Every year, Children’s Institute (CII) supports 30,000 children and families across Los Angeles, offering education, counseling services, parenting support and enrichment programs in the community and at their early education centers, K-12 schools and neighborhood hubs. We recently had the pleasure of chatting with Martine Singer, the president and CEO of the institute.
Please tell us what inspired you to seek a career in the nonprofit world.
I began my career in investment banking and got my MBA from the Yale School of Management. I then worked at The New York Times where I created and served as publisher of its first foreign edition in Russia. I moved to L.A. and joined the Los Angeles Times, launching its first online service. I was grateful for these opportunities, yet I found my work unfulfilling. So I took a leap and dropped out of the business world to volunteer at Hollygrove, a residential treatment center for foster children.
There I found my passion, working with traumatized children from marginalized communities. Besides helping in the cottages and the school, I got to know the executive director and was able to contribute my business skills and advise on strategy. I became Chief Operating Officer and, after a merger, Executive Director of the L.A. region for what’s now Pacific Clinics.
In 2012, I became President and CEO of Para Los Niños, overseeing mental health, child welfare and youth workforce development programs, as well as six preschools and three charter schools serving more than 1,000 students. In 2016 I moved to Children’s Institute, a larger agency with revenues of $102 million and a workforce of 1,000. With 37 locations in distressed communities like Watts, Compton and Wilmington, CII serves 26,000 children and families each year.
My nonprofit work allows me to champion the rights of children and families in communities with high rates of poverty and violence; to amplify the needs of people exposed to adverse childhood experiences, which can have devastating and long-term impact on brain development, executive functioning, behavioral health and even physical health; and to advocate at the local, state and federal levels on issues, ranging from universal home visiting and school readiness to comprehensive mental health and other student and family supports in schools, as well as nonprofit sustainability.
The Children’s Institute has a huge impact in the L.A. community, what makes you most proud?
The most visible accomplishment is our new, 20,000 square foot campus in Watts, designed by Frank Gehry. We broke ground in January 2020, just before the lockdown, and completed construction on time and on budget, without assuming any new debt. It’s not just offices and program space for CII, but also a resource for local partners – nonprofits, government agencies and residents. Since opening to the public in June 2022, we’ve welcomed 70 organizations that provide programming and activities that extend or complement CII’s own services. The project has also attracted new investment to Watts, with Kaiser Permanente building a large medical office building next door, bringing jobs and services to this very underserved area of Los Angeles.
You joined the Institute in 2016. How did COVID impact the population that you serve?
COVID-19 hit hardest in low-income communities of color, exacerbating health inequities and impacting housing, nutrition, emotional wellbeing, employment and public safety, and the effects still linger. Families in these communities suffered more death and serious illness, and the effects on mental health are well-documented. Even today our early education programs are still not fully enrolled, and chronic absenteeism continues to be a problem for kids of all ages nationwide.
What is your goal for the organization in the new year?
We are renovating the other half of our Watts campus, which will add about 18,000 square feet and allow us to consolidate staff at that amazing site. We recently completed a reorganization of our leadership around three populations: prenatal to 5, school-age and adults. Among other things, this supports our expanded work with the managed care plans, adding services and supports not previously available to our families. And of course we’re hard at work on our annual gala, which takes place in May at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.
We would love our readers to get to know you better. When not working, where will we find you?
I discovered Liveball during the pandemic, and I’ve gotten a bit obsessed with it. I wish my skills matched my enthusiasm. I can’t live without dogs, and I recently adopted a 90-lb. German Shepherd and a small Dachshund mix, both of whom I needed like a hole in the head. I have two grown kids who live in New York, so I try to get there as often as I can and I love to travel to more exotic places, too.
What are your favorite spots in and around L.A.?
I live in the Hollywood Hills so I hike a lot, which is one of the greatest things about living here. The Hollywood Bowl, the beach, the Laemmle movie theaters, Book Soup, Larchmont Boulevard… the usual.
Did you have a mentor growing up? If so, what impact did that person have on your life and career?
I can’t say that I did! But Judy Nelson, who ran Hollygrove when I went there as a volunteer, had a profound influence on my transition to the nonprofit world, and she remained a mentor and dear friend until her death about a year ago.
Since joining the Children’s Institute, how have the families and the community impacted you? Any lessons learned? Favorite memory to share?
I have learned so much from the families we serve and it’s an honor to work alongside them and the fantastic staff at CII. Beyond their beautiful stories, I think more and more about the impact of systemic racism on individuals, families and communities and how so often the deck is stacked against them. And a favorite memory – there are so many! A recent one involves a listening session we held for fathers to understand the challenges they face working with the child welfare and other systems. One of them shared that he was $200,000 in debt because of the government child support system that, until very recently, required parents to reimburse the state for the cost of having their children in foster care. Fortunately, we had representatives from the County at the session, and they were able by the end of the night to cut this man’s debt in half, and they are working on the other half!
