Jewish Community Foundation Holds State of Foster Youth Event

The event was convened by the Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles’s Center for Designed Philanthropy.

The evening’s forum was moderated by Naomi Strongin (far left), associate director of The Foundation’s Center for Designed Philanthropy, and included panelists (beginning second from left, respectively): Ciara Jasiewicz, a former foster youth and alumnae of the Independent Living Skills/Guardian Scholars program at L.A. Trade Technical College (LATTC), who subsequently earned undergraduate and MBA degrees and serves as a foster-youth mentor; Dr. Dione Washington, director of LATTC’s Foster & Kinship Care Education and Guardian Scholars programs; Winnie Wechsler, executive director of the Anthony & Jeanne Pritzker Family Foundation and a board member of Foster Care Counts, which focuses on the needs of foster youth in L.A.; and Shula Mozes, chair of the Mozes-Wolfowitz Foundation, which invests in numerous initiatives in Israel intended to uplift young adults who lack family support networks.

The Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles manages charitable assets of more than $1 billion entrusted to it by over 1,300 families. The Foundation has supported foster youth through grantmaking in LA and Israel. Since 2016, it has awarded more than $2 million to organizations working to pave paths of personal, educational and professional success for young people engaged in the foster care system.