Resource Desert to Resource Hub: Enriching and Supporting AV’s Foster Youth

Wildfire relief

Antelope Valley

Pilot or new project, program, or initiative (testing or implementing a new idea)

LA County has the largest child welfare system in the nation, with nearly 20,000 children in its care. A large portion are placed in the Antelope Valley—a resource desert just 60 miles from some of the world’s wealthiest communities. Foster youth face higher rates of homelessness, poverty, chronic illness, and incarceration, and are less likely to graduate or attend college. These outcomes are worsened when families are separated without access to resources that support healing and reunification. In the Antelope Valley, the lack of monitored visitation sites has been a direct barrier to reunification, keeping families apart longer than necessary. CASA/LA helps youth and families navigate the complexities of system involvement by providing essential advocacy, community, and critical resources—including a safe space for parents to regularly and meaningfully visit their children.

In May 2024, CASA/LA opened the Antelope Valley Community Resource Hub and has already served over 200 youth. Just steps from the Alfred J. McCourtney Juvenile Justice Center, the hub is actively used by families, our Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASAs), court partners, and community-based organizations. The space includes a fully stocked resource room with essentials like diapers, clothing, and books, as well as a dedicated visitation room, training classrooms, a game room, and a dining area. One of the most critical services offered is monitored parent-child visitation, which addresses a key barrier to family reunification in the AV. We also host youth development workshops, train volunteers, connect families with attorneys and guardians, and offer community events in partnership with local providers. The hub is not only expanding CASA/LA’s reach and presence in the Antelope Valley--allowing us the opportunity to educate and inspire local residents to learn more about how they can support systems-impacted children—it is also creating a model of holistic, localized support for system-impacted youth and families. We believe that being a place of consistency, advocacy, and healing for families helps transform outcomes and fosters long-term stability and belonging for youth. More than a lifeline for families and CASAs working tirelessly to navigate the system's complexities, our hub also serves as a place of belonging and sanctuary for young people.

The Antelope Valley Community Resource Hub is revolutionary—it redefines what real, localized support for systems-impacted families should look like. In a region often forgotten, our hub is not a referral hotline or drop-in center—it’s a staffed, trauma-informed space rooted in advocacy, healing, and reunification. In the short term, we aim to serve over 500 youth and families, offering consistent visitation services, essential resources, and a trusted community of support. Long-term, we envision scaling this model to other under-resourced areas of LA County, transforming how we care for children and families in the child welfare system. Our vision is bold: to ensure that no child is failed simply because of where they live, and that every family has access to what they need to stay connected, thrive, and ultimately reunify. This is how we move beyond reform—this is how we revolutionize care and redefine what’s possible for LA’s most vulnerable.