THE WORK OF THE ORANGE COUNTY CHILDREN’S PARTNERSHIP

The Orange County Children’s Partnership (OCCP) is a unified voice that champions health, education, safety and economic stability by advancing more responsive services that effectively meet the needs of children and families in Orange County communities.

Since 1982, the OCCP, comprised of public and community agencies, has worked tirelessly to address the changing needs of Orange County’s children, and create an environment in which all children can thrive. We believe by aligning our efforts we can achieve high impact results. Our priority areas are:

• Child Abuse/Neglect – WE CAN Coalition1

• Childhood Obesity

• Commercially Sexually Exploited Children

• Continuum of Care Reform (Assembly Bill 403)

• Early Childhood Development

• Food Security

• Mental Health Advocacy for Adolescents

Continuum of Care Reform

While the OCCP’s priorities cross many areas, the implementation of Assembly Bill 403, approved by Governor Brown in 20152, continues to be our immediate focus due to the magnitude of restructuring, licensing and training requirements of resource families. Over the past year, the OCCP put structures in place to ensure alignment and coordination, such as increased communication, increased transparency, and increased connectivity with the state for compliance with rules and regulations and timelines.

The OCCP organized two subcommittees and one ad hoc committee (see diagram). These subcommittees report to the OCCP regularly to obtain critical feedback.

Successes in this past year include:

• Group homes are beginning to transition to short-term residential therapeutic programs (STRTPs) and obtain provisional licenses. Initial concern that some group homes would close given new requirements has been alleviated.

• The Social Services Agency (SSA) has a closer working relationship with foster family agencies, relying on them to train and certify community members as resource families. This relationship allows SSA to focus on training and certifying kin care to become resource families. Improved referral processes have been established

• OCCP partners have begun to explore a secured facility for commercially sexually exploited children and youth with substance use disorders and other high needs to ensure they are safe and able to obtain needed treatment.

Remaining challenges include:

• Meeting the needs of Orange County’s high needs youth including: obtaining wraparound services for high needs youth placed with resource families to ensure needs are being met, and youth can remain in home; and finding families that can take emergency placements, sibling sets and children with enhanced behavioral and medical needs.

• The magnitude of changes all at once continue to challenge the system. The goal is to ensure Assembly Bill 403 is implemented in a timely fashion while meeting the needs of our most fragile and marginalized children.

OCCP has begun to track county and state legislation that impacts children and families. In the future, the OCCP may recommend and collectively take action on these legislative opportunities.