Building on a previous assessment, the authors conduct an evaluation of the second year of the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health's (LACDMH's) Anti-Racism, Inclusion, Solidarity, and Empowerment (ARISE) leadership training series. They find high satisfaction with the training, positive outcomes for trainees, and favorable attitudes toward diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in the LACDMH workplace.

Evaluating Year Two of the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health's Anti-Racism, Inclusion, Solidarity, and Empowerment (ARISE) Leadership Training

Graham DiGuiseppi, Samantha Matthews, Rebecca L. Collins, Nicole K. Eberhart

ResearchPublished Nov 12, 2025

The Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health (LACDMH) is the largest county mental health department in the United States, and it implements a variety of cultural competency initiatives to improve the quality of mental health services to Los Angeles County residents. In fiscal year 2023–2024, LACDMH introduced the Anti-Racism, Inclusion, Solidarity, and Empowerment (ARISE) leadership training series, which was provided to upper-level managers and assessed in 2024 by RAND evaluators. In fiscal year 2024–2025, LACDMH expanded the training to mid-level managers. In this report, the authors conduct an evaluation of the second year of this training series.

The authors evaluated trainees' satisfaction with and perceptions of the training and the efficacy of the training in meeting its stated goal of promoting anti-racist, transformational leadership practices. They examined changes in trainees' knowledge and behavior that they measured through surveys of trainees and LACDMH staff that trainees directly supervise. They use their evaluation findings to make recommendations for ways that LACDMH can improve on the training series.

Key Findings

  • Trainees were highly satisfied with the training and reported increased knowledge in the four main learning areas. Trainees also reported increased abilities to foster a diverse climate and practice inclusive leadership skills, and they reported believing that psychological safety increased among their staff from before to after the training.
  • Similar to our prior evaluation, staff supervised by trainees did not perceive a change in their managers' leadership practices. One exception was an increase in the percentage of staff who said that their manager advocates for policy changes related to diversity, equity, or inclusion. Most staff endorsed items that reflected generally good leadership skills among their managers.
  • Most trainees and staff had positive attitudes toward diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in the workplace, and among those who noticed policy changes at the LACDMH, most said that these changes made the environment more inclusive.
  • Our evaluation found positive outcomes from the ARISE trainings for leaders in phase one and middle-level managers in phase two. If LACDMH were to expand the program further, staff in direct service roles would be a logical target audience, but modifications to the training should be considered.

Recommendations

  • LACDMH and the training developers should consider making some modifications to the training, including providing ongoing support or resources to help trainees address issues related to racism and social injustice, placing a continued emphasis on creating a culture of continuous learning at an organizational level, modifying the growth checkpoint discussions to make them more authentically engaging, and expanding the training to address issues related to other identities in addition to race.
  • If LACDMH were to expand the program further, staff in direct service roles would be a logical target audience, but modifications to the training should be considered.

Topics

Document Details

  • Copyright: California Mental Health Services Authority
  • Publisher: RAND Corporation
  • Availability: Web-Only
  • Year: 2025
  • Pages: 24
  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.7249/RRA4423-2
  • Document Number: RR-A4423-2

Citation

Chicago Manual of Style

DiGuiseppi, Graham, Samantha Matthews, Rebecca L. Collins, and Nicole K. Eberhart, Evaluating Year Two of the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health's Anti-Racism, Inclusion, Solidarity, and Empowerment (ARISE) Leadership Training. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2025. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA4423-2.html.
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Research conducted by

This evaluation was sponsored by the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health (LACDMH), via the California Mental Health Services Authority (CalMHSA) and conducted by the Population Health Program of RAND Health.

This publication is part of the RAND research report series. Research reports present research findings and objective analysis that address the challenges facing the public and private sectors. All RAND research reports undergo rigorous peer review to ensure high standards for research quality and objectivity.

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