In Los Angeles, Latinx immigrant families face persistent barriers to care due to poverty, trauma, language differences, and limited access to culturally responsive services. Grounded in the framework of Community Cultural Wealth (CCW), this research examines how promotoras – trusted community members – mobilize various forms of capital to connect communities with institutional resources. Through conducting semi-structured interviews with organization leaders, this study investigates how recently adopted promotora programs in Los Angeles operationalize values such as equity, cultural competence, and community empowerment. We ask: how do organizations implement the promotora model, and does it foster structural change or reproduce existing hierarchies? Findings are hypothesized to suggest that while the promotora model can improve trust, access to care, and community engagement, its institutionalization often reflects existing power structures. Promotoras historically encounter inconsistent compensation, limited opportunities for advancement, and role ambiguity, which can undermine the model’s transformative potential. Ultimately, this project highlights the tension between community-based knowledge and institutional systems, underscoring the need for more equitable approaches. Its significance lies in identifying how organizations can move beyond symbolic inclusion toward structural change that genuinely centers community expertise.

Youth civic engagement is widely framed as empowering, yet rising rates of adolescent anxiety, burnout, and emotional overwhelm complicate this narrative. Existing research often separates civic participation from mental health, overlooking how youth-led sociopolitical spaces shape well-being. This study examines how participation in Changeist, a youth-led community engagement program, influences young people’s mental health, self-concept, engagement with mental health science communication, and self-efficacy, and whether such engagement may function as a form of collective psychological regulation. Using a mixed-methods approach, we are collecting anonymous survey responses and conducting semi-structured interviews with high school and middle school participants. Surveys assess mental health science communication, confidence, and communication comfort, while interviews provide a deeper insight into participants’ lived experiences. Grounded in Yosso’s Community Cultural Wealth framework, this study centers on youth strengths and lived knowledge.Data collection is ongoing, but preliminary findings suggest participants report moderate to high levels of well-being and increased openness in discussing mental health. Early responses indicate that civic engagement may foster vulnerability, peer support, and a sense of collective care. This research contributes to understanding how youth advocacy spaces can support both sociopolitical engagement and mental health, with implications for youth development and education.

Access to clean water is a basic human right and particularly important to children’s health and development. A large body of literature shows that systemic environmental and structural barriers in school water infrastructure create significant challenges for children with disabilities. Understanding how these barriers affect students’ physical and psychological well-being is an important question in disability studies. Previous research by Azupogo et al. (2025) highlights that physical barriers, such as the lack of handrails, ramps, and uneven surfaces, hinder primary school students with physical disabilities from accessing water facilities. These obstacles further lead to serious health outcomes that include dehydration, increased risks of infectious diseases, psychological distress from stigma and social isolation, which all can contribute to higher absenteeism rates. Building on this research, the present study employs an ethnographic approach to examine the relationship between the mapping of each water station and hygiene conditions across the PreK-6 campus at UCLA Lab School. Through interviews and participant observation with primary grade students and school staff, this study incorporates diverse perspectives not only to address the disparities experienced by children with disabilities but also to advance universal access for all students.

This project offers an intimate, ground-level look at life inside a Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) building in Downtown Los Angeles, focusing on how neglect shapes residents' daily survival, relationships, and sense of stability. While PSH is designed to provide long-term housing after homelessness, this research asks: does it truly foster safety, mental health support, and community, or can it reproduce instability when support systems fail? Drawing on my experience as a former resident of the Hayward Manor Hotel, I use a combination of autoethnography, ethnographic observation, and semi-structured interviews with tenants, staff, and service providers. This approach centers lived experience, addressing a gap in existing research that often prioritizes quantitative outcomes over daily realities. Findings reveal persistent safety concerns, including unresponsive security, violence, and infrastructure failures such as broken elevators that disproportionately affect disabled residents. Participants also describe severe emotional strain, with many characterizing the environment as isolating and dehumanizing. Despite this, residents demonstrate resilience through informal care networks, advocacy, and small acts of connection that sustain a sense of community. These findings suggest that housing alone does not guarantee stability. The significance of this project lies in exposing how under-resourced and poorly managed PSH can perpetuate trauma, reinforcing the need for accountability and policy change.

How do you construct an ethnographic film in collaboration with a person with an intellectual disability? Rather than producing a completed film, the primary outcome of this project is a co-constructed methodological framework outlining the processes necessary for inclusive ethnographic filmmaking. This project works in collaboration with adults with intellectual disabilities to develop a methodology for a person-centered ethnographic film focused on emergency preparedness for adults with intellectual disabilities living independently. Grounded in ethnographic and participatory research methods, the project involves biweekly two-hour meetings with two adult collaborators in accessible community settings. Through guided discussions and interviews, participants contribute to decisions about how the film should look, what narratives should be prioritized, and what equipment and approaches to production would be most fitting and accessible. This research is timely as just last year we experienced massive urban fires where many people with disabilities lost their lives. This project attempts to add to the ongoing conversation.