the foundation to support trauma-informed and resilience practices across sectors and industries. The session includes an overview of the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study, the neurobiology of toxic stress, the impact of social and historical trauma, and the science of resilience. We have tested The Basics with two cross-sector audiences, in Los Angeles and Phoenix.
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How Social Workers Improve Relationships Between Police and Communities
by MSW@USC Staff In 1955 , the Los Angeles Police Department adopted the motto “To Protect and Serve,” and over the last seven decades, many other American law enforcement departments followed suit. But in the Black Lives Matter era, those words may not resonate with some members of the communities police are tasked with protecting and serving. Community members may feel law enforcement officials exercise more authority than necessary. How can both sides work to create a more positive...
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Immigrants fueled LA economy to tune of $232.9 billion in 2014 (dailynews.com)
A new report finds that immigrants in Los Angeles County contributed $232.9 billion to the region’s economy, nearly 35.7 percent of the area’s economic output. The report, “New Americans in Los Angeles,” breaks down immigrant contributions to the city of L.A. and to the county, providing a “snapshot” on a range of demographic factors, from education and labor participation levels. Backed by the city of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, New American Economy – a bipartisan...
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In Los Angeles, Drug Court’s Wrap-around Services Help Parents Quit Using Drugs, Keep Their Kids [JJIE.org]
“I didn’t know how to be a mom,” Lisa Galvan said. “I was used to being by myself. It was really hard for me to adjust and even for the kids to adjust because I never was around. So when I came back out [of rehab] they gave them back to me, and within a month I started using again.” By the time Galvan was 20, she had three children and had been using meth for seven years. She had been a drug addict for far longer than she’d been a mother, and when she tried to get sober, she found out she...
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In Spanish: Handouts for parents about ACEs, toxic stress & resilience
The Community & Family Services Division at the Spokane (WA) Regional Health District has come through again, with a Spanish version of the parent handout (in English) that we posted last year , and which has been downloaded thousands of times. The English versions came about whiledoing a story about the trauma-in formed elementary schools in Spokane, WA .I interviewedp ublic health nurse Melissa Charbonneau who said that she'd been giving an...
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Influencing Complex Systems Change (nonprofitquarterly.org)
Complex times require complex responses. Through our work in the field, we have seen a set of evolving practices that help leaders, organizations, and networks achieve the scale and depth of transformative change needed today. These practices are: Rethinking boundaries to address intersecting constituencies, issues, and geographies. Learning how to surf the waves of irrational and unpredictable developments . Drawing on multiple ways of knowing to surface, include, and transcend differences...
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Infographic from TIC Task Force of Greater LA on their evaluation survey
Created by Co-Chair of the Trauma Informed Care Task Force of Greater Los Angeles Devika Shankar, the infographic represents an evaluation survey distributed amongst the task force members in January, 2016 of their Strategic Planning Committee. Thank you Devika for capturing the survey results and creating a succinct and engaging infographic!
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Inside the California facilities holding children separated from their parents at the border (latimes.com)
In a quiet nook in the small city of La Verne, small cottages topped with Spanish tile are spread across a sprawling green campus. Long ago, it was an orphanage; now it’s a group home for foster kids. Recently, it also became one of several shelters in the Los Angeles area that quietly began to house kids who have been split from their parents at the border. It is now home to some of the children who were forcibly taken from their parents under President Trump’s “zero tolerance” immigration...
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Is There A Foster-Care-To-Prison Pipeline? If So, This New LA-Based Program Aims To Break It (witnessla.com)
“Everyone talks about the school-to-prison pipeline,” said Loyola Law School professor Sean Kennedy. “But doing this work you see that there’s a group-home-to-prison. Kennedy is the Director of Loyola’s respected Center for Juvenile Law and Policy (CJLP), which was founded in 2004 to “tackle the injustices of the Los Angeles County juvenile court system” by providing pro bono advocacy for youth who find themselves caught up in that system. Thanks to a highly competitive $1 million grant from...
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'It's not supposed to be this way': Why it's getting more difficult for foster families (latimes.com)
Foster care asks caregivers to perform an almost impossible task: Love the child as your own, but relinquish the youth without delay or protest when social workers say the time has come. The anguish sometimes associated with such removals came into sharp focus last week when social workers removed a 6-year-old Santa Clarita girl who is part Choctaw, from her longtime foster parents. Across the nation, newspapers and television broadcasts displayed images of her distressed caregivers saying...
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Judge orders changes to L.A. County jail inmate discharge policy (DailyNews.com)
This April 14, 2015 staff file photo shows the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Mental Health Unit at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility. Hans Gutknecht/Los Angeles Daily News/File Los Angeles County jails have frequently been referred to as the largest de facto ental health facility in the country. On any given day, the region’s jails house and treat an average of 3,500 to 4,000 mentally ill inmates -- more than the number of patients managed in the entire...
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L.A. County Launches First-of-its-Kind Online Portal to Address Street Homelessness (smdp.com)
LA. County Launches First-of-its-Kind Online Portal to Address Street Homelessness The Los Angeles County Homeless Initiative and Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority have launched the Los Angeles Homeless Outreach Portal, dubbed LA-HOP, the new Countywide Web-based portal that channels outreach support to people experiencing homelessness. Funded by Measure H, the mobile-friendly platform empowers members of the general public, first responders and service providers to provide information...
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L.A.'s chronic challenge: What to do with the mentally ill homeless who refuse help? (latimes.com)
Last week, at a strategy session in the offices of Homeless Health Care Los Angeles, the advocates passed around an outline calling for those who “refuse to accept the status quo” to stipulate, among other things, that “treatment is a right,” and that “to withhold treatment is cruel.” They’re aware, though, that they need to tread carefully. Celina Alvarez, executive director of the nonprofit Housing Works, said the group needs to make clear that it has no intention of abusing the rights of...
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Los Angeles County ACEs, Trauma-Informed, and Resilience-Building Assets and Opportunities Survey
Please complete the Los Angeles County ACEs, Trauma-Informed, and Resilience-Building Assets and Opportunities Survey . The survey results will be used to inform the community's ACEs, trauma-informed, and resilience-building assets and opportunities...
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LA County adopts Age-Friendly Action Plan to help seniors keep homes, deal with health issues and more (dailynews.com)
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Tuesday approved a set of recommendations aimed at helping older adults keep their homes, deal with health problems and find ways to engage with other community members, as part of a broad initiative to improve their lives. The county’s Age-Friendly Action Plan offers ideas ranging from assistance with rent and repairs to mobile technology labs to train seniors. It suggests turning parks and libraries into age-and dementia-friendly centers where...
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LA County Demographics of Homelessness Continuum of Care (lacounty.gov)
A Dynamic and Deepening Crisis That Demands Our Attention By Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas The Board of Supervisors’ most recent initiative set aside $4 million for teams of social workers and health professionals to go out into the streets of Skid Row and connect homeless single adults to housing and supportive services. Los Angeles County has half a million more very low-income households than available apartments so the typical monthly rent has skyrocketed 27 percent since...
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LA County Dept of Mental Health Director on homelessness, schools, jails and more (scpr.org)
Dr. Jonathan Sherin leads the largest Mental Health department in the nation and its challenges are deep and wide-ranging. Mental health challenges related to homelessness in Los Angeles, including the plan to convert a mental health facility in Canoga Park into transitional housing for the homeless and the Mental Health Department’s visits to a homeless encampment in Whittier The closure of “board-and-care” homes The plan to replace the Men’s Central Jail in Downtown with a mental health...
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LA County expands funding for families in crisis (sgvtribune.com)
The Board of Supervisors voted today to allow dollars once designated for permanent housing to be spent on “crisis housing” to get families off the street until longer-term solutions can be found. Supervisor Janice Hahn recommended creating more flexibility in the way housing dollars are used. With a vacancy rate of less than 2 percent in some cities in Los Angeles County, it can take on average three to nine months to find permanent housing for eligible homeless families. To read more of...
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LA County exploring a system of 'battle buddies' helping other veterans (scpr.org)
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has taken a step toward creating a new peer support network to better connect local veterans to housing and services. On Tuesday, the board approved a motion asking the Los Angeles County Health Agency, the L.A. Homeless Services Authority, and other agencies to team up with the VA and veteran-focused nonprofits to create a plan for establishing a “veteran peer access network” in L.A. County. According to the motion introduced by Supervisors Mark...