POSTING DATE: AUGUST 20, 2025 DUE DATE: SEPTEMBER 11, 2025 at 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time (PT) UPDATE(S): August 27, 2025 – the following has been posted under the Informational Webinar section: Informational Webinar PowerPoint Slides Informational Webinar Recording...
Articles
First 5 LA August Board Meeting: Navigating the Shifting Landscape
By, Ruel Nolledo | Freelance Writer August 19, 2025 First 5 LA’s Board of Commissioners met on August 14, 2025, for an information-only session centered on the urgency of planning for the future in the midst of a rapidly changing policy landscape. Commissioners heard...
Subject to Change: An Analysis of California’s Finalized 2025-26 State Budget
Ofelia Medina | Senior Policy Strategist August 20, 2025 On June 27, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law California's state budget for FY 2025-26. The enacted budget includes $321.1 billion in spending — up 3.3% over last year's budget — and will be covered by $228...
It Takes All of Us: Talking Community Power at the Best Start Learning Agenda Summit
By, Ruel Nolledo | Freelance Writer August 12, 2025 The illustration, much like the conversation it tries to capture, is packed with images, ideas, and movement. Values and declarations share space with actions and goals. Our participatory learning process. Not just...
First 5 LA Board Approves Budget for FY 2025-26
By, Ruel Nolledo | Freelance Writer August 5, 2025 First 5 LA's Board of Commissioners convened in person for its monthly meeting on June 12, 2025. Highlights of the meeting included the approval of the FY 2025-26 Budget and Long-Term Fiscal Plan, as well as several...
Through Transgender History Month, California continues to forge a culture of inclusivity
By, Ruel Nolledo | Freelance Writer August 1, 2025 "I couldn't find myself in history. No one like me seemed to have ever existed." Leslie Feinberg, author of Transgender Warriors: Making History from Joan of Arc to Dennis Rodman This August, First 5 LA joins...
SCOTUS Ruling (June 27) on Birthright Citizenship: First 5 LA Public Statement
Los Angeles, CA (July 2, 2025) - First 5 LA is deeply dismayed by the Trump Administration’s Executive Order which undermines the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution—the provision that guarantees citizenship to all individuals born on U.S. soil. This action...
Enacted State Budget for Fiscal Year 25-26: Statement from First 5 LA President & CEO, Karla Pleitéz Howell
Los Angeles, CA (July 1, 2025) - First 5 LA President and CEO, Karla Pleitéz Howell released the following statement in response to the enacted Fiscal Year 2025-2026 California state budget signed by Governor Newsom: “First 5 LA recognizes the complex and constrained...
An Absolute Equality: Celebrating Juneteenth
By, Ruel Nolledo | Freelance Writer June 10, 2025 Nine hundred days. That's how long the dream of freedom was deferred for the enslaved Black people of Galveston, Texas. Although President Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863, it...
Pride Month 2025: Building a Society Without Discrimination
Building a Society Without Discrimination “If we desire a society without discrimination, then we must not discriminate against anyone in the process of building this society." Those words from Civil Rights leader Bayard Rustin take on renewed meaning this June as we...
