Every year, Children’s Institute (CII) helps 30,000 children and families across Los Angeles achieve emotional well-being and educational success, which build pathways to lifelong health and economic mobility. CII offers early education, counseling services, parenting support, convening spaces and enrichment programs in the community, at its centers, in K-12 schools, and at three neighborhood hub sites in Watts, Echo Park and Long Beach. CII has offered services in Los Angeles since 1906, providing life changing resources to tens of thousands of children and their families.
In 2022 CII opened its newest location, a Frank Gehry-designed community hub in Watts. CII has served Watts since 2007, but this new site is a place for families and children to access the full range of services that CII provides.
The 20,000-square-foot campus is a permanent investment in and commitment to Watts, an architectural landmark and a vital resource for families and community partners.
CII has co-located two important partners: the Watts Gang Task Force, which has brokered peace in the community for 15 years, and LAPD’s Community Safety Partnership, a nationally recognized model for relationship-based policing.
Neighbors, local nonprofits and elected officials have all used the campus for events, workshops and services. CII wants the community to know that this is their place.
EDUCATIONAL SUCCESS
In addition to the new Watts Campus, CII operates nine Head Start centers in Watts— including in all the housing developments—and seven additional centers throughout South LA. CII believes that every family should have access to high-quality education, and offers year-round early childhood education programs with integrated and comprehensive social supports for children and their families.
CII also offers extensive home visitation services for children zero to five. Home visitors meet with families weekly to offer child development education. Twice a month, parents bring their children to the Watts Campus to socialize with one another and create networks of support.
In addition, staff members work closely with caregivers to help them achieve their education and career goals, access community resources and strengthen family functioning.
EMOTIONAL WELLBEING
You won’t see any signs in the Watts building for “therapy,” because every space is multi-purpose and CII wants to remove the stigma around receiving behavioral health services that persists in our communities. People may come to CII for a resume writing workshop, a music lesson, or a counseling session, which creates a very welcoming and safe environment.
CII’s team of professionals—many of whom live in the same South LA neighborhoods it serves—help to navigate and reduce symptoms of traumatic stress, improve coping skills and build resilience. CII envisions a comprehensive, family-centered behavioral health system that is culturally responsive for the children and families of Watts.
ECONOMIC MOBILITY
Children who grow up in poverty are significantly more likely to remain in poverty as adults, and to experience lifelong negative effects to health, wellness, educational attainment and brain development. Children’s Institute works with communities where decades of underinvestment and discriminatory policies perpetuate poverty and limit opportunities, and we intervene at all the critical developmental moments in people’s lives, from birth to adulthood.
Watts is a place where many promises have been made but few have been kept. Choosing the corner of 102nd and Success for this beautiful new site is CII’s way of saying that it keeps its commitments and is here to stay.
Learn more at childrensinstitute.org.
