by Dennis Tivey, Communication & Outreach Coordinator
Santa
Barbara County has begun a planning process intended to significantly reduce
child abuse and neglect—by putting together a winning application to attend an
exclusive statewide summit, assembling a team of collaborative partners, and
holding a fruitful advance meeting between the County’s Child Abuse Prevention
Council (CAPC) and Child Welfare Services (CWS).
Background
A coalition
of statewide agencies—including the California Welfare Directors Association’s
Prevention Cabinet, the California Department of Social Services’ Office of
Child Abuse Prevention, and the Strategies 2.0 training network—is working to
elevate primary child maltreatment prevention strategies across the
state. As part of this effort, the coalition has planned a Prevention
Summit (to be held in conjunction with the International Child Maltreatment
Conference Jan. 28-Feb. 1 near San Diego).
Summit Goals
The summit is intended to spur a leap
forward in child abuse prevention and family well-being, by convening
cross-sector teams from select counties who are prepared to deepen their
collaboration and commit to a shared strategy. By participating in the summit,
counties can develop or strengthen a public-private partnership for
strengthening families, begin or strengthen a county-wide prevention plan, and commit
to an ongoing collaborative process with clear action steps.
Successful Application
On November
1, 2018, counties were invited to submit an application to attend the
summit. Selection criteria included cross-sector collaboration, leadership
commitment, and geographic and size diversity. Of California’s 58 counties, 33
applied and 22 were selected—including Santa Barbara County.
Collaborative Team
Counties were
required to identify a team of up to 10 collaborative partners to attend the
Summit together, to include decision-makers from across the spectrum of agencies
involved in child abuse prevention. Our team includes Barb Finch (CAPC), Amy
Krueger (CWS), Ashleigh Erving (Family Service Agency), Maria Chesley (Family
Resource Centers), Mari Ortega-Garcia (First 5), Kelley Barragan (Public
Health), Florene Bednersh (County Education Office), Cesar Arroyo (Community
Action Commission), Adolfo Garcia (CALM/Front Porch), and Arcelia Sencion
(People Helping People).
Advance Meeting
Once assembled, the team was required to meet to review data
and reports on their county’s current status, prevention goals, child and
family well-being; and define their desired objectives and outcomes going forward. Rather than meeting alone, the team took the opportunity to
hold a joint meeting together with CAPC and CWS stakeholders. A good mix
of about 40 people attended that January 17, 2019 meeting. Attendees reported
starting the meeting feeling curious and interested, and ending it feeling
inspired and hopeful.
Next Steps
Next stop: the statewide summit! The team will attend it together, along with the other selected county teams. They can expect to find inspiring examples of successful prevention strategies and
collaborations in California, and opportunities to learn from state and federal
policy leaders about their plans and priorities for prevention. The summit will
also provide the county teams with professional facilitation from Strategies
2.0 and OCAP staff, to help them as they develop their county action plans.
After the summit is over and the action plan is created, the
team will convene again within three months, to review progress and confirm the
structure for ongoing collaboration. A facilitator from the summit will be available
to help plan the agenda and facilitate the discussion.
Further information
Stay tuned for more updates after the
Summit! Meanwhile, you can find more information (including presentation
slides) here.