Seeking to reach more teens with TikTok grant

The L.A. Trust will pilot the TikTok Challenge with the Carson High School SAB.

The Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health was recently awarded a six-month, $21,000 grant from the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health and the Community Ambassador Network (CAN) Youth program to help reach students on the TikTok social media platform who may be suffering from emotional or mental distress.  In late 2021, TikTok rolled out new resources to support the well-being of its hundreds of millions of users, most of whom are teens and young adults. The resources include in-app videos that address “youth signs of struggling” and “youth steps to create a connection,” with an aim toward helping people who are dealing with mental health issues.

The CAN Youth Program TikTok Grant will be used by The L.A. Trust’s Student Advisory Boards (SAB) to spearhead a TikTok Challenge aimed at increasing mental health awareness and promotion among Los Angeles County youth. The L.A. Trust will pilot the TikTok Challenge with the Carson High School SAB.

“This is another great opportunity to engage our Student Advisory Boards and get our youth involved in creating a positive, healthy impact in their schools and their communities,” said Maryjane Puffer, executive director at The L.A. Trust. “The creativity of our students knows no bounds and we look forward to creating exciting new content - for students, by students.”

The L.A. Trust Student Advisory Boards are led by volunteer student health advocates who can hone their leadership skills by mentoring and training their peers. This social media investment aims to help educate teens on mental illness by developing and vetting a compilation of approved video messages for wellness, “how to help a friend;” “where to find support;” “you are not alone;” and “the teen line.”

Silent epidemic of mental illness

The mental health and well-being of students has gained greater urgency during the COVID-19 pandemic. Youth data from Mental Health America found that 60% of youth with major depression do not receive any mental health treatment. Youth experiencing mental health episodes continue to go untreated. Twenty-one percent of youth aged 13 to 18 live with mental illness severe enough to cause significant impairment in their daily lives. Three out of four children with mental health needs in California do not receive treatment.

Why TikTok

The pandemic has shown just how effective TikTok can be when trying to reach youth. Powered by a highly personalized content recommendation system, the TikTok video platform has broken download records, quickly becoming the go-to app for connecting with teenagers. Recently, TikTok rolled out some new restrictions on DMs for teens to make sure the app is safe and available for every age. The platform also gives teenagers a place to learn more about anxiety, sexuality, depression, and relationship abuse.

We at The L.A. Trust welcome the opportunity to incorporate a new creative channel to further reach our youth and help them communicate with each other on such an important topic as mental health. Stay tuned for more details on the upcoming TikTok campaigns.

The L.A. Trust welcomes three new board members

With the addition of three new board members, The L.A. Trust now has 15 members and is poised for success.

The L.A. Trust Board of Directors met earlier this year to appoint three new members. The new board members bring with them a deep understanding of health care management and health care technology. Elected in January of this year, the new board members include, Jerry C. Cheng, MD; Julie H. Park, MD; and Bobby H. Lee, founder of Project XV.   

“We are excited to have Jerry, Julie and Bobby join our exciting work as we seek to increase our reach and impact on the children of Los Angeles,” said Maryjane Puffer, Executive Director of The L.A. Trust. “They each bring unique talents, perspectives and connections to the table and are committed to a more healthy and equitable future for Los Angeles.”

Jerry C. Cheng, MD

Jerry Cheng, MD, has over 20 years of medical experience in Southern California. Dr. Cheng is currently a pediatric hematologist-oncologist at Kaiser Permanente serving as Chief of the Pediatrics Department and is Chair of the national Bone Marrow Transplant Section. Dr. Cheng is the lead physician at Kaiser Permanente’s Pediatric Infusion Center and is Co-Chair of a joint clinical and operations oversight committee in collaboration with Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and Kaiser Permanente Southern California. He also serves as an Assistant Professor at the Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine and University of California, Los Angeles Department of Pediatrics.

Bobby H. Lee

Bobby H. Lee is the founder of Project XV, an initiative to positively impact organizations and people in their financial well-being. Bobby has over 25 years of experience in the optimization of people, process, and information to improve performance in various industries. He has founded or participated in start-ups focusing on health information technology, electronic health records management service, and physician practice management. Prior to starting Project XV, Bobby was Co-Founder & Principal of eRECORDS, Inc., which delivered over $40M in government grants to private practice owners.

Julie Park, MD

Julie Park, MD, has been in practice for more than 20 years. She is Board Certified in Pediatrics and currently serves at Kaiser Permanente in Los Angeles. Prior to Kaiser Permanente she had a pediatric residency at Children's Hospital Los Angeles where she was honored with the Resident Award for Scientific Knowledge, Clinical Judgement, and Excellence in Human Relations. She received her medical degree from Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and her bachelor's degree from University of California Los Angeles.

With the addition of three new board members, The L.A. Trust now has 15 members and is poised for success. We look forward to working with all our board members as we head into our third decade of bridging health and education to achieve student wellness and putting care in student healthcare.

Y2Y Health Summit empowers youth as educators and students

A total of 90 students from 11 schools attended this year’s event, surpassing last year’s virtual Y2Y Health Summit.

Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health held the annual Youth-to-Youth (Y2Y) Health Summit last month on April 1, 2022 at the Los Angeles Trade Technical College. The free conference is led by youth, for youth, and offers workshops that focus on total health and wellness for the body, mind and soul. The event aims to elevate youth voices and give students an opening to connect with each other through health.

A total of 90 students from 11 schools attended this year’s event, surpassing last year’s virtual Y2Y Health Summit. “This is a huge accomplishment for being our first ever event since COVID quarantine,” said Robert Renteria, The L.A. Trust’s senior program manager who helped facilitate the gathering. This year’s Y2Y Health Summit was filled with students sharing information on sexual and reproductive health, HPV vaccination, substance use prevention, and mental health.

The Health Summit’s workshops focused on nutrition and mental health, reproductive rights, stress and mental health, substance abuse, oral health, and community building through creative arts and social justice.

We were proud to have Taaliyah Tucker at this year’s Y2Y Health Summit as the keynote speaker. Ms. Tucker is a former member of the “Wash Squad” Student Advisory Board (SAB) at Washington Preparatory High School. She graduated last year and today she attends Los Angeles Trade Tech where she is studying culinary arts.

When we first met Ms. Tucker she did not enjoy public speaking and could not imagine herself volunteering to speak to a group of students. However, through her work in the “Wash Squad” she became an excellent ally and mental health advocate for students. Ms. Tucker was also instrumental in our outreach to students focusing on substance use and tobacco prevention while working closely with Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Her message in the keynote was to “be your authentic self.”

We would like to thank everyone who helped make this event a success, including LAUSD staff, and members of The L.A. Trust’s Student Advisory Boards from the Belmont, Carson, Crenshaw, Elizabeth Learning Center, Fremont, Hollywood, Jefferson, Jordan, Locke, Monroe and Santee campuses.

The Y2Y Health Summit would not be possible without our generous partners including LA County Department of Mental Health, LA Trade Tech, Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, Dairy Council of California, Essential Access Health, Reach LA, Planned Parenthood Los Angeles, CalMHSA, LA Unified School District, F*ck Cancer, Student Health and Human Services, and the Wellness Networks of LAUSD.

Care Beyond the Clinic Walls focuses on equity and health care

Irma Rosa Viera spoke at the statewide conference, Care Beyond the Clinic Walls hosted by The California School-Based Health Alliance.

School based-health providers, educators, and advocates from across California met for the 2022 statewide school health conference, Care Beyond the Clinic Walls, on Friday, April 29. The California School-Based Health Alliance hosted the statewide conference, their first in-person event since 2019, at the University of Redlands’ Orton Center.

The two-day conference was an opportunity for student healthcare professionals from across the state to learn strategies on how to improve the performance of practicing professionals working to impact the health, safety and well-being of children and their communities. The conference offered a wide range of workshops including Peer Mentoring, Screening for Psychosocial Risks & Trauma, and Starting a School Based Health Center.

It was inspirational to see a lively group of almost 300 health care professionals come together and express their commitment to strengthening our California communities by providing equitable access to quality health care for students and their families.

Keynote speaker Dr. Dana L. Cunningham, a longtime school psychologist, researcher, and practitioner in the development of application of evidence-based practices for youth of color gave a powerful presentation on “Social Justice: Catalysts and Barriers to Progress.”  She spoke on the systematic (In)visible barriers that are impacting students of color and preventing them from thriving. Today, far too many students of color are faced with higher suspension and expulsion rates, offered fewer opportunities to enter gifted courses, and attend schools that must fight for scraps of funding and resources.

Dr. Cunningham emphasized the need for a paradigm shift in how we confront these issues. Communication and collaboration is key, and we must engage in difficult dialogues about race to move past our fears. Lean into the discomfort, identify systems of oppression, acknowledge what we don’t know, and speak about injustices when we see them.

To close out the conference, Children & Youth Behavioral Health Initiative (CYBHI) led a delightful brainstorming session and an insightful group activity on self-reflection.

Care Beyond the Clinic Walls offered something for everyone who cares about providing quality health care services to communities regardless of income. As we continue to live through COVID, it was a great experience to get out and see some old friends and meet new ones.  We are already looking forward to the 2023 conference and we hope to see you there!

New research highlights success of school-based health centers

Patients visit three times a year on average, showing they consider these clinics a trusted source of care.

The Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health has published a comprehensive new Data xChange report illustrating the impact of School Based Health Centers (SBHC) on students, families and community members in L.A. Unified’s disadvantaged areas. During the COVID pandemic, L.A. Unified’s full-service Wellness Centers have proven essential for providing access to preventive health and mental health care services where little to no resources existed before.

In the 2020-2021 school year, the number of clinics participating in the L.A. Trust Data xChange grew from 11 to 20. In the past six years, Wellness Centers and other LAUSD School-Based Health Centers have provided care to 188,666 unique patients through 615,031 visits. Patients visit three times a year on average, showing they consider these clinics a trusted source of care.

Wellness Centers are specifically designed to serve not just students, but their families and community members, too. These clinics serve a diverse population and are deeply committed to health equity —they turn away no one. Latinx patients made up the largest proportion of patients over the past six years. This reflects LAUSD’s student population —73% of students enrolled in LAUSD schools in the 2020-21 school year were Latinx. Wellness Centers provide intergenerational care to families and community members, while SBHCs primarily serve students ages 5-19.

Coping with COVID-19

Nine clinics remained opened throughout the pandemic and have served 32,000 patients with a total of 104,000 visits.  From March 2020 through December 2021, these nine clinics had over 4,000 COVID diagnoses and administered more than 6,000 COVID vaccines within their service network. St. John’s Community Health administered over 91,000 COVID vaccines outside their service network through their five school-based clinics. A UCLA analysis of our data showed that Wellness Centers continued to play a critical role during the pandemic-related school closures. Despite school closures, the proportion of visits for mental health and well-child exams increased, showing that clinics remained a critical access point for preventive and mental health care.

Read more about our 2022 Data xChange SBHC Impact Report

Attendance and Health

The Data xChange provided an in-depth analysis of attendance and student health data showing that visiting a school-based health center was associated with an increase in school attendance. On average, the proportion of full days present in school was declining for students before their first school-based health center visit. After the first visit to a school-based health center, the proportion of full days present increased over time. Students’ attendance increased by 5.4 school days per year following any type of visit to a school-based health center. Students’ attendance increased by 7 school days per year after a school-based health center visit for a mental health diagnosis.

Future insights

There are nearly 2,600 SBHCs in the nation and approximately 50 SBHCs (not including Well Being Centers) in the L.A. Unified School District. The near-term goal of the Data xChange is to provide a comprehensive view of all SBHCs across the district. The long-term goal of the L.A. Trust Data xChange is to be a model for SBHC data in the nation, enabling better research on the impact of student health on academic achievement —and better policy decisions at the local, state and federal levels.

As the first of its kind in the country, Data xChange can improve health and academic outcomes for all Los Angeles public school students. It is the first in the nation that combines student health and academic data on a regular basis. The Data xChange will add graduation rates and data about children experiencing homelessness, foster youth and English language learners beginning next year. This new data will provide health equity insights into special populations of youth who may lack access to care outside of the school setting.

The L.A. Trust recently received funds to help expand the scope of the Data xChange. Executive Director Maryjane Puffer shared that the organization, “has received significant funding for the next two years from the W.M Keck Foundation, Cedars-Sinai and Kaiser Permanente to expand our Data xChange to include mental health data and other remaining L.A Unified school-based health centers.”

About the Data xChange

The Data xChange is guided by an Expert Advisory Council that includes representatives from the following organizations: Children Now, Community Clinic Association of LA County, Community Coalition, Community Health Councils, First 5 Los Angeles, Inner City Struggle, Kaiser Permanente, L.A. Care Health Plan, LAUSD Student health & Human Services, LAUSD Office of Data & Accountability, Prevention Institute, The Children’s Health Partnership and The Advancement Project.

Read more about The L.A. Trust Data xChange 

Grant from Kaiser will drive mental health, Data xChange

Kaiser Permanente’s “transformational” grant will complete The L.A. Trust Data xChange and fund The L.A. Trust Student Mental Health Initiative.

A three-year, $750,000 grant from Kaiser Permanente will fund two key initiatives at The Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health: The L.A. Trust Student Mental Health Initiative and The L.A. Trust Data xChange.

“The size and the scope of this grant is transformational,” said Anna Baum, director of development and communications for The L.A. Trust. “It will allow us to expand our mental health outreach and advocacy, which is so needed, especially now,” Baum said.

“It will also allow us to complete work on our ground-breaking Data xChange, which gives decision-makers and providers crucial insights on the state of student health in Los Angeles.”

“Access to mental health continues to be a priority for Kaiser Permanente,” said Will Grice, senior vice president and area manager for Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center. “The integration of mental health and primary health underscores the fact that a healthy mind is just as important as a healthy body. Through this grant, we hope that students and their families can identify a need for quality mental health services early on and get the support they deserve.”

Mental health agenda

The grant will help expand student mental health awareness through The L.A. Trust’s Student Advisory Boards (SABs), peer advocacy groups at L.A. Unified campuses with Wellness Center clinics.

SAB members reach out and educate fellow students on key behavioral health topics, including healthy relationships, sexual and reproductive health, substance use and suicide prevention.

“The mental health of students is the priority now,” Baum said. “The Kaiser grant will support our entire youth mental health effort.”

Read more about our Student Mental Health Initiative

Data-driven decision-making

The second component of the Kaiser Permanente grant is finalizing The L.A. Trust Data xChange byintegratrating confidential, de-identified mental health and school medical data into the Data xChange platform.

The Data xChange will also establish community-informed reporting protocols tailored to student, school and community partners and distribute them twice a year.

The L.A. Trust will work with UCLA Pediatrics to release an issue brief highlighting key findings from the Data xChange and the impact of L.A. Unified Wellness Centers on student academic outcomes.

“This grant is very strategic,” Baum said. “It puts our two most important initiatives on overdrive and will have a lasting impact on student healthcare in the region.”

Read more about The L.A. Trust Data xChange 

Healing with art: The L.A. Trust brings ‘artivism’ to students

Workshops from The L.A. Trust explored healing through art, sleep hygiene and social media, journaling, poetry, art and music.

More than 100 Student Advisory Board members from L.A. Unified explored art and healing, sleep hygiene, and social media and wellness in a series of workshops informed by The Los Angeles Trust equity, diversity and inclusion initiative.

Dr. Nooshin Valizadeh, advisor for The L.A. Trust EDI initiative, led a four-part online art workshop series teaching students how to use art, poetry and writing as a form of healing and self-expression. One session featured art therapist Brandi Junious.

Dr. Valizadeh said, “In the final session, we had an open mic with students and attendees sharing their songs, poetry and artwork. It was a truly wonderful experience and really showed how holistic forms of healing and building community can create a huge difference for our youth.”

“The workshops helped students recognize that we are all artists and brought them into a place where they could write, paint and share music,” said Mackenzie Scott, program manager at The L.A. Trust.

Sleep well

Dr. Valizadeh helped create two workshop modules led by Mackenzie Scott and fellow Program Manager Esther Yepez — one on sleep hygiene and another on social media and wellness.

“Sleep hygiene is a part of self-care,” Scott said. “We were getting emails from our students (SAB members) at 1 or 2 o’clock in the morning.” The workshop taught students about circadian rhythm and the impact of rest on mood, behavior, thiningthinking and academic and athletic performance.

A second workshop focused on the social media-wellness connection and included tips on how to perform a “social media cleanse” to put the platforms in perspective.

Yepez said, “Many needed a break — 50% of teens admit feeling addicted to their phones.” Social media use can lead to depression, anxiety, poor body image and poor sleep. Ninety-seven percent of teens 13 to 17 are on social media and 45% are on it “almost constantly.”

The workshops were eye-openers for the presenters as well as the students. “All of the workshops showed us more creative ways to engage with youth,” said Scott.

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.

Learn more or donate

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.

‘We are in a moment’ — policy experts discuss converging student health crises

The L.A. Trust Student Health Policy Roundtable met for the first time last month to address healthcare issues affecting L.A. County students and their families.

An invited group of leaders in children’s health and student wellness assembled at the kickoff meeting of The L.A. Trust Student Health Policy Roundtable, online December 8, 2021. They discussed the urgent need to work together to find new solutions to the converging crises affecting student and community health. 

The purpose of the roundtable, funded by Cedars-Sinai, is to “establish a forum where cross-sector leaders can advance a shared policy agenda for school-based healthcare and student wellness in Los Angeles County,” said Gabrielle Tilley, senior policy manager for The L.A. Trust. 

Participants came from the public and private sectors, including the Children’s Partnership, the Community Clinic Association of Los Angeles County (CCALAC), Helpline Youth Counseling, Kaiser Permanente, L.A. County Departments of Public Health and Mental Health and Office of Education, Planned Parenthood Los Angeles (PPLA), L.A. Care and UCLA. Ana Perales and Toyomi Igus were present from The L.A. Trust board of directors. 

New opportunities

Maryjane Puffer, executive director of The L.A. Trust, said, “We are in a moment of great need.” She cited ongoing harm from the once-again surging coronavirus, numerous, interconnected health crises, and long-standing discrimination and racial disparities. 

Along with the challenges, Puffer noted major opportunities, including increased public awareness and political will, federal recovery funds, California’s budget surplus and new spending on youth, education and mental health, especially the $4 billion California Youth and Behavioral Health Initiative. 

Puffer said it was time to follow in the footsteps of The L.A. Trust’s original policy roundtable, which helped create a school healthcare model designed to integrate primary, behavioral and oral healthcare at L.A. Unified Wellness Centers. “There were five LAUSD Wellness Centers at the time (2008), but their efforts were not always uniform.” 

Puffer said The L.A. Trust Data xChange is a key component to finding policy solutions that will take a holistic approach to student and community health concerns and “make our schools a center of well-being.” 

Foundations

Tilley noted that 32 partners representing 21 organizations were interviewed prior to the inaugural meeting. Representatives included the Advancement Project, the Children’s Defense Fund, Children’s Law Center of California, CSHA, Children Now, the Community Coalition, CCLAC, Children’s Partnership, Essential Access Health, Inner City Struggle, PPLA, and L.A. Unified and the L.A. County Board of Education, Board of Supervisors, Office of Education and Department of Public Health.  

Common challenges cited included lack of collaboration and integration, labor shortages, school leadership turnover, student and parental consent for services, cultural competency, funding, referral and billing processes, punitive disciplinary policies and a need to focus on the “whole child.” 

Interviewees cited major opportunities for improvement, including major investments in schools and mental health, school-based health centers (SBHCs), community schools, peer advocacy, student and community engagement, reinvestment of policing dollars, universal free school meals, and early intervention with the 0-5 population. 

Participants listened as Taaliyah Tucker, a former member of The L.A. Trust Student Advisory Board at Washington Prep, discussed the challenges faced by her fellow students, including COVID, quarantine and mental health.  

“Mental health is really important right now,” she said. “Kids say they’re fine, but they’re not fine. You have to read the signs.” 

Discovering shared values 

Participants broke into eight groups to identify shared values. Issues raised included the importance of Black health, removing barriers to student healthcare and increasing power sharing and transparency. 

“We must make health education culturally competent,” one participant said. Another emphasized the importance of “adventure counseling,” noting that most prevention education is negative or punitive. “It has to be youth-centered or it doesn’t work.” 

A representative of the Los Angeles County Office of Education noted their focus on access for immigrant families, who have been hit especially hard by COVID. 

Puffer said improving the student healthcare referral systems and working with L.A. Unified’s Community of Schools Initiative launched in 2020 should be considered as top priorities. 

Next steps 

Tilley announced that the group will meet again on January 14, 2022. “We will work from the heart, listen actively and assume good intentions.” The main purpose of the body will be to build an agenda that focuses on two or three major policy goals. 

“Much like children’s health needs — the interests of this group are diverse and complex. Identifying two or three shared goals among us is no easy task, but after one meeting it’s clear this collaboration can be a powerful force for policy change,” Tilley said. “This is just the beginning.” 

Barriers and solutions discussed at Youth Mental Health Collaborative

Three out of four children and adolescents in California with mental health needs do not receive treatment. Of those who do, up to 80% receive it in a school setting.

Mental health specialists and staff members from L.A. Unified and The Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health met November 18, 2021, at the third virtual Youth Mental Health Collaborative. Their goal: Address the crisis in student mental health and remove barriers to youth mental healthcare for L.A. Unified students.

The Collaborative is part of a two-year investment by Ballmer Group to increase education and prevention efforts, and to identify and resolve obstacles to mental healthcare among L.A. Unified youth. Participants discussed challenges and solutions to the current crisis and heard subcommittee updates on funding, data, youth voice and the referral process. (See meeting agenda and PowerPoint.)

Tanya Mercado, organization facilitator for L.A. Unified School Mental Health, said, “There is a lot of funding for student mental health, but it’s complicated.” It will take several years to apply for and receive grants from the hundreds of millions of dollars allocated to address the youth mental health crisis. We must move from a “reactionary system to a proactive system,” she said.

Jaime Ducreux, LAUSD organization facilitator, said providers are currently “maxed out.” Other participants agreed there was a shortage of social workers, clinicians and psychologists. Marsha Ellis, director of programs for The L.A. Trust and co-chair of the meeting, emphasized, “We want to remove any barriers that may result in youth waiting for services.” With increased need comes the need for prioritizing those seeking services, several participants said.

The voice of youth

Robert Renteria and Noe Rivera, senior program managers with The L.A. Trust, discussed ways to enlist youth voice in the process. The L.A. Trust’s growing network of Student Advisory Boards (SABs) is one platform for youth to participate. The Community Ambassador Network (CAN) is another.

Funded by the California Mental Health Services Authority, CAN will activate 8 to 10 students at five six different L.A. Unified campuses, eventually expanding to 10 sites in 2022. The program started in May 2021 and will continue through June 2023. 

Student CAN ambassadors are being been trained in youth mental awareness, participating in two or three mental health awareness activities per school year, joining SAB engagement efforts and community needs assessments, and conducting outreach to peers, families and teachers in the school community.

“If you give students the data, they know how to communicate it to their peers,” said Renteria. He and other members of The L.A. Trust staff have been working with students and L.A. Unified staff on campaigns this fall, covering topics like Suicide Prevention Awareness, Healthy Relationships and Self-Care.

Referral and treatment

Aimee Phillips from L.A. Unified School Mental Health (SMH) discussed clinic services and the referral process. The district provides both individual and family therapy for children and students ages 2 and older who are uninsured or covered by Medi-Cal.

Evidence-based practices focus on family stress, dysfunction or poor communication; depression and anxiety; trauma; and disruptive behaviors. Students who are likely to meet any diagnosis listed in the DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition) can avail themselves of SMH clinic services, except for certain diagnoses such as autism. A referral to L.A. Unified School Mental Health does not replace the need to follow district procedures regarding child abuse or potentially suicidal students, Phillips added.

Addressing student mental health issues is often a family matter. SMH is actively recruiting parents and caregivers in Parent Child Interactive Therapy (PCIT) to improve family relationships and address severe behavior problems.

Most affected

According to the report, “Every Young Heart and Mind: Schools as Centers of Wellness”, 1 in 6 high school students in California has considered suicide in the past year, and 1 in 3 report feeling chronically sad.

“Some students fare even worse,” the report says. “LGBTQ students experience victimization at school, persistent sadness and suicide ideation at more than twice the rate of their non-LGBTQ peers. Students of color disproportionately carry to school the burden of poverty, racism and discrimination, parental incarceration, exposure to violence and intergenerational trauma.”

“We must address this crisis,” Maryjane Puffer, executive director of The L.A. Trust. “Our students and communities are not getting the mental health support they need. That’s what makes L.A. Trust Student Mental Health Initiative and the work of our collaborative partners so important.”

The need is urgent

Attendees were told L.A. Unified Student and Family Wellness Hotline at (213) 241-3840 received 27,000 calls in the first month following students’ return to school. In a recent L.A. Barometer Survey — reported in the paper School-Age Children’s Wellbeing and School-Related Needs in Los Angeles County (Dudovitz et al.) — 62% of L.A. County parents cited the need for mental health supports – the share was higher in communities of color.

According to research cited by L.A. Unified School Mental Health, “21% of youth ages 13-18 have a mental illness that causes significant impairment in their daily life, and half of all mental illnesses begin by age 14. In California, three out of four children with mental health needs do not receive treatment despite having health care coverage. Of those receiving care, up to 80% receive it in a school setting.”

California school-based health convention builds bridges

Dr. Janine Jones discussed the “silent struggle” experienced by many students of color at the California School Health Conference November 3. 

Equity was topic one as more than 350 healthcare providers, educators and policymakers met online November 2-4, 2021, at the California School Health Conference hosted by the California School-Based Health Alliance, co-hosted by REL West and sponsored by The L.A. Trust and others.  

Keynotes and workshops focused on the theme “Building Bridges to Healthy and Resilient Communities.” Esther Yepez, program manager for The L.A. Trust, appeared on the “Bite Back” panel, examining oral health challenges and solutions. 

CSHA Board President Sergio Morales opened the virtual event, saying the past months “have tested our resilience” and contributed to a mental health crisis among students. He cited reports showing a 58% decrease in pediatrician visits, a 25% increase in suicidal ideation and the loss of five months of learning by students. 

Morales said school-based healthcare can play a crucial role in building bridges to community, and he thanked healthcare providers and educators for helping children and youth by facilitating vaccinations, mental and oral healthcare, hot meals and PPE during the pandemic. 

Healing communities 

“We are sitting between trauma and transformation,” said opening keynote speaker Dr. Shawn Ginwright, professor of education at San Francisco State. He challenged the concept of PTSD as it is often applied, saying that people of color are experiencing “a persistent traumatic environment”; he said calling it a disorder places the onus on the person rather than the system.  

“People can’t be well if the community is not.” He called for “healing-centered engagement, a nonclinical, strength-based approach that advances a holistic view of healing and recenters culture and identity as a central feature in well-being.” 

Dr. Janine Jones, Wednesday’s keynote speaker, said “culture is key” to understanding Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). Jones, who is professor and associate dean for academic affairs in the College of Education at the University of Washington, said that in addition to the previously recognized Adverse Childhood Experiences, educators and healthcare providers must also be aware of Adverse Community Experiences driven by implicit bias, cultural blind spots and microaggressions. 

She said microaggressions are often subtle and unintentional but “they are like tiny cuts” that make the subject feel powerless. Jones said microaggressions are fueled by stereotypes. “It’s a silent struggle” and students may respond with isolation, avoidance, apathy or anxiety. When they do, they are sending out an SOS that adults should respond by listening to the student and examining unconscious, implicit bias in the environment and the system. 

Community trauma  

Closing keynote speaker Dr. Howard Pinderhughes, professor and chair of the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California San Francisco, recounted his personal experience growing up in the Roxbury section of Boston. 

“Roxbury was a mixed-raced, mixed income neighborhood until the early ’60s,” Pinderhughes said. Real-estate “blockbusting” and racial uprisings in 1967 and 1968 accelerated the exit of white and middle-income residents and “the community became almost entirely poor.” He experienced the trauma of seeing a neighbor’s body in a black plastic bag lying in the street. Later, a young Black girl killed in a nearby park. “It became clear the neighborhood was not safe.” By the early ’90s, Roxbury had become the youth murder capital of the world. 

Similar trauma — defunded infrastructure, capital flight, concentrated poverty and violence — were experienced in neighborhoods across the country. When Pinderhughes moved to the Bay Area, he witnessed community trauma in East and West Oakland, Richmond and the Western Addition of San Francisco. 

The killing of 23-month old Baby Hiram in West Oakland caused the community to be “wracked with despair, worry and trauma,” Pinderhughes said. “I remember thinking about the impact – not just on the family but on the community.” 

He said Black and Hispanic youth have developed rituals to deal with the violent death around them. “As soon as there is a shooting death the altars and the (memorial) T-shirts come out.” Kids wear their prom suits to funerals “because they aren’t sure they’ll live to go to prom.” 

“How did we get here?” 

Pinderhughes listed root causes (poverty, inequality, racism, sexism, oppression and heteronormativity), structural factors (economic, political, social and institutional) and environmental factors (neighborhood, family and peer group).  

Pinderhughes advocated a two-track approach to address and prevent community trauma. He said root causes must be faced, but communities must strengthen resilience at the same time. 

“Let’s change the conditions but let’s be real,” he said. “Let’s develop safer public spaces, reclaim our communities and develop bridge housing during replacement of public housing.” He called for strategies including restorative justice, healing circles, workforce development and strategies that resist the forces of gentrifications, which he called a “form of structural violence.” 

He also said communities should change the narrative about themselves and the place they live: First by organizing regular positive activities and second by giving voice and power to community members in changing structural and environmental factors. He cited one example where a school district enrolled students to help in redesigning and restructuring schools. Another example was building a skate park on Lakota land that not only became a gathering place for youth but a sacred space for the community. The most successful programs were intergenerational and some were multicultural, like a group that brought Black and Hispanic men together. 

State of the Alliance 

Tracy Mendez, executive director of the CSHA, wrapped up the event by thanking the hundreds of attendees from across California and beyond and reviewing key conference takeaways. 

Mendez wore a “Black Lives Matter” tee and said those words could just be a slogan but served to remind her and others that she is accountable. “We need as many reminders as possible.” 

“School-based health centers are a great model of care,” Mendez said. “We should have one in every school” and CSHA is pushing for 500 SBHCs in California by the end of the decade. 

Mendez announced the Student Health Index, California’s first comprehensive statewide analysis to identify the counties, districts and schools where new SBHCs will have the greatest impact on student health and healthcare equity. She also cited the California Student Mental Health Implementation Guide, which CSHA helped develop. 

Grant from W.M. Keck Foundation accelerates Data xChange

A grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation will expand The L.A. Trust Data xChange, connecting health and academic achievement data. 

A two-year, $300,000 grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation is supporting the full build-out of The L.A. Trust Data xChange, a first-in-the-nation data analytics platform that joins confidential and anonymized student health and academic data to advance wellness and success. 

The investment will help The Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health identify health equity deficits and emerging public health concerns; leverage data to pioneer performance and quality improvement practices; direct local-control funding; and design prevention and education programs to meet student and community needs. 

“This generous grant helps us address two critical issues,” said Maryjane Puffer, executive director of The L.A. Trust. “The first is healthcare inequities. The second is the mental well-being of our students. Both of these issues are especially urgent as we recover from the pandemic.” 

Expanding scope  

During the next two years, The L.A. Trust will incorporate primary care and mental health records from additional providers as well as students’ academic, attendance and other health services data from Los Angeles Unified. Community and expert opinion will be integrated into the technological build-out, and communication protocols will be established.  

The grant will support the work of newly hired senior data and research analyst Alex Zepeda and continue the work of Data xChange business lead Patty Anton (principal at Anton Consulting) and her database architect team. 

The new funding will help the Data xChange incorporate clinical records from four newly opened Wellness Centers, community-based mental health providers serving school campuses, and care provided directly by Los Angeles Unified. The Data xChange will also work with specialists to help standardize data elements for mental health records and provide reports to decision-makers. 

“We are grateful to the W.M. Keck Foundation for taking The L.A. Trust Data xChange to the next level,” said Anna Baum, director of development and communications. “Their decision to invest in this important platform demonstrates real vision and commitment to the health of our students and communities.” 

Q&A with Joe Sanberg: A journey from Wall Street to activism

Joe Sanberg, co-founder of Aspiration, went from Wall Street to activism and funded The L.A. Trust COVID-19 Youth Task Force this summer.

Joe Sanberg is an entrepreneur, philanthropist and activist. After graduating from Harvard, he became a Wall Street analyst but left because he disliked working in an industry that “totally divorced service from profit.” He invested in start-ups like the meal delivery service Blue Apron. In 2013 he co-founded Aspiration, Inc., a socially conscious financial services company. Sanberg was instrumental in establishing the California Earned Income Tax Credit in 2015 and founded CalEITC4Me, one of the state’s largest anti-poverty programs. Introduced to The L.A. Trust by Emily Kane of Ethos Giving, he funded the COVID-19 Youth Task Force, implemented by The L.A. Trust, L.A. Unified, and the UCLA Department of Community Health Science, Fielding School of Public Health. 

Q. You grew up in Southern California, attended Harvard and worked as a Wall Street analyst. What prompted you to become a socially conscious investor and anti-poverty activist? 

A. The values that my mom instilled in me as a young person. And my brother telling me, when I was 29, that my 18-year-old self wouldn’t like the person that I had become. The fact that I had become disconnected from my core values sparked me to reconnect with the person my mom raised me to be and with what I believe my purpose in this world is. 

Q. COVID-19 struck communities of color especially hard. How do healthcare, education, income inequality and racism contribute to poor health outcomes? 

A. Most of all, what the Covid-19 pandemic showed us is that the lie we’ve been told that we, as a nation, can’t afford to do transformational things has always been a lie. We can afford to do all the things we need to do to end poverty, provide healthcare and root out systemic racism from our institutions, we just lack the political will to do so. We saw that when it came to rescuing corporations, there was no scarcity of trillions of dollars worth of bailouts for them, which is yet another reminder that the United States has what it needs to create financial security, justice and fairness for all its citizens. This is the fourth major instance within a century through which we’ve been reminded that there’s no scarcity of resources in this country. We were reminded when the economy was bailed out after the market crash in the early part of the 20th century. We were reminded when we spent trillions of dollars on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We were reminded when the government bailed out Wall Street banks during the 2008 financial crisis. And we were reminded yet again during the Covid-19 pandemic that the reason we are not providing justice, fairness and economic security for all is not because we can’t afford to do so, it’s because the government has chosen not to do so. 

Q. We mentioned Harvard and Wall Street, but you were raised by a single mom in very modest circumstances. Why are so many Americans trapped in intergenerational poverty? 

A. So many Americans are trapped in intergenerational poverty because of our system. Our system is designed to trap people in poverty, not help them get out of it. Our system and our tax code are designed to ensconce wealth in the hands of those who already have it, which definitionally, also ensconces the legacies of racism, misogyny and slavery that go back to our nation’s founding. Our country was founded with slavery encoded into its laws; with the inability of women to vote and own property. Our tax code is prejudiced in favor of legacy wealth. Our system makes concrete the very injustices that go back to our nation’s founding. 

Q. You’ve said you quit Wall Street because it “divorced service from profit.” How have you managed to link service and profit as an investor?  

A. I don’t think of myself as an investor; I think of myself as an entrepreneur and business builder. And as an entrepreneur, I create organizations whose success is connected to the value they deliver to their stakeholders, their customers, their employees and their communities. How do we remarry profit and purpose? There’s nothing wrong with making money as long as you’re delivering value to people. What’s gone wrong on Wall Street is that profit has become its own purpose. 

Q. In addition to income inequality, you’re passionate about the environment. This is really a social justice issue, since people of color live in communities subjected to the worst pollution. How do we work for environmental justice? 

A. We work for environmental justice by innovating in both the public and private sectors and by applying pressure on businesses and government to radically reduce carbon emissions here in the United States and around the world. Solving the climate crisis is going to require innovation -- the creation of new things that perform in new ways. But it’s also going to require changing behaviors we are accustomed to, like reducing how much we drive gasoline-powered vehicles and how much fossil fuels we burn to create energy. We need the next generation to create new companies and organizations that do not plunder the planet for profit but utilize sustainable resources. We need you! And remember, there is no environmental justice without racial and economic justice, and there’s no racial and economic justice without environmental justice. The communities that are hardest hit by injustices are those that have the least power. Injustice is about a power imbalance, and so we must empower young people to join together and use their voices and their resources to demand change.  

Q. If you could flip a switch and just change one big thing, what would it be? 

A. That every person would have free healthcare. 

Q. You’re only 42. What do you want to do with the rest of your life? What would you like your legacy to be? 

A. I’d like my legacy to be that I did everything I possibly could, as sincerely and effectively as I could, with my God-given time and abilities, to end poverty. I want to be able to look back on my life and know that there was nothing I could have done that I didn't do. 

Student health community addresses ‘the new normal’ under COVID

Participants weighed in on what strategies might be most effective in connecting students to healthcare services in the coming year. 

More than 60 members of the Los Angeles student health community — including healthcare providers, Healthy Start coordinators, Los Angeles Unified organization facilitators and board members and staff from The L.A. Trust — discussed student health in “the new normal” of COVID-19 at the Wellness Network Learning Collaborative October 14, 2021 online.

Maryjane Puffer, executive director of The Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health, opened the meeting with a definition of health equity adapted by from a paper from Paula Braveman of UC San Francisco: “Health equity means everyone has a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as possible.”

Victor Luna, organization facilitator for L.A. Unified Student Health and Human Services, conducted the meeting’s ice-breaking exercise and introduced Dr. Ron Tanimura, LAUSD director of Student Medical Services & Medi-Cal Programs.  

Tanimura said the district’s goal in during the ongoing pandemic was “to keep schools as open as normal as possible.” He announced new vaccination and testing deadlines for “all those crossing our threshold more than once a week,” including students. He noted that current protocols had resulted in a “very low” positivity rate of less than 0.12% among the 100,000 tested by the district each week. Tanimura also announced that all L.A. Unified Student Medical Services and Medi-Cal Programs would be overseen by Los Angeles Medical Director Smita Malhotra, a well-known pediatrician and author.

Tested new tool

Luna and Alex Zepeda, senior data and research analyst for The L.A. Trust, shared new results from the School-Based Health Center Integration Tool developed by Dr. Kenny Farenchak in conjunction with The L.A. Trust, L.A. Unified and other partners. It examines areas like outreach, collaboration and integration, rating factors such as,“SBHC conducts active outreach” and “SBHC successfully enrolls students (identified in screenings) in services.” Zepeda and Luna showed pilot test results from several SBHCs, and participants discussed how to use the tool in breakout rooms. Puffer said, “This tool is tested and validated and will support all our work together.” 

Gloria Velasquez, organization facilitator for L.A. Unified, said the great challenge facing the district’s student healthcare system was getting students referred to the right provider. She referenced a Student Health and Human Services Resource Guide with comprehensive listings, including hotlines and direct contacts for site leaders.

Results from The L.A. Trust Data xChange showed that L.A. Unified’s Wellness Centers conducted 57,406 encounters with 22,018 patients during 2020-2021, just 2% fewer than the previous academic year, even though many clinics were closed and most students were not on campus. The Data xChange numbers included detailed data by Wellness Center, though direct comparisons between sites are difficult  due to different pandemic schedules, reporting methods and populations. “These numbers demonstrate the vital resource that Wellness Centers represent to students and families during this time of crisis,” Puffer said.

Student mental health

The mental health and well-being of students has gained greater urgency during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Data xChange reported a total of 13,256 student and 2,218 non-student mental health encounters during 2020-2021 at the seven Wellness Centers providing data to LAUSD School Mental Health. “The need to collect comprehensive mental health data is critical,” Puffer noted. “This is just a start.”

Los Angeles Unified is spending $170 million to provide more mental health counselors at schools to help students process the anxiety and trauma of the past year, the district has announced. Students with learning differences and disabilities will benefit from a separate $140 million investment, which will allow staff to quickly update Individualized Education Programs and provide more direct services to students.

Youth are actively participating as mental health advocates. Student Advisory Board members and Adult Allies are collaborating with staff from The L.A. Trust,  Department of Mental Health Community Ambassador Network (CAN), and L.A. Unified on monthly social media events focused on mental health topics, including suicide prevention (September) and healthy relationships (October).

Building bridges at CSHA

Maryjane Puffer provided an overview of The L.A. Trust, including a new organization chart showing eight new staff members, an update on The L.A. Student Mental Health Initiative and several major new grants.

She announced this year’s School Health Conference sponsored by the California School-Based Health Alliance — “Building Bridges to Healthy and Resilient Communities” — which will be held online November 2-4. Members of The L.A. Trust community can email info@thelatrust.org for a promotion code reducing the cost of registration.

Puffer ended her update by reminding participants that CVS had donated a large quantity of hand sanitizers and wipes to L.A. Unified for use by Wellness Centers and others. Complete this form to obtain needed supplies.

The L.A. Trust adds eight new staff for engagement, data and policy

New team members (back row from left): Ifrah Moalin, Gabby Tilley, Taylour Johnson, Noe Rivera, Jasmine Cisneros and Alex Zepeda. Front: Casey Balverde and Katie Melara. 

The Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health has onboarded eight new team members, expanding its scope and nearly doubling its full-time staff to 20. 

“This is the biggest growth initiative in The L.A. Trust's 20-year history,” noted Board President Will Grice of Kaiser Permanente. “These new team members will allow The L.A. Trust to expand policy development, advocacy, prevention education and student engagement.” 

The new team members are Casey Balverde, data and research analyst; Jasmine Cisneros, program associate; Taylour Johnson, program associate; Katie Melara, program coordinator; Ifrah Moalin, health educator; Noe Rivera, senior program manager, mental health; Gabby Tilley, senior policy manager; and Alex Zepeda, senior data and research analyst (previously announced).  

“This is a trained and talented team,” noted Executive Director Maryjane Puffer. Balverde is pursuing her doctorate in public health and worked as a health educator for L.A. County Department of Public Health. Rivera has a master’s degree in applied psychology and more than eight years of experience in behavioral health services. Moalin is an experienced health educator with a degree in public health from Cal State Northridge. Tilley is a former policy advocate for Nourish California with a master’s degree in public policy from USC.

Half of the new team members will serve on The L.A. Trust’s student engagement team: Cisneros will serve as an Adult Ally for Student Advisory Boards at Jordan and Locke High Schools; Johnson will assist SABs at Santee and Carson; Melara will serve the SABs at Elizabeth Learning Center and Garfield High; and Ifrah Moalin will assist student health advocates on the Monroe High campus. They join Program Manager Mackenzie Scott, Adult Ally serving Crenshaw and Washington Prep; Robert Renteria, senior program manager for student engagement and physical health; and Program Manager Esther Yepez, Adult Ally serving Belmont High, on the student engagement team. 

“These investments in student engagement, research and policy mean The L.A. Trust will impact more students, implement more programs and impact policy in new and powerful ways,” Puffer said. “I have never been more excited about the future of The L.A. Trust and the prospects for improving student healthcare in Los Angeles.” 

Salute to Student Health moves audience, raises awareness

Former L.A. Trust Student Advisory Board member Irma Rosa Viera brought many to tears as she shared, “broken bits and all,” at The L.A. Trust Salute to Student Health. 

More than 200 healthcare providers, educators and civic leaders met at Vibiana in downtown Los Angeles and online September 30 at The L.A. Trust Salute to Student Health. The gala raised awareness and funds for student health and honored former L.A. Unified Superintendent Austin Beutner and Community Health Director Dr. Margaret Lynn Yonekura of Dignity Health-California Hospital Medical Center (see story). 

Will Grice of Kaiser Permanente, board president of The Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health, noted that “we meet at a difficult time. But as hard as this pandemic has been on our healthcare workers and educators, it has been even tougher on our children.” Grice said, “The L.A. Trust is the backbone organization that brings all the pieces and all the players together” for student health, and introduced Executive Director Maryjane Puffer, whom he called “the backbone of The L.A. Trust.” 

Puffer acknowledged the pandemic’s toll. “Schools were closed, clinics were shuttered, hospitals were overwhelmed and there were long lines at food banks. Twenty-five thousand of our fellow Angelenos died.” She said many nonprofits, including The L.A. Trust, “faced an existential crisis.” 

“We persevered,” she said, “knowing the kids needed us more than ever.” She said The L.A. Trust was “stronger than before the pandemic hit,” and noted The L.A. Trust had just welcomed eight new employees. “In the comings months we will impact more students and families, and deliver more policy and programs, than ever before.”   

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Moving remarks 

Rosario Rico, health analyst for L.A. County Public Health and former associate program director at The L.A. Trust, introduced the night’s featured guest speaker, Irma Rosa Viera, an undergraduate at Cal State Northridge and a former member of The L.A. Trust Student Advisory Board at Elizabeth Learning Center. 

Rosa Viera said she had “wanted to seem cool, calm and collected” in her remarks, but her work as a Student Advisory Board member had taught her something more important — how to “feel unapologetically me, broken bits and all.”  

Rosa Viera then held the audience rapt when she discussed the personal toll COVID-19 had taken on her community, her family and herself. 

“On June 15, 2020, I saw my older brother Oscar for the last time as he gasped for air while forcing his body to go to the hospital,” she said. “I just knew he wasn’t coming back.” She said the months that followed his death from COVID have been hard.  

“The version of me that finds herself feeling lonely and endlessly crying knows that I have a support system,” she said. “Through learning about the services offered at our Wellness Center in high school, I have been able to use that knowledge and seek therapy, join support groups and understand my grieving process. I have learned that even when times are tough, we are tougher.” 

Her emotional remarks brought some to tears and prompted a standing ovation.  

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Bidding for good 

Sponsors for the event included Presenting Sponsor, John and Louise Bryson; Platinum Sponsors, The Anthony & Jeanne Pritkzer Family Foundation and the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation; and Gold Sponsors, Kaiser Permanente, Goldman Sachs, and Dr. Margaret Lynn Yonekura. 

Silver Sponsors were the California Community Foundation, Delta Dental, William Grice, Jimmy Iovine, L.A. Care, Tangram Interiors, and The Winebaum Family Foundation; and Bronze Sponsors, Anthem Blue Cross, Big Smiles, Jordan B. Keville of Davis Wright Tremain, Drew Hodgson, Health Net and Liberty Dental.  

The evening included a Silent Auction and an entertaining Live Auction featuring trips to Africa, Hawaii and Mexico. “Fund-a-need” pledges helped raise thousands of dollars for The L.A. Trust’s student engagement programs. Moved by the evening’s program, Dr. Robert Ross of the California Endowment pledged $10,000. 

“We are very grateful for all who came and all who gave,” said Anna Baum, director of development and communications for The L.A. Trust. “Thanks to our sponsors, attendees and bidders, we raised more than $200,000 to fund our programs in the coming year. More important, we brought attention to the need for student healthcare. 

“I am especially proud of Irma and the former Student Advisory Board members in our video, who showed everyone what The L.A. Trust mission is all about.”

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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.”   

Vaccination efforts slow Delta wave of coronavirus in Southland

The L.A. Trust visited St. John’s busy vaccination operation in South L.A. Shown: CMO Dr. Anitha Mullangi (center) and Regional Medical Directors Dr. Sushant Bandarpalle and Dr. Matthew Welzenbach. 

   

Los Angeles County appears to be turning the corner on the Delta wave of COVID-19, thanks to increased vaccinations, greater testing and a return to physical distancing and mask wearing.  

“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.”   

Puffer said vaccine awareness will be more important now than ever. Those opposed or reluctant to getting the COVID-19 vaccine include the one of three L.A. County residents ages 12-17 who remain completely unvaccinated (L.A. County Department of Public Health, 9/9/2021).  

Listening to youth 

The L.A. Trust COVID-19 Youth Task Force, comprised of students from 16 Los Angeles Unified Hight Schools, has been working since March to educate themselves, their peers and their communities about the dangers of COVID-19 and the importance of getting vaccinated.  

The task force, funded by Aspiration co-founder Joe Sanberg, hit all its goals, educating hundreds of peers and community members and making thousands of impressions online. 

“These young people were true health activists,” said Esther Yepez, program manager for The L.A. Trust. “They not only became knowledgeable about the complex issues involved, they also learned how to effectively present this information and advocate for vaccination with their peers and communities.” 

Task force members were positive about the experience. One said they “gained confidence and skills in public data analysis, researching and community outreach.”  Another said they had learned “patience by getting in debates and struggling to get my point across.”  

Universal vaccination 

The L.A. Trust joined the L.A. County Department of Public Health, the Public Health Institute and 12 clinics and agencies to increase vaccinations and vaccine awareness as part of the We Vaccinate L.A. County campaign this summer. 

“Our school- and community-based clinics have been doing heroic work,” Puffer said. “St. John’s Well Child & Family Centers have administered more than 300,000 COVID shots alone — that’s just incredible.”  

Other participating providers are Eisner Pediatric and Family Center, LAUSD Wellness Programs, Northeast Valley Health Corporation, South Bay Family Center, Social Model Recovery Systems, South Central Family Health Center, T.H.E. Clinic, UMMA Community Clinic, Valley Community  Healthcare, ViaCare and Watts Healthcare Corporation. 

The L.A. Trust supported the community campaign with its own multilingual social media effort, reaching tens of thousands of L.A. County residents.  

L.A. Unified mandate 

“Getting to universal vaccination is going to require a lot of hard work, education, understanding and love,” Puffer said. “Teamwork, like we’ve seen in this effort, is critical.”  

School board member Dr. George J. McKenna III noted tha vaccine mandates are nothing new. “Mandatory immunizations for eligible students protect the entire Los Angeles Unified family. I’m old enough to remember when polio crippled some of my classmates. In fact, school children received the first, life-saving polio vaccination in 1954. Keep in mind that nationwide, more than 250,000 children (about half the population of Wyoming) were diagnosed with COVID-19 last week.”  

“The science is clear – vaccinations are an essential part of protection against COVID-19,” Interim Superintendent Megan K. Reilly said. “The COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective, and requiring eligible students to be vaccinated is the strongest way to protect our school community.” 

To learn more, find a vaccination site near you and make an appointment, visit VaccinateLACounty.com (English) or VacunateLosAngeles.com (Spanish). You can also call 833-540-0473 for help finding an appointment, connecting to free transportation or scheduling a home visit if you are homebound. Vaccinations are free and open to eligible residents and workers regardless of immigration status.