The L.A. Trust Year in Review: 2021 was a time of action
Last year was a watershed year as The L.A. Trust expanded its scope and capabilities to address key concerns like the COVID-19 pandemic and youth mental health.
Last year The Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health and its partners built on the lessons of 2020 to take action on the converging crises facing L.A.’s schools and communities.
As the virulent delta variant took hold, The L.A. Trust launched a COVID-19 Youth Task Force and joined a broad coalition of agencies, healthcare providers and nonprofits countering vaccine disinformation and urging vaccination against the coronavirus.
The L.A. Trust convened the healthcare and education communities to address the growing mental health crisis among students and young people, hosting our first Youth Mental Health Collaborative in conjunction with L.A. Unified.
Student engagement remained a top priority of The L.A. Trust despite the quarantine, as Student Advisory Board members met online at our Y2Y Student Health Summit and Student Health Summer Learning Academy. As students, teachers and Wellness Center clinicians returned to campus, we went back to school with them, hosting educational events and resuming in-person student engagement on suicide prevention and other issues.
The L.A. Trust expanded its role as the backbone of L.A.’s student health community by convening educators and healthcare providers at its Wellness Network Learning Collaboratives, expanding its Data xChange initiative and launching a new tool for school-health center integration.
A year of growth
The L.A. Trust started the school year in October by adding eight new staff members. Board President Will Grice of Kaiser Permanente said, “This is the biggest growth initiative in The L.A. Trust's 20-year history. These new team members will allow us to expand policy development, advocacy, prevention education and student engagement.”
Officers, board members and staff of The L.A. Trust unpacked issues of equity, diversity and inclusion at a special online meeting in May. Intersectionality expert Dr. Nooshin Valizadeh led the discussion, which was designed to foster thought exchange; define racism and understand its history and impact; and to name, challenge and change racial biases.
Moving event
The pandemic did not stop The L.A. Trust Salute to Student Health, an in-person and online gala honoring former L.A. Unified School Superintendent Austin Beutner and Dr. Lynn Yonekura, community health director at Dignity Health California Hospital. More than 200 healthcare providers, educators and civic leaders were moved by the event, and more than $200,000 was raised to support The L.A. Trust mission.
The L.A. Trust started the year by convening our Oral Health Advisory Board and observing Children’s Dental Health Month with a social media campaign and round two of Operation Tooth Fairy, which distributed nearly 60,000 toothbrushes and oral healthcare items.
We also observed School-Based Healthcare Awareness Week Month in February, joining our partners at the California School-Based Health Alliance in advocating for greater funding and awareness of this critical healthcare system.
“Our SBHCs are more critical than ever,” said Maryjane Puffer, executive director of The Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health. “Supporting these centers has been a core part of our mission since our founding, and it’s important we redouble our efforts during this incredibly challenging time.”