Sule’s Story: Inside One of California’s Most Troubled Juvenile Homes

The calls for help came day and night from the group home for troubled children in Yolo County. But the response was too little and too late.

Illustration by Marina Luz for ProPublica

The illustrated documentary short "Level 14" takes us inside California’s broken group home system, as seen through the eyes of Sule Anibaba. Sule worked as a counselor for nearly five years at a Level 14 group home that once housed some of the state’s most disturbed and vulnerable children.

This video recounts the day-to-day challenges and dangers faced by residents and staff of the home before it was raided by police and eventually shut down. Our partners at ProPublica produced this documentary, as well as a longform text piece about Level 14. ProPublica talked to investigative reporter Joaquin Sapien and multimedia journalist Carrie Ching about their investigation of the home run by a company called EMB Families First, Sule’s story, and how they translated such sensitive material into an illustrated film.