Across Los Angeles, fear is destroying childhood.
At Children’s Institute, we see it every day in the faces of the children and families we serve. Since the beginning of 2025, fear of immigration enforcement has become a daily reality—disrupting school routines, upending family rhythms, and weakening the sense of safety that children need to grow and thrive.
As journalist Jenny Gold recently reported in the Los Angeles Times, early learning and care providers in Los Angeles face a tidal wave of fear.
This is not an abstract fear. It’s the real, lived experience of a mother afraid to walk her child to one of our Head Start preschools. A parent rushing to one of our centers to pick up her child because ICE is in the neighborhood. A child scanning the door at pickup time after a day at summer camp, unsure if his parent will return. Attendance has dropped in our preschools, our clinics and at community events. Many families feel isolated and without support.
When attendance drops, it’s more than just empty seats—it’s children not getting meals, not attending counseling appointments, and losing access to safe spaces that buffer them from trauma. And families, especially those already living in poverty, are left without the lifelines that help them survive day-to-day. Parents often must stay home with children who can no longer safely attend programs, destabilizing household incomes and pushing families further into economic insecurity.
We’ve seen this before. The COVID-19 pandemic taught us how fragile the infrastructure of care and education can be—and how quickly families can slip through the cracks. We cannot let that happen again.
Invest in Children’s Institute now. The safety net is shrinking, and the number of children and families who need it—and rely on it as an essential support —is growing every day.
At Children’s Institute, we are dedicated to maintaining this vital safety net, but we cannot do it without your support.
Your generosity powers our ability to:
• Keep our early learning programs open and accessible
• Reduce barriers to mental health services and care navigation
• Provide emergency relief—including in-kind donations—for families facing displacement, fear, and economic loss
This is not a moment for business as usual. It is a moment to meet fear with care, and uncertainty with action.
Let’s ensure that fear does not become the new normal for Los Angeles’ children. Let’s make sure they have what they need: a place to learn, people to trust, and a path forward.
