Sharing Brings Hope campaign starts with community

L.A. Unified Interim Superintendent Megan Riley opened the 30th Sharing Brings Hope Consolidated Charity Campaign benefiting The L.A. Trust and 10 other nonprofits. 

Nearly 100 L.A. Unified and local charity fundraisers joined the 30th anniversary Sharing Brings Hope Leadership Breakfast February 2, 2022, on Zoom.  

L.A. Unified Interim Superintendent Megan Riley welcomed participants to the event, which kicks off the campaign’s 30th consolidated campaign running now until April 22. Other guests included, Kelly Gonez, LAUSD board member representing District 6, and Angela Padilla, board president of FundaMental Change. Hilda Solis, chair of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, delivered pre-recorded remarks. 

“This campaign fills in the gaps,” Gonez said. “It helps lifts up our L.A. Unified families.” The event ended with an emotional and unscripted appeal from District 1 Board Member Dr. George McKenna III, who said the campaign has always been driven by “faith, hope and charity and above all, love.” 

The annual campaign benefits 11 nonprofits supporting the Los Angeles Unified community, including The Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health, the Asian Pacific Community Fund, Brotherhood Crusade, Creating Healthier Communities, EarthShare California, Kathryn Kurka Children’s Health Fund, LAUSD Employee Sponsored Scholarship Fund, United Latinx Fund, United Negro College Fund, United Teachers Educational Foundation, and United Way of Greater Los Angeles. 

Despite COVID and quarantine, the campaign raised $250,00 in 2021 and hopes to raise $300,000 during the 60-day campaign. There are two ways to give: one-time contributions by cash or check, or payroll deductions. Visit the Sharing Brings Hope website to contribute or learn more.

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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.”

Read our 2021 Mission Report to learn more

Generous grant-makers support students and The L.A. Trust

Generous multi-year grants from leading foundations and agencies will help support L.A.’s students and sustain and expand the work of The L.A. Trust.

Throughout 2021 funders continued to show their wisdom and generosity through grant-making and interest in the work of The L.A. Trust. Several grants were for much-needed general operating support, including a two-year investment from the Weingart Foundation and one-year grants from The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation and The Capital Group Companies Charitable Foundation.

We’re very grateful to have received first-time grants for general operating support from The Carol and James Collins Foundation, The Green Foundation, and Good Hope Medical Foundation. The Samerian Foundation made a first-time grant to our Student Mental Health Initiative, and a Dignity Health award allows us to continue into year three of their Cultural Trauma & Mental Health Resiliency Project.

Mental health engagement

We reconnected with the William M. Keck, Jr. Foundation, which is now funding our mental health student engagement work. And we continue to partner with FCancer to work with students on cancer prevention efforts, particularly around the HPV vaccine.

Some grant-makers sent us equity surveys this past year, adding to the deep feeling that we’re all working together to address racism in our city. As we continue to mobilize while remaining flexible around student needs and school mandates, we pause to recognize how grateful we are for all the ways that so many groups, from family funds to large institutions, lend their resources to the pursuit of healthcare equity and accessibility for all students.

Partner profile: Satterberg Foundation is giving with heart

The Satterberg Foundation is a lead sponsor of the Seattle Equity Summit, which helps leaders and the public share strategies that advance equity. Photo by Jovelle Tamayo.  

By Anna Baum 

Donors are truly members of the non-profit family, and nowhere is that more evident than in the case of the Satterberg Foundation.

It helps that the Satterberg board and staff see their work as vital to their own well-being. Board Member Ben Lazarus and Caroline Miceli, director of operations and special interest grants, spoke to us recently and shared about Satterberg’s “secret sauce.” 

“It’s about building trust,” said Caroline, “how to build relationships and trust.” The L.A. Trust has benefited greatly from Satterberg’s supportive stance — Caroline was the first to reach out when the pandemic hit, schools closed, and the bottom dropped out for so many nonprofits. A grantee since 2018, we had developed the relationships between their staff and ours that build trust. 

A few months later when the murder of George Floyd rocked the nation and sparked a new chapter of its long climb out of racist roots, Satterberg was right there, asking its grantees again: what do you need? 

Being human together 

The answers led them to creating spaces “just to be human together,” and to Satterberg hosting professionally led Virtual Health, Healing & Caucusing meetings for both Black, Indigenous, People of Color and white-bodied cohorts. These gatherings offered a rare opportunity to begin the often-difficult conversations and healing processes as we engage in the national reckoning about systemic racism and its fall-out. 

The Satterberg Foundation states that it “strengthens our communities by promoting a just society and a sustainable environment. Doing this work deepens the interconnection of our family.” Founded in by 1990 by Virginia Satterberg Pigott Helsell out of her and her husband’s love for their family, it continues to be a well of inspiration for their children and grandchildren.  

Ben, Virginia’s step-grandson, is “grateful for the amount of family time it builds into my life.” A production sound mixer in Los Angeles, he looked forward to board meetings in Seattle before the pandemic, which allowed him to see his grandfather and other family members more frequently. The board is now composed of about 50% each of the two generations. 

Extended family 

The “family” in Satterberg’s mission statement is literal, but also resonates with the foundation’s vision of our human family. When Caroline started seven years ago, Sarah Walczyk was the only staff member, and the Satterberg family members did most of the work. Sarah is now executive director, with seven staff members and growing. Taking the long view of what organizations (as families) need in order to thrive, they focus on multiyear, core support grants. 

They also understand the benefits for everyone of being “process light” in their grants process. Originally they asked interested organizations to send a page, and decided on the basis of that whether to schedule a visit. One organization sent an idea the writer had while folding laundry and drinking wine, about growing a lemon tree in a trash can. “That candor was an oasis in a desert of really dry letters,” Ben said. They set up a visit and the idea went on to be a form of community garden. The process has evolved, but they continue to ”connect on a human level, not on a KPI level,” in Caroline’s words. 

Frank and open 

This “come as you are” attitude helps grantees be frank about the issues and open about lessons learned. “We show up as humans, imperfect, all trying to mitigate power imbalances and talk about what people and organizations need,” said Caroline. “It’s a mosaic, not a traditional, white-dominated way.  We’re centering and amplifying voices in our community, being an advocate through dollars or using one’s platform.” 

This leads to the question of how to vet nonprofits to ensure the funds have the strongest impact. The L.A. Trust was recently awarded another five-year core support grant. How does the Foundation make such decisions? “Through community,” says Caroline. They look at what the work is, who is doing it, and whether the work, staff and board are coming from the communities served. Site visits clarify whether there is alignment with Satterberg’s mission and values. 

Two of those values are moral courage and joy — qualities needed now more than ever. The L.A. Trust is grateful for the founders and stewards of the unique foundation; their comradeship helps sustain those values in our work.