University of California Office of the President

The UCLA Pritzker Center for Strengthening Children and Families has selected five interdisciplinary and community-based teams to receive its inaugural round of seed grants. The grants, made possible by the Anthony and Jeanne Pritzker Family Foundation, are designed to encourage research and collaboration across UCLA and throughout Los Angeles County to benefit children and families.

The one-year grants of up to $25,000 offer teams of UCLA faculty and staff from different schools or specializations the opportunity to undertake a research or service project in connection to the Pritzker Center’s goals. Started by a gift from the Anthony and Jeanne Pritzker Family Foundation, the center serves as a collaborative hub for research, prevention and intervention efforts, working to strengthen families to prevent children and youth from entering the child welfare system and to support those involved in it.

All grant projects must be done in partnership with a community organization or system working to support children and families in Los Angeles.

“The seed grants will bring our colleagues from across campus together with community leaders and advocates to support children and families,” said Tyrone Howard, Pritzker Family Endowed Chair in Education and director of the UCLA Pritzker Center for Strengthening Children and Families. “This funding will build interdisciplinary capacity and encourage university-community partnerships involving child welfare, foster care and preventing child maltreatment.”

By offering these seed grants, the UCLA Pritzker Center will build and enhance the network of university and community partners who share common goals.

The recipients of the grants will contribute to:

• Fatherhood and preventing foster care – conducting a needs assessment of fathers of young children in Los Angeles County who are at high risk for child welfare involvement or are already involved in the foster care system.
• Using the power of media to positively influence foster care perceptions – using entertainment media to empower youth currently in the foster care system.
• Improving outcomes for families experiencing homelessness and child welfare involvement – delivering the Families Overcoming Under Stress intervention to homeless families with child welfare involvement.
• Strengthening immigrant youth and families – working with the UCLA Immigrant Youth Task Force to promote the well-being of immigrant youth within the Los Angeles County.
• Adaptation and implementation of a specialized reproductive health intervention for commercially sexually exploited youth in child welfare – implementing an evidenced-based intervention on reproductive health education for children and families affected by commercial sexual exploitation.

“The inaugural cohort of grant recipients exemplifies the stellar interdisciplinary, community-partnered research and collaboration happening at UCLA,” said Audra Langley, professor of psychiatry in the Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA and co-director of the Pritzker Center. “These grants align closely with the mission of the Pritzker Center to leverage the university’s prevention and intervention resources to improve the lives of children and families across Los Angeles County, in partnership with the organizations and experts on the ground. We are thrilled to see their work unfold.”

The grant recipients were selected by the leadership team from the Pritzker Center.

For more information visit the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies website