Dear Friends,

After a busy summer of research and community engagement, all of us at the UCLA Pritzker Center are happy to take part in the energy of a new school year! With 2025-2026 underway, we are especially thrilled to welcome 7 new multidisciplinary students to our team. These students will join our existing student team and support community based research on prevention and reform from the Antelope Valley to Altadena. Together, we join UCLA researchers across campus to demonstrate that #ResearchPowersProgress. Indeed, what we discover and create at UCLA goes far beyond our campus and classrooms. UCLA research benefits real people across America in transformative ways, and we are proud to take part in research that specifically transforms foster care. In celebration of this work and Hispanic Heritage Month, we hope you will join us at one of our upcoming events—from Zoom to the community, coming together is more important than ever.

In community,

The UCLA Pritzker Center Team

Recap

In August, we held a talk, Standing with Families, Defending Immigrant Rights and invited speakers from Para Los Niños, UCLA Semel Institute & STAR Clinic, Los Angeles County Office of Education and Office of Immigrant Affairs, Bet Tzedek, and UC Berkeley. The talk addressed how to support immigrant families with a focus on child well-being and how to navigate the back-to-school season, practical strategies for speaking to children about immigration raids, family preparedness plans in the event of detention or deportation, and key resources, including Know Your rights materials. The talk is available in both English and in Spanish.

Research

With the Public Scholarship Grant from Dean Tina Christie and the UCLA School of Education and Information Studies, the UCLA Pritzker Center launched a new study to examine how the Eaton Fire disrupted the educational experiences of children in foster care in the Altadena area. The project will map the fire’s impact by analyzing school displacement and placement instability among foster youth.

In collaboration with key stakeholders, including the Department of Children and Family Services, Pasadena United School District, Los Angeles Dependency Lawyers, Children’s Law Center of California, Los Angeles County Office of Education, Alliance for Children’s Rights, and the Eaton Fire Collaborative, the study aims to identify ongoing education-related challenges and explore existing policy and practice solutions. Findings will be shared in October 2025.

The research brief will be available in October.

Co-research director, Brenda A. Tully, PhD, will present intermediate findings from our study on Foster Youth to Independence (FYI) Housing Choice Vouchers in Los Angeles at One Roof 2.0.

One Roof 2.0 in Los Angeles County “brings together County and non-county government representatives, housing and service providers, philanthropy, advocates, and young people with lived experience to address youth homelessness.” One Roof 2.0 strives to ensure that all child welfare- and probation-impacted “transition-age youth (TAY) and young adults have access to stable housing with flexible timelines and receive high-quality, supportive resources tailored to education, economic stability, and positive relationships.” One Roof 2.0 develops strategies across youth- and young adult-serving systems to prevent homelessness and reduce associated racial disparities, then recommends prevention strategies to pilot in County departments.

Stay tuned for more information about our FYI Housing study.

In collaboration with Good River Partners, and with support from the UniHealth Foundation and Wells Fargo, we released a brief this summer centered around the housing preferences among former foster youth.

The Housing Preferences Survey was designed with the intention of elevating and integrating youth voice and experience into future investments for transition-aged youth housing across the county. The survey explored preferred locations, amenities of interest, ideal living arrangements and barriers to securing housing for former foster youth.

Read the full report here.

In the Community

From Westwood to Downtown LA, our commitment to children and families spans across the city. In August, we celebrated 1 year of impact in DTLA while continuing the research and collaboration that began at UCLA. Here’s to the next chapter! 💙

Watch the video and follow along with our undergraduate student researcher, Isabella Reina, to check out our office space and learn more about a day in the life working at the UCLA Pritzker Center.

As part of our study on the Eaton Fire and its impact on kids in foster care, we are proud to be part of the Eaton Fire Collaborative and to celebrate the opening of the Eaton Fire Collaboratory. We’re inspired by the unprecedented gathering of 150 organizations with one mission: recovery!

In collaboration with the UCLA Psychiatry Office of JEDI and Connect LA, our team visited the California African American Museum exhibition Ode to ’Dena: Black Artistic Legacies of Altadena. This exhibition was a meaningful reminder of the strength and creativity rooted in the Altadena community—especially as we continue our work around the Eaton Fire in Altadena.

Ode to ’Dena lauds the rich and dynamic Black cultural heritage of Altadena. It surveys the town’s enduring legacy through the work and stories of an intergenerational group of artists and culture bearers that have called it home.

Ode to ’Dena: Black Artistic Legacies of Altadena is curated by Dominique Clayton, independent curator and founder of Dominique Gallery, in community with Larry Earl, Kenturah Davis, Arianne Edmonds, Dylan Joyner, and V. Joy Simmons, MD.

On September 16, our team celebrated Los Angeles City Councilmembers Traci Park, Nithya Raman, Eunisses Hernandez and Katy Yaroslavsky at the 12th annual Women of LA City Hall.

The event celebrates women in Los Angeles City government and their incredible achievements and impact.

On September 19, our Policy & Community Impact director, Nancy Olivares, MPP, attended the LA County Youth Commission Listening Session: "Reflections of Us" at Los Angeles Valley College, hosted by Supervisor Lindsey Horvath. 

The Youth Commission featured a fireside chat facilitated by Supervisor Horvath, youth performances, community resources, and more.

On Campus

In July, our co-director, Audra Langley, PhD, and executive director, Taylor Dudley, JD attended the UCLA Summer Institute on Evidence-based Teaching, where they practiced innovative teaching strategies with other educators and learned about current research that informs evidence-based practices. These strategies will be employed within our UCLA Pritzker Center student program and in our course, Public Affairs 124: Child Welfare Policy in America.

On September 23, our team attended the UCLA Luskin Undergraduate Open House, engaging with first-year and transfer students to introduce them to the Center’s work and opportunities for involvement. It was a great chance to connect with students, answer their questions, share resources and talk about the class, PUB AFF 124: Child Welfare Policy in America, while highlighting the ways our research and programs support the campus and broader community.

On September 18 our team had the privilege of volunteering at Bruin Guardian Scholars’ Move-In Day, welcoming and assisting students who are current and former foster youth as they transition back to campus.

In celebration of its 30th anniversary, UCLA TIES for Families hosted an event honoring three decades of advancing community partnership and a commitment to innovative training, research, and clinical services aligned with UCLA’s mission. The program highlighted the strength of a truly interdisciplinary team serving children in foster care, kinship care, and adopted through foster care and their families and centered the voices and accomplishments of many children, families, students, and trainees who have benefitted from its support.

The anniversary gathering reflected on a rich history of impact and collaboration while reaffirming UCLA TIES for Families’ ongoing dedication to improving outcomes and promoting equity for child-welfare involved families. Click here to view some of their major successes over the last 30 years. 

Students

As the 2025-2026 school year begins, we are excited to welcome a new group of students! We are delighted to introduce four undergraduate students, Ellen Kim, Krisha Vyas, Miya Yamamoto, Kamaurah Hogan; MSW student, Laurencio Baker; clinical psychology student, Gifty Ayawvi; and social welfare PhD student, Juan Nunez.

Our team comes from a wide range of disciplines, including social work, education and social transformation, political science and communications. Together, this group will bring fresh perspectives and skills that will strengthen our work. We look forward to the impact they will have as we learn and grow together.

This summer, our students were involved in various capacities—from leading campers in Dubai and at UCLA UniCamp to starting new fellowships—our team has done it all.

"This summer, I had the privilege of serving as a program lead for a summer camp in Dubai. I facilitated weekly sessions on a range of topics—from leading as a CEO, to leadership in action, to the fundamentals of AI."

"I am so grateful for the experience of being a Camp Program Director at UCLA UniCamp this summer! Over the span of six weeks, 547 youth from all around Los Angeles spent a week at overnight camp in San Bernardino—singing songs, playing games, swimming, biking, and making yarn bracelets to gift one another."

We are excited to celebrate Abigail, our survey researcher, who has been awarded the Bill Emerson National Hunger Fellowship and placed in Chicago! This prestigious fellowship recognizes emerging leaders committed to ending hunger and poverty in the United States, and we are so proud to see Abigail join a national network of changemakers. Through this opportunity, she will gain hands-on experience supporting local efforts and shaping national public policy.

"I am grateful for the opportunity to intern with the ACLU's National Political Advocacy Department - Electoral Team. I hope to gain practical skills and insights into how electoral politics can be leveraged to amplify the voices of marginalized communities, ensure their rights and needs are protected by an accountable and representative democracy, and help build a society rooted in equity and justice where all people have the opportunity to flourish. Work in electoral poltitics grounded in the mission of protecting and advancing civil rights is deeply connected to our efforts at the Pritzker Center, as both strive to dismantle institutional discrimination and expand equity in opportunity and outcomes."

© 2025 UCLA Pritzker Center for Strengthening Children and Families. All Rights Reserved.

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