The L.A. Trust honors Beutner and Dr. Yonekura at gala

Austin Beutner received The L.A. Trust Visionary Award from Dr. Robert K. Ross of the California Endowment (left) and Maryjane Puffer of The L.A. Trust at the Salute to Student Health. Photo by Rinzi Ruiz.

The Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health honored former Los Angeles Unified Superintendent Austin Beutner and Dr. Margaret Lynn Yonekura of Dignity Health-California Hospital Medical Center at its first-ever Salute to Student Health September 30, 2021. More than 200 educators, healthcare professionals, civic leaders and donors attended the gala online and in person at Vibiana in downtown Los Angeles.

“This pandemic has made the need for student health more apparent — and more urgent — than ever,” said Maryjane Puffer, executive director of The L.A. Trust. “Our mission is to bridge health and education to achieve student wellness,” she said. “I cannot think of two individuals who have done more to achieve this than our two honorees.”

Beutner received The L.A. Trust Visionary Award from Dr. Robert K. Ross, CEO and president of The California Endowment. Ross said, “If you wanted to pick a three-year period to be superintendent, you would not have picked the past three years.” He said, “Austin brought clear-eyed vision — and steely leadership — to one of the most extraordinary moments in our nation’s history.”

Bringing the help to schools

Beutner accepted his award “on behalf of the 86,000 L.A. Unified teachers and staff who work tirelessly every day.” He thanked Puffer, The L.A. Trust Board and staff, and gave “a special shout out” to the evening’s sponsors, including John and Louise Bryson, Shari Davis and Michael Dubin.

Beutner said, “COVID, if nothing else, has proven the importance of serving children and families, no questions asked.” He pointed to the district’s food program, which served 140 million meals, its computer and internet assistance, and massive COVID testing and vaccination operations, among the largest in the nation.

“If there is a theme here, it’s maybe The L.A. Trust was born a little bit before its time,” Beutner said. “The brave pioneers, Maryjane Puffer, your board and staff, were probably shouting into the wilderness 20 years ago, because people weren’t with you yet. I think we’ve shown in COVID that the best place to provide help to those who need it – the children who are the future of Los Angeles, who are in our public schools every day – is at their local neighborhood schools.”

Broadening the definition

Maryjane Puffer presented The L.A. Trust Champion Award to Dr. Margaret Lynn Yonekura, director of community health at Dignity Health-CHMC, a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist and “the architect of critically needed community health programs, the L.A. Best Babies Network at CMHC, the L.A. County Perinatal and Early Childhood Home Visiting Consortium, the Hope Street Margolis Family Center, the Preconception Health Care Council and Options for Recovery and numerous initiatives at The L.A. Trust.

“I have spent the majority of my working life in Los Angeles providing OB care for high-risk, impoverished and often marginalized women – both mother and fetus,” she said. “When I joined California Hospital Medical Center in 1992 my work began to broaden.

“I asked my patients what they needed; they said they wanted to learn to English, the language of success in America. So we added ESL to prenatal class. Fast forward and Hope Street now provides a wide range of family services,” including Early Head Start, childcare, family literacy, afterschool activities, mentoring, homework help, college prep, family preservation and behavioral health at nearby L.A. Unified sites.

Yonekura said, “I have lived a truly blessed life.” She said her parents left American internment camps at the end of WWII with just a hundred dollars and a train ticket. Her mother and father took jobs as domestics and worked tirelessly to get her the college education they never got. As a child, she told a nurse she wanted to be a nurse too, “but the nurse said, ‘No, be a doctor because doctors give the orders.’”

An interest-free loan from her father’s employer enabled her family to move into the middle class and get her into private school, college and eventually become a doctor. “That is why I try to pay it forward,” she said. “That is why I dedicate this award to those students who dare to dream.”

“The L.A. Trust was proud to be part of the coalition encouraging voluntary vaccinations this summer” said Maryjane Puffer, executive director of The Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health. “But now our effort to protect our students and families enters a new phase as Los Angeles Unified mandates vaccinations for all students 12 and older by January 10, 2022, unless they have a medical or other exemption.”   

Board members of The L.A. Trust will work up a sweat to raise funds

Board members and supporters of The L.A. Trust are challenging their friends and colleagues to sponsor them in a fall fundraiser Up to Us.

Board members and other supporters of The L.A. Trust will be biking, running, walking, swimming and participating in other activities November 16-29 to raise funds as part of the organization’s Thanksgiving fundraising campaign, “Up to Us: The L.A. Trust.”

Donate now

The participants are asking friends and colleagues to help them meet the campaign’s goal of $15,000. All donations will go to The L.A. Trust to support its student and community activities, including prevention education, Oral Health Initiative, research and best practices, mental and behavioral health, Wellness Center support and other needs.

“The coronavirus has required us to devise new ways to continue preventive healthcare education and access at a time we need it most,” said Will Grice of Kaiser Permanente, board president of The L.A. Trust. “The mission of The L.A. Trust is to bridge the gap in healthcare in our underserved communities, and that mission is more important now than ever.” 

To sponsor a Board member or supporter Donate Now. To register as a Truster and ask your friends and colleagues to support your activity Register Now.

Mission Report from The L.A. Trust shows a year of progress

The L.A. Trust’s Mission Report sounds a hopeful note during a time of crisis.

The Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health has released its first-ever Mission Report capturing a year of accomplishments and looking forward to “healthier days ahead.”

Executive Director Maryjane Puffer and Board President William Grice of Kaiser Permanente, observed that “the COVID-19 health crisis and economic downturn have been a dramatic reminder of how much depends on our education and healthcare systems.”

More than four in five Los Angeles Unified students live in poverty, the report notes, and there are wide disparities in healthcare access. “The COVID-19 crisis is severely worsening these dual hardships and students need our help more than ever.”

The report outlines how The L.A. Trust, working with its funders and allies, is bridging the worlds of health and education to achieve student wellness.

In last fiscal year 2018-2019, The L.A. Trust:

• Launched The L.A. Trust Data xChange, which links confidential health and academic data to determine how student health affects student performance.

• Partnered with the University of California San Francisco to launch a bilingual contraception awareness app for Latina teens.
  

• Supported the growing network of Student and Family Wellness Centers on LAUSD campuses, with best practices, research and Learning Collaborative convenings.

• Facilitated screenings for more than 1,700 kindergartners and third-graders at dozens of LAUSD elementary schools and provided oral health education throughout the district.

• Worked with Student Advisory Board members and their Adult Allies at Wellness Center schools on issues like STD prevention, HPV vaccination and substance use.

• Advocated for fresh foods and good nutrition, teaching more than 100 student and community nutrition courses, appearing at events like the Fremont Free Food Fair and promoting the benefits of drinking water.

• Worked with community partners and student advocates to fight vaping, tobacco and substance use among LAUSD students.

“None of this would have been possible without the help of partners and allies,” said Anna Baum, director of development and communication. “We’re very grateful for their support, especially in times like these.”

Puffer gave special thanks to The L.A. Trust Board of Directors “who work selflessly so every L.A. student can have equal access to healthcare and an equal shot at success.”

Kaiser grants $500,000 to The L.A. Trust for new solutions

The Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health has announced a two-year, $500,000 grant from Kaiser Permanente to provide healthcare programs, foster healthy habits and generate insights to improve student health in Los Angeles public schools.

A portion of the grant will underwrite an innovative new Data xChange initiative that will link healthcare and educational performance data to find ways to improve healthcare strategies and educational outcomes. 

“This major grant will not only help us deliver on our promise of improving the health of the LAUSD communities we serve, it will give us the insights we need to design programs and services that connect better healthcare to improved educational performance,” said Maryjane Puffer, executive director of The L.A. Trust.

Kaiser fully committed

Will Grice

“At Kaiser Permanente we are committed to helping everyone in our communities achieve total health,” said Will Grice, senior vice president and area manager, Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center.“That is why, through this grant, we’re proud to support The L.A. Trust in their efforts to increase access to oral health education, screenings and referrals for LAUSD students and their families, integrate healthy eating, active living programs into schools, and implement a system that measures the impact of health services on academic performance and attendance,” Grice said. “Together, we can work to reduce the disparity in access to quality health care in our communities.”

The mission of The Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health is “to improve student health and increase readiness to learn through health care access, advocacy, and programs.” The independent 501c3 nonprofit organization supports 15 district-wide Wellness Centers and a variety of programs focused on preventative care, oral screenings and referrals, healthy living habits, mental health services and more.