Neighborhood Leadership Groups or NLGs enhance leadership skills to build collective power to address inequities and strengthen protective factors such as: parental resilience, social connections, linkage to concrete support in times of need, knowledge enhancement of parenting and child development, and promotion of social emotional well-being of children. Community members participating in NLGs have a greater sense of belonging in their community and strengthened leadership abilities to advocate for sustainable change.

Our team of Child Development Specialists facilitate playgroups with parents and caregivers with children ages ages 0-5 by implementing the Trauma Resilient Parent Training/The Play Strong Model (TRPT). The model is a parenting education framework for strengthening parent-child attachment, building calm emotional regulation, reducing parental stress, and developing child and family resilience. Playgroups encourage and reinforce parental resilience, parent-child relationships, and social-emotional regulation using a neurorelational approach.

Our Community Ambassador Network was created as part of LA County’s Department of Mental Health community’s efforts to prevent and slow the spread of COVID-19. Ambassadors live in the communities they serve and are trusted individuals with first-hand knowledge of the challenges their communities face. The CAN team strengthens the advocacy of communities to access social services and resources. CAN Ambassadors increase access to COVID-19 vaccines and provide accurate and reliable information to communities disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. At a grassroots level, they address vaccine inequities and reduce access barriers by supporting community members with making appointments, providing transportation to vaccination sites, and identifying local testing sites.