Susan B. Edelstein,
TIES for Adoption
and The Westside Children's Center

The deep partnership that has evolved between Westside Children’s Center (WCC) and UCLA TIES for Adoption over the past 12 years has helped to develop and provide high quality, comprehensive services to maximize the physical, social, educational and emotional health and safety of vulnerable children in Los Angeles County, and to strengthen their birth, foster and/or adoptive parents. Historically, this collaboration has involved TIES staff serving a cohort of WCC families at the beginning implementation of the TIES model, as well as providing training and consultation for WCC staff. More recently, the agencies were awarded a contract to act as joint lead agencies to provide programs designed to strengthen birth families, decrease out of home placements for children, as well as build robust adoptive families and prevent disruptions of adoptions.

Kevin McCardle,
UCLA Anderson School of Management
and The Saint Joseph Center

St. Joseph Center, a charitable social service agency, fills a variety of needs that can be assisted by the faculty, staff, and students of the UCLA Anderson School of Management. The challenge is making the connections. In addition to the direct services he provides as a member of its board, Professor McCardle has acted as an ambassador of SJC to the Anderson School. More broadly, Professor McCardle has conducted groundbreaking research into the pro-bono work of operations research and management science professionals and been an advocate for this work in his profession. This work has also led him, with other UCLA Anderson faculty, to research unique issues of resource allocation in non-profit organizations.

Michael Prelip,
UCLA School of Public Health
and The Greater West Hollywood Food Coalition

Since 2000, the students of the UCLA Schools of Public Health and Medicine and the Undergraduate College have teamed up with the Greater West Hollywood Food Coaliton to create a mobile clinic to serve the indigent and homeless poulation of Hollywood and West Hollywood. This student-managed, street-based clinic provides basic medical, social support services, and health education to those with very limited access to health care and social services.

Concepción Valadez,
UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies
and Centro Latino de Educación Popular

For the past nine years Professor Valadez has assisted Centro Latino with its mission of enhancing Latino immigrants’ quality of life and their children’s success in school. She has worked directly with Centro Latino’s programs on basic literacy, vocational English, parent education, children’s education, and the use of computers for learning to read. A number of graduate and undergraduate students from UCLA have participated as research assistants or volunteer tutors in several of these programs.