California Scottish Rite Foundation gift to Cal State LA expands speech-language services to the community

Los Angeles, CA - The Rongxiang Xu College of Health and Human Services at Cal State LA has recently received a pledge of $386,500 from the California Scottish Rite Foundation to expand speech and language services offered to the Greater Los Angeles community.

Through the foundation's funding support, the Los Angeles Scottish Rite Childhood Language Program partners with the university's Department of Communication Disorders to cover operating expenses associated with services provided to underage clients at the Robert L. Douglass Speech-Language Clinic. Services covered include, but are not limited to, diagnosing, evaluating, and treating childhood speech, language, and literacy disorders.

The Robert L. Douglass Speech-Language Clinic at Cal State LA provides a full range of diagnostic and therapeutic services in a university environment. It offers services for children and adults with articulation, phonology, language, cognitive, voice, fluency, and hearing disorders. The clinic is part of a degree program that is accredited by the Council on Academic Accreditation.

"Our partnership with the Scottish Rite has created wonderful opportunities for our students, our clinic, our department, and the community we serve. Because of the generosity of the California Scottish Rite, our students and clients have access to cutting-edge materials and equipment," said Cari Flint, associate dean of the Rongxiang Xu College of Health and Human Services. Flint is also the former chair of the Department of Communication Disorders at Cal State LA who established the partnership with the California Scottish Rite Foundation.

The Department of Communication Disorders embraces a philosophy of clinical service delivery that is consistent with the ethical standards, scope of practice, and current standards of practice of the American Speech-Language Hearing Association.

Cal State LA students majoring in communication disorders are provided with the opportunity to become involved in the clinical process. Clinical assistants are paired with graduate student clinicians and a client for one semester at the Robert L. Douglass Speech-Language Clinic, which is also the site of the Los Angeles RiteCare Childhood Language Center.

The RiteCare Childhood Language Centers of California, a program of the California Scottish Rite Foundation, provides free speech, language, and literacy treatment of childhood language disorders at 19 RiteCare Childhood Language Centers in communities across California.

The California Scottish Rite Foundation is dedicated to supporting and assisting children in California by providing childhood speech-language, literacy, and education programs for a lifetime of improved communication and confidence. Established in 1977, the Los Angeles Scottish Rite Childhood Language Program has made a lasting difference in the lives of children in Los Angeles and the surrounding communities.

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California State University, Los Angeles is the premier comprehensive public university in the heart of Los Angeles. Cal State LA is ranked number one in the United States for the upward mobility of its students. Cal State LA is dedicated to engagement, service, and the public good, offering nationally recognized programs in science, the arts, business, criminal justice, engineering, nursing, education, and the humanities. Founded in 1947, the University serves more than 24,000 students and has more than 250,000 distinguished alumni.