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Educational efforts in Los Angeles are in the process of expanding beyond the classroom and touching community members of all ages with a wide variety of services not usually offered at typical Los Angeles school sites.

The Los Angeles-based nonprofit group Youth Policy Institute (YPI) received a $30 million dollar grant from the federal government this year to invest in education, job training, healthcare and various public safety initiatives in two Los Angeles neighborhoods long plagued by high dropout rates, violence and poverty.

The YPI award, which could potentially be matched by private donors as well, is intended to create a network of 65 programs for students and their families in the so-called Los Angeles Promise Neighborhoods of Pacoima, San Fernando and the Little Armenia area of Hollywood. The program will serve young children with health-care and preschool opportunities and their older siblings with tutoring and college counseling. Parents and family members will be offered English classes, selected job training and help managing household finances as well.

YPI hopes to reach 18,000 kids a year at 19 LA Unified and charter schools. In 2010, due to its 30 years of offering place-based initiatives throughout city, YPI was chosen by the U.S. Department of Education to lay the framework for how it might spend the $30 million dollars, and 18 months later, became one of 11 organizations to receive a grant from the Obama administration.

Previous Posts:  “Promise Neighborhoods” Finally Launch in LA, Oakland Expands “Community Schools” Model*