Allies for Every Child

Child Development/Early Childhood Education:Recognized by the Centers for Disease Control as an effective child abuse and neglect prevention strategy, Allies provides comprehensive, trauma-informed, culturally responsive early education programming that is focused on social-emotional development and designed to prepare children and their families who face a myriad of stressors (e.g., poverty, child welfare system involvement, special needs/disabilities, etc.) for kindergarten and beyond. Allies serves over 300+ children (0-5) every year in nurturing environments at our state-of-the-art early education center, through our network of licensed home-based education providers, and in individual family homes, with priority placement for children in foster care and families experiencing homelessness. Allies maintains a low staff-to-child ratio in our inclusive, bilingual classrooms to ensure every child's healthy social-emotional, cognitive, and physical development. Allies' programs are data-driven and designed with the flexibility to be responsive to individual child and family needs, exceeding requirements set by funders and oversight bodies. And because Allies knows parent/caregiver engagement is imperative to children's long-term success, Allies nurtures relationships with families, partnering with them to support their children's healthy development through home visits, parent-teacher conferences, parenting groups, volunteer opportunities, etc. Children and families enrolled in Allies' early education programs also have access to extensive individualized supports, including early childhood mental health services, pediatric health consultations, disability screenings/advocacy, community events, etc. Allies is able to provide this level of quality by strategically layering and leveraging private dollars and government contracts (e.g., Early Head Start, California Department of Education, California Department of Social Services, etc.).

Comprehensive, Integrated Services:Because every child and family's circumstances are unique, Allies invests in providing an array of vital, multidisciplinary supports tailored to meet the individual needs of children and families across all programs. For example, because of Allies' extensive experience working with children who have experienced trauma, and the knowledge that birth through age five is a crucial window of brain development, Allies' team of social workers and therapists provide infant and early childhood mental health services to hundreds of children and their families each year to help heal the wounds of childhood trauma, helping children build trusting relationships with nurturing adults. Through this integrated Early Childhood Mental Health model, Allies provides trauma screenings and mental health services, including dyadic therapy, psychoeducation groups, mental health consultation, and client-centered advocacy. A focus of this work is helping caregivers regulate their emotional state so they can form secure attachment with their child and buffer the impact of trauma. Additionally, Allies provides children and families with semiannual disabilities screenings and year-round advocacy, pediatric health consultations, dental and vision screenings, nutrition education, parenting groups, etc., and we work closely with a robust network of community partner agencies such as UCLA TIES for Families, Upward Bound House, Safe Place for Youth, Venice Family Clinic, St. Joseph Center, and Miriam's House to ensure families are connected with stable housing, medical care, etc.As part of Allies continued focus on comprehensive services, in Fiscal Year 2022/23, the Allies Board of Directors approved exploring the development of a 14-unit residence for young adults who have been impacted by the foster care system and their children, which would be located on Allies' Wagner Street site adjacent to our existing early childhood education center.

Child Welfare: Since our inception, Allies' priority population has been and continues to be children who are involved with the child welfare system. Allies' Foster Care and Adoption program (partially funded by LA County Department of Children and Family Services, "DCFS"), works to break the devastating cycles associated with aging out of foster care (e.g., homelessness, poverty, incarceration, etc.) by providing affirming, nurturing, well-equipped families for children and youth in the foster care system, especially those who are disproportionately represented, including older children and teens, sibling sets, children of color, and LGBTQ+ youth. Allies recruits, trains, and certifies foster families who are driven by a desire to ensure that all children have a childhood that is equitable and just and who are committed to providing the family that each child needs. Allies' social workers and licensed clinicians provide extensive training and support to equip foster parents with the skills necessary to parent a child who has suffered the traumas associated with being in foster care, and to ensure parents are ready to embrace and support the children who need a home. Allies is committed to keeping families together whenever possible. Through our Family Preservation program and related child welfare programming, Allies protects at-risk children of all ages by partnering with families who have been referred to us by LA DCFS due to substantiated abuse or neglect, as well as other vulnerable families in the community. Families access a range of services aimed at healing and strengthening relationships to keep children in their birth/first home (when possible and in the child's best interest) and prevent the need for further child welfare system involvement. A recent review by LA DCFS showed that 98% of families who participated in Allies' Family Preservation program did not have repeated engagement with the child welfare system. These outcomes are a result of Allies' multidisciplinary team (overseen by licensed clinicians) addressing issues related to trauma, domestic violence, substance dependence, and parenting through in-home assessments and counseling, child and family mental health services, and intensive case management. Allies also works with families to build protective factors, characteristics proven to reduce the risk of child maltreatment, and offers family activities and community events that provide critical support by reducing social isolation, building resilience, and providing direct and concrete resources that reduce stress.