Government and philanthropy often share common goals and a capacity to enable wide-scale systems change. When they work together, they make ideal partners—philanthropy contributing nimbleness and a spirit of experimentation, while government commands the resources to sustain what works. In Los Angeles County, such collaboration was catalyzed by the murder of an 8-year-old boy in 2013. This tragic death prompted the Board of Supervisors to empanel a commission of notable child welfare experts to examine systemic failures.
Since then, an increasingly durable and agile spirit of collaboration in L.A. has fueled an ability to test new ideas, assess their effectiveness, and bring them to scale in ways that significantly impact child welfare reform. As a result of these efforts, the previously siloed and reactive child protection system is moving toward becoming a more integrated countywide child well-being system. Cultivating Hope Through Action: How Public-Private Partnerships Are Strengthening Child and Family Well-Being in L.A. County, is a report chronicling the work that drove increased collaboration and funding in L.A. County. It also addresses ways to grow similar collaborative ecosystems for child and family well-being in the future. Read the executive summary and full report below.
Mr. Taylor is the president of ECMC Foundation, a nonprofit affiliate of Education Credit Management Corp. with a focus on furthering educational goals of low-income individuals. From 2009 to April 2014, he served as the executive vice president and chief financial officer of the University of California. Prior to that, Mr. Taylor served as managing director of public finance at Lehman Brothers and Barclays Capital from 1993 to 2009. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, Edison International, Pacific Life, and 23andMe. Previously, he served on the boards of the J. Paul Getty Trust, serving as chair of the audit committee, chair of the UCLA African American Admissions Task Force, and as a Trustee of the California State University System. He is a graduate of the University of California Los Angeles and holds a master’s degree in public policy analysis from Claremont Graduate University. He joined the Parsons board in 2014.