Joshua Prudhomme has spent the better part of a decade showing up for foster youth in Los Angeles County and beyond — long before he became a CASA. 

His journey began after earning his B.A. in Psychology from the University of San Diego, when his first professional role placed him in a Los Angeles County group home, day-to-day with youth in the foster care system. What he witnessed there didn’t leave him. It followed him to the University of Colorado Boulder, where he served the Guardian Scholars Program and advocated for former foster youth at the critical intersection of child welfare and higher education. 

That same calling carried him through years supporting opportunity youth and parents/kin at community-based organizations across LA County — where, even amid doctoral research examining California’s foster youth education nexus and relational anti-Blackness within equity-minded reforms, he continued showing up for youth and families overrepresented in the child welfare system. By the time he was sworn in as a CASA in October 2024, he wasn’t arriving new to this work. He was coming home to it. 

A deeper current runs beneath that commitment. Joshua’s paternal grandmother arrived in Watts from Louisiana as an 11-year-old orphan during the 1920s Great Migration, raised by her older sister’s family. A century later, her grandson is in the neighborhood — making sure a young Black man with limitless potential has the support he needs to achieve his goals and thrive. 

For nearly two years, Joshua has advocated for a CASA youth transitioning from foster care to a non-minor dependent home. He became his youth’s educational rights holder and helped him become a beneficiary of AB 216: a California law enabling foster youth to graduate high school by meeting minimum state requirements. He’s also guided his youth through workforce training, dual enrollment, securing his first transitional housing program (THP) apartment, and building genuine healthy relationships. 

His advocate supervisor, Chelsea O’Neill, offers this: 

“Joshua Prudhomme is a diligent and passionate advocate who consistently demonstrates unwavering commitment to the youth he serves. He is highly resourceful and continually seeks to deepen his knowledge of available services and support to better meet his youth’s needs.” 

“Most importantly, he courageously uses his voice to speak up for those who may otherwise go unheard, advocating fiercely for the well-being and success of his youth. It is a privilege to work with him!” 

A Baldwin Hills–Crenshaw resident and Founder & Principal of JP Consulting — Joshua Prudhomme leads a social-impact consultancy specializing in cross-sector partnerships with public institutions, funders, nonprofits, and communities to advance racial equity, restorative justice, and transformative systems change. His volunteer work, he notes, is an extension of that mission. 

Thank you, Joshua, for your fantastic efforts as a CASA! We truly appreciate you.

Every month, museums across Los Angeles offer free entry on specific days. Find out more here.

When: Tuesday, April 21st at 1:30pm

Where: CASA’s home in Santa Monica

We’re Reading: Wards of the State by Claudia Crowe

RSVP: contact Lisa Baskin (ba*****@*******al.net)

*Space is limited to those with completed COVID-19 vaccines.

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