Our History

Whole Systems Learning (WSL) was founded in 1996 as a community economic development organization with the purpose of establishing entrepreneurial training programs, a business incubator, and other programs to support neighborhood development, and operated an after school program at Imperial Courts in Watts, and a Saturday New Media program at Willowbrook Middle School in Compton.

Later that year, it was chartered by the State of California Bureau of Private Post Secondary Education as a vocational school for New Media located in South Los Angeles. In 2003, WSL developed an educational collaborative in Watts that resulted in the participation of thousands of community residents receiving tutoring, and in the design and implementation of alternative programs for suspended and expelled students. In 2006 WSL became a statewide certified supplemental educational service provider in the states of California and Washington, providing educational coaching and mentoring services in more than 20 school districts, including the Los Angeles County Office of Education.

Expanded services, including entrepreneurship training were provided in Juvenile Court schools, and hundreds of young people in Probation Placement have been served. In 2015, the TRIBE program was started, and expanded in 2018 from its original location in West Covina, CA to sites in Long Beach and Watts.

Our Present

Today in 2021, we still work with individuals in the community and provide them with wrap around case services like housing, clothing, mental health, and life coaching to help those individuals get onto a path of success and to help achieve their goals. For example, they may need a driver’s license, birth certificate, and social security. We can help walk individuals through every step of the process of how to get them the things they need.