Allies For Every Child Inc

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 Upward Bound House, Safe Place for Youth, Good Shepherd Shelter, Venice Family Clinic, St. Joseph Center, Harvest Home, Claris Health, A Child's Dream, and Miriam's House to ensure families are connected with stable housing, medical care, etc. Transitional Age Youth Family Residential Program:Allies recognizes the severe shortage of homelessness services specifically designed for unhoused families, particularly those led by former foster youth with young children. During FY23/24, Allies secured land use entitlements from the City of Los Angeles to build 14 family apartments, supportive services buildings, and community green spaces with safe play areas adjacent to the Allies' Early Education Center. We are eager to extend our dual-generation expertise to serve even more clients through this innovative on-site housing and supportive services program. Having reached the significant milestone of obtaining entitlement approval from the City, we are excited to move forward with the next phase of the project and take concrete steps to bring this vision to life.

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, "LA DCFS"), works to break the devastating cycles associated with aging out of foster care without a permanent home(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 the childhood that they need. 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 at-risk 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 to 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.