Vision

Westside Children Center envisions a world where children and their families thrive in stable,
permanent homes and live in safe nurturing communities


Mission
Westside Children's Center, a non-profit agency, supports underserved, vulnerable children and their families in west Los Angeles County by providing a full range of crucial,
multidisciplinary services, including:
  • Early Care and Education
  • Child Development and Special Needs
  • Child Welfare
  • Foster Care and Adoption
  • Family Support
  • Family Preservation
  • Infant and Family Mental Health
  • Health Consultation and Referrals
History of Organization

The agency was founded in 1987 by a child advocate who was concerned about the growing number of infants and toddlers entering the foster care system in Los Angeles County. Initially, the agency focused on providing foster care for children prenatally exposed to drugs, physically and sexually abused, neglected or abandoned, as well as other children birth to five referred by the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services. Today, WCC has grown into a multi-service agency dedicated to meeting the wide array of needs found among families living on the Westside of Los Angeles County overwhelmed by poverty, addiction, violence and isolation.


1987  WCC founded by Lezlie Johnson and friends to provide foster homes for children from the Westside who were removed      from their families due to abuse and/or neglect.

1988  Foster Family Program is initiated with recruitment and training of foster parents begins in Santa Monica

1989  Therapeutic Nursery Program opens to provide treatment services for children identified with developmental delays.

WCC awarded California Department of Education contract to provide family-based child care for low income working parents.

Family Development Program begins and offers therapy to parents attempting to reunify with their children

1991  WCC receives 3 yr federal grant seed money to develop an intervention program for Drug Exposed infants and their reunifying parents.

1995  WCC expands programs and moves to larger site in Mar Vista

WCC and Venice Family Clinic collaborate to receive one of the first four Early Head Start federal grants in California.

1996  WCC receives expansion funds to provide center-based child care for 45 children from the local area

1997  WCC opens child care center in Mar Vista Gardens Housing Project to provide subsidized child care to low income residents.

WCC organizes first Annual Health & Safety Fair in Mar Vista in collaboration with local agencies and schools.

WCC expands to provide early childcare for 35 additional children at Wagner site for low income working parents.

WCC celebrates 10th Anniversary by honoring Los Angeles Child Advocates Helen Kleinberg, Lorraine Sheinberg, and WCC Founder Lezlie Johnson.

1998  WCC is awarded monies from Proposition K Tax Initiative to fund the first phase of new construction for expanded child care service at Wagner site.

WCC receives Accreditation for meeting the Standards for Excellence in Children’s Services by California Association of Services for Children.

1999  S. Mark Taper Foundation awards a 3-yr seed money grant to fund WCC’s new Family Support Services.

WCC is licensed by the State of California to provide Adoption Services.

WCC is awarded a 3 yr. Adoptions Opportunity grant from the Department of Health & Human Services for Project A-H.U.G. (Adoptive Homes, the Ultimate Goal) to develop innovative strategies for increasing adoptions of minority children in Los Angeles.

2000  WCC is Lead agency for First 5 Los Angeles

2010  WCC receives Early Head Start grant