Meet Martine Singer | President & CEO of Children’s Institute

We had the good fortune of connecting with Martine Singer and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Martine, how does your business help the community?
As the President & CEO of Children’s Institute, I believe that all children have boundless potential to achieve emotional well-being and educational success, which build pathways to economic mobility. This belief is foundational to Children’s Institute’s north star and the reason why we work in communities across Los Angeles, where underinvestment and discriminatory policies limit opportunities.

Children’s Institute provides education, counseling, parenting supports and other resources across 38 locations, including early education centers and K-12 schools. We develop resources and partnerships to help people achieve their dreams, and we promote investment in children and families by advancing equitable public policies and amplifying community voice.

For more information and details on the work we do, please visit our website here: www.childrensinstitute.org/services.

What should our readers know about your business?
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 now of $102 million and a workforce of 1,000.  With 37 locations in distressed communities like Watts, Compton and Wilmington, Children’s Institute serves 30,000 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.

For me, I wouldn’t say I’ve struggled, but running a thriving nonprofit organization is always challenging. One of the more recent challenges includes Covid-19 and how it continues to impact the neighborhoods we serve – low income communities of color. Covid-19 exacerbated health inequities and impacted housing, nutrition, emotional wellbeing, employment and public safety. The effects still linger as our families suffered more death and serious illness during the pandemic and the effects on mental health are well-documented. Even today chronic absenteeism continues to be a problem for kids of all ages nationwide.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Well, my childhood best friend visited me recently, so I can tell you we picked up lunch at John’s Garden and ate it on the beach in Malibu. We visited the Getty Center and ate at the beautiful restaurant there; we went to LACMA and MoCA as well and toured Disney Hall. I showed her Children’s Institute’s new campus in Watts, of course, went to the Watts Towers and the adjacent Arts Center and grabbed lunch at the newly re-opened Locol.

If we had more time, I would have taken her to Larchmont on a Sunday to eat at Cookbook, shop at Chevalier’s Books, Rothy’s and Flicka, buy food at the Larchmont Farmer’s Market and cook at home, in the Hollywood Hills.

I like Superba and Gwen’s in my neighborhood and also love playing tennis at the Vermont Courts in Griffith Park – there are so many beautiful hikes there as well.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My family.

Website: https://www.childrensinstitute.org

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/childrensinstituteLA/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martine-singer-961940222/