Before the January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires devastated her home and small business, Brianna Clark proudly served her community for years as Director of Altadena Family Childcare. With over a decade of child care experience, Brianna put her knowledge and skills to work by offering a comprehensive, play-based child development program that incorporated music, fine art, baby sign language and interactive activities to foster age-appropriate academics. Like fellow Los Angeles County provider Brittie Crawford, Co-Founder and CEO of World City Center preschool, Brianna worked closely with each family to create a safe and nurturing environment for their children.
“Before the fire, I would wake up each day in my own home and prepare it to welcome the children I cared for,” Brianna recalled. “Over the years, I had gathered and purchased materials to make my family child care environment developmentally appropriate, nurturing and comfortable for the children and families I served.”
However, when the Los Angeles wildfires swept through her Altadena neighborhood and left a trail of destruction, Brianna and other early care and education (ECE) providers like her were suddenly left without their residences and livelihoods. With her home destroyed by the fire, Brianna, her husband and their four children were displaced and forced to shutter their business as they temporarily relocated 36 miles away in Upland, California, far from their longtime community.
“After the fire, everything changed,” Brianna lamented. “My home was lost, and with it, the space I had built with so much love and care.”
In response to this acute need, the Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF) stepped up to form LA RISE (Recovery and Investment in Service of ECE), with the goal of marshaling resources to quickly support providers and restore essential child care capacity to Los Angeles County. With financial support from Heising-Simons Foundation, California Community Foundation, Ballmer Group (via LA Partnership for Early Childhood Investment) and FireAid, LA RISE was designed and implemented by LIIF to support the ECE sector impacted by January’s catastrophic wildfires.
Under the program, licensed Los Angeles County ECE providers directly impacted by the wildfires, or who serve families impacted and serve children ages 0-5, can apply for a recoverable grant of up to $50,000 to help their small businesses recover. This flexible funding can be spent on a wide variety of expenditures, including:
- Remediation, construction and cleaning
- Fire mitigation, such as fire-suppression systems
- Green-building upgrades
- Building permits and fees
- Program materials
- Furniture, fixtures and equipment
- Children’s outdoor environment
- Rent or mortgage payments
- Insurance deductibles
- Trauma-informed care/mental health resources
- Funding to bridge insurance, FEMA or other disaster payments
Determined to remain connected to the families she serves, Brianna submitted an application to LA RISE and was awarded a grant that she used to secure a new space to reopen her program while she rebuilds her home, with a long-term plan to return to her original property.
“Thankfully, I’ve been able to secure a building in the Altadena area to reopen my family child care program, and I’m deeply grateful for that opportunity,” remarked Brianna on her support from LA RISE. However, she cautioned that “while I am thrilled to have a new space to rebuild and reopen, the emotional and logistical toll of this journey has been difficult.”
Brianna is far from alone in her story, and the need for such support remains high. The wildfires took a tremendous toll on ECE providers in Los Angeles County, as thousands lost their homes and businesses (often one and the same, as occurred to Brianna) and families across the region were left without access to care. There were an estimated 1,842 child care spaces lost in the Eaton Fire and 510 spaces lost in the Palisades Fire. Even today, additional fires are threatening communities throughout the region.
While the road to recovery is far from over for Altadena Family Childcare, Brianna looks toward the future with a renewed sense of hope and optimism for her family, her business and her larger community:
“What I love most about Altadena is that we are a community deeply rooted in resilience and inclusiveness. I loved that it never mattered what race you were or where you were from for others to support you and make you feel welcome. We are a strong community, and we will bounce back, stronger and better than before.”
I see my business flourishing and back bigger and better than it was before, back supporting and giving back to our children and families of our community, and being that solid rock that children parents can depend on, once more and again, for many more years to come.
Altadena Family Childcare Director Brianna Clark