California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) will educate hundreds of new mental and behavioral health professionals to serve South Los Angeles families and youth over the next five years, thanks to a record-breaking $29 million grant from Ballmer Group.

Ballmer Group’s commitment will support the launch of Toros Heal L.A. (THLA), an ambitious initiative geared at transforming access to mental health resources by expanding a culturally responsive, community-rooted workforce dedicated to serving South L.A. Specifically, the program will fund scholarships, licensure preparation, and emergency aid for students studying key fields related to community and mental health.

California faces a documented shortage of mental health professionals at a time of increasing demand for behavioral health services. Both Governor Gavin Newsom and state agencies have treated workforce expansion as essential to California’s long-term health and the success of broader behavioral health reforms. Toros Heal L.A. will be part of the solution, helping to strengthen the workforce needed to address this growing crisis.

“This gift is a response to acute child and youth behavioral health shortages in South L.A. and adjacent areas—communities our students and graduates call home,” said CSUDH Interim President Mary Ann Villarreal. “With this investment, CSUDH can expand access to opportunity for our students while preparing professionals committed to serving populations with the greatest need.”

The award is the largest gift in the university’s history, surpassing Ballmer Group’s 2023 gift of $22.1 million to the campus and bringing their total support of CSUDH to $52.7 million.

A central focus of the grant is reducing financial barriers to graduation, with approximately 75 percent of funding directly supporting students. Scholarships of up to $18,000 per year will significantly reduce educational debt, enabling graduates to pursue careers in public service, nonprofit, and community-based settings where they are most needed.

CSUDH serves a student population which is more than 90 percent people of color, and a majority are the first in their families to attend college. Most CSUDH students are Pell-eligible and many come from multilingual households across Los Angeles.

“Our students’ lived experiences strengthen them as practitioners and create opportunities for building a thriving behavioral health infrastructure within the populations they come from,” said Mi-Sook Kim, Dean of the College of Health, Human Services & Nursing and one of three college deans leading this project. “The majority of our graduates take the transformative education they receive here and go on to work in their home communities, maximizing the impact of this gift outside the classroom.”

During the grant period, THLA will expand a coordinated workforce pipeline by increasing student enrollment, training, and graduation rates across programs in social work, marital and family therapy, clinical and health psychology, and school and college counseling, and by establishing an undergraduate paraprofessional pathway in the Human Services program that prepares students for entry-level, emerging Wellness Coach II roles. The initiative will support nearly 700 students across graduate and undergraduate programs.

Key activities include strengthening and growing internship and community partnerships, enhancing licensure readiness, and developing new career pathways. The initiative will also institutionalize the CSUDH Behavioral and Mental Health Institute, positioning the university as a hub for this critical work.

CSUDH is joining in this care alongside University of California, Los Angeles and California State University, Los Angeles. Working individually yet with shared purpose, the three universities have received a total of $110 million from Ballmer Group to transform professional training and transition into public and nonprofit roles that meet the growing needs of youth in the Los Angeles region.

“CSUDH is a proven philanthropic partner and leader in preparing graduates ready to serve their communities,” said Director of Strategy, Policy, and Partnerships for Ballmer Group Los Angeles Kim Pattillo Brownson. “This investment will support a critically-needed workforce and expand access to culturally-responsive care across the region.”