Lutheran Social Services of Southern California (LSSSC) - a leading provider of social services programs in Southern California – announces the recent appointment of Elin Zerai, MSW as Senior Director for the nonprofit’s San Bernardino and Riverside Community Wellness Campus programs. The former foster youth turned clinical social worker, Zerai oversees programs in the Inland Empire which includes a 38-million-dollar expansion for the organization’s Community Wellness Center in the City of San Bernardino
Licensed in six counties, Lutheran Social Services provides local programs and case management, a food pantry, housing counseling, peer training programs, and assistance to victims of domestic or other forms of violence.
“As both an immigrant and a former foster youth, I was motivated by a dedicated social worker to turn my life around many years ago and this position with Lutheran Social Services gives me the opportunity to help others – to see themselves in a different light,” said Zerai.
Elin’s decades of experience as a clinical social worker have equipped her as a regional and topical expert. Her first five years of work with adolescents and transitional-aged youth led her to successfully lobby for AB12, which transformed the foster system and extended foster care to age 26. She then worked as a medical social worker in an Emergency and Trauma Unit and at the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), where she led numerous initiatives, peer-to-peer training, and vital family education services addressing early signs of mental health challenges among youth and children.
At Lutheran Social Services, Elin will utilize these cumulative skills to deliver trauma-informed and whole-person care services that best advance individual and community health.
For more information about Lutheran Social Services Southern California visit, www.lsssc.org or call (714) 685-1800 ext. 1213.
About Lutheran Social Services of Southern California
For 76 years, Lutheran Social Services of Southern California (LSSSC) has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to helping the most vulnerable families and individuals in Southern California. LSSSC is a social ministry organization with the Lutheran Services of America, one of the largest health and human service networks in America. Partners and funders include the San Bernardino County Department of Behavioral Health, and US Departments of Education, Housing and Urban Development, Health and Human Services. The history of LSSSC dates back to 1944 when a handful of congregants from Lutheran churches in San Diego began providing services and resources to veterans returning home. This group joined with like-minded congregants in Los Angeles and formed Lutheran Social Services in 1946. Today, LSSSC employs almost 200 caring and dedicated staff that deliver more than 30 programs across six counties. Ignited by faith, we live out God’s love by embracing, equipping, and empowering vulnerable people in Southern California.