Since its founding in 1979, the mission of California Social Welfare Archives (CSWA) is to collect and preserve documents and personal histories that illuminate the development of social issues and problems in the field of health, social work and social welfare in California, as well as the answers that have emerged to cope with such problems.

The June L. Mazer Lesbian Collection, formerly the West Coast Lesbian Collections, was founded in Oakland, California, in 1981. Six years later it was moved to Los Angeles by Connexxus Women's Center/Centro de Mujeres, and it acquired its present name in 1987 after the death of June L. Mazer, a community activist and an invaluable supporter of the collection.