SHANNON D. DONOFRY, LU DONG, NABEEL QURESHI, CHLOE GOMEZ, NINA V. OZBARDAKCI, DEBORAH
KIM, JANE BAI, STACEY YI, MALLIKA BHANDARKAR, AMY L. SHEARER, HELIN HERNANDEZ, JACOBO
PEREIRA-PACHECO
Los Angeles County
Department of Public
Health Youth Suicide
Prevention Pilot Program
Evaluation
T
he Los Angeles (LA) County Office of Violence Prevention (OVP) was established in 2019
within the LA County Department of Public Health (DPH). OVP is charged with advanc-
ing policies and programs aimed at preventing all forms of violence in the community and
promoting healing following violent events. OVP leads efforts to coordinate violence pre-
vention activities across county departments, community-based organizations, private businesses,
and community members to foster collaboration and resource-sharing and to prevent duplicative or
competing efforts, ensuring a more robust county-level strategy for preventing and responding to
community violence (LA County OVP, 2020). OVP collects primary data and analyzes primary and
secondary data to identify and monitor patterns of violence over time, inform decisionmaking about
resource allocation, track evolving or emergent community needs, and evaluate program implemen-
tation and effectiveness. OVP has also undertaken efforts to develop an infrastructure for engaging
community members, particularly those most affected by violence, to incorporate their perspectives
in strategic planning, program development, and implementation. In this report, we focus on the
Youth Suicide Prevention Pilot (YSPP) program, which began in 2023 and ended in 2025.
The California DPH (CDPH) funded YSPP to implement programs and initiatives aimed at
enhancing the state’s ability to effectively respond to and prevent suicides and suicide attempts
among youth under the age of 25. LA County is one of ten California counties selected to participate
in the pilot. OVP is required to evaluate the programs and initiatives implemented during YSPP’s
two-year pilot period, which ended in June 2025. In 2024, OVP selected RAND to provide technical
assistance and evaluation services related to YSPP activities, with a particular emphasis on evalu-
ating any challenges in implementing program components. We interviewed YSPP program staff
Research Report
