Staff Development 

The Staff Development Department expanded to include six new people working to ensure site staff have the training, tools, and resources they need to support students and themselves. This year, 257 site staff completed New Staff Orientation and over 600 site staff attended training sessions such as: LA’s BEST Values and Youth Development Principles, Successful Learning Environments, Building Relationships with Students, and Anti-Racist Journey: Designing Culturally Relevant Learning Experiences. 

Career Pathways

A significant component of our employment model is to hire staff from the communities where we work. Thanks to a grant from The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, we launched an innovative initiative to explore how LA’s BEST can provide pathways for our program staff to successfully and possibly simultaneously pursue careers in education, social services, or whatever they choose as part of their employment with LA’s BEST. Stay tuned for more information on this initiative as we continue to examine and create new means to invigorate the local workforce while positioning our program staff for their own career success. 

Leadership Development 

We established the Leadership Department, stemming from our Staff Development Department, which created customized leadership training to help site staff grow as leaders and learn how to compassionately develop and nurture their team. So far, 80 staff participated in the pilot sessions in topics such as: Leading with Compassion, Managing Difficult Conversations, Making a Difference: Coaching, and Thoughtful Feedback. 

LA’s BEST celebrated the incredible dedication and achievements of staff who go above and beyond to support students, their families, and one another. As always, there were many wonderful submissions for the awards and it was challenging to single out just one winner.

Read more about all the winners here.

• Maria Carranza won the Rebecca Turner Meaningful Impact Award
• Nancy Lomeli won the Carla Sanger Leadership Award 
• Coreena Parraz won the Al Minturn Humanitarian Site Coordinator Award 

Summerland

This year, 260 staff members attended Summerland, an energetic annual community event, resource and technical assistance fair for LA’s BEST site staff to connect, share opportunities and learn new skills to benefit students. Unique training topics included Create Your Own Manga, iMovie, Indi Cars and Collaborative Mural Art.