 Hi, welcome to end of the studio. My name is Lori. I'll ready. I'm your moderator for this program This program tonight will be on child abuse prevention and joining me in the studio is Katie Vegas Who is the executive director of the yellow County Children's Alliance next to her is yellow County border supervisor Jim Jim Provenza and you're also chair of the yellow County Children's Alliance next to Jim is Alyssa Sykes Who is the division manager of the children's services for the Department of Employment and Social services for yellow County, right? Yes Well, welcome everyone. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you as I said, we're going to talk about child abuse prevention, which is a very serious topic and one that we hope tonight to raise a little bit awareness about and to Help folks at home who want to learn about more resources that might be available to learn about that and learn about what's being done in Yellow County by not only the Children's Alliance, but other agencies in and the county to help families who might need some support and education and tools to help them Be better parents and take but take good care of their children. So starting with you Katie Could you tell us a little bit about what the Children's Alliance is doing? And some of your programs that are combating child abuse Certainly the Children's Alliance was established by the Board of Supervisors in 2002 as a the Child Abuse Prevention Council And we are considered the county's non-profit. So we are super excited to be here talking about child abuse prevention efforts They we actually coordinate a few things for Yellow County. We do a countywide yellow family strengthening network We do child abuse prevention month activities and we have child abuse prevention programs through the Children's Alliance Well, Alyssa, maybe you could tell us a little bit set the stage for how serious of a problem in Yellow County is Child abuse well last year Yellow County Child Welfare received about 2,000 reports of suspected child abuse or neglect of the 2,000 reports about half were investigated and Of those investigated about 40 percent were substantiated So about 20 percent of the total referrals received were substantiated as Children being victims of abuse or neglect so nearly 400 cases correct in Yellow County. So That's a serious problem. That's a lot of children. It is so Katie Maybe you could show us a little bit about What happens to you brought some dolls? so maybe with the dolls you could demonstrate a couple of the Problems that happens with in this particular. What's set up? This is a lot of tuition on this one. Yes our doll Valentina that was provided to us by the Davis Rotary and it would this is a doll that has a computer chip inside and it's Made to assimilate a real-life situation. So this doll cries It wets its pants. It needs changing. It needs Susan soothing. So this has been used by the Yellow County Courts to Give a trial run for some parents to see if they're ready to take on parenting challenges. So this doll can be set to Sort of fussy to really fussy and we can take this doll and send it home with parents They can try it out for a weekend and we can get the computer chip out at the end of the weekend and see how the parents have Responded to the needs of the baby. So the parent doesn't set What the child is going to behave like then that's preset preset and pre and the parent Knows that this child is is it's not a surprise. It's not anything that they don't understand It's very well explained and account their counsel through the process and this is what a real-life baby is going to behave like Exactly, so sometimes it's great. Sometimes it's fussy exactly So sometimes it needs feeding sometimes it needs its diapers changed So it's been a great tool for us and it has been used with some parents and it gives the Children's Alliance Home visitors a chance to work with the families on specific needs that they have so maybe they could work on bonding issues or whatnot And it's been a valuable tool for the children's lives. Do you have we have one? These are very expensive dolls about $1,500 apiece. So we're super excited to have this and it's worked very well So is it through your home visiting program or are there other ways that parents could or soon to be parents It's usually ordered by the yellow County Courts or Sometimes is recommended that okay, we try this out with parents. So that's a sweet-looking little baby Another one the other doll that we brought These beautiful blankets are made for by project Linus out of Davis. So yes, give them some shout out This baby is a drug affected baby So you can tell by the bowed legs and the thin arms and legs But the most interesting thing about this baby is that it has a real cry from a drug affected baby So if you listen here That that cries sounds a little different so Is that something typical if a baby is born with the drugs in its system? Yes Actually, it has a kind of a rattle to it You can see it shaking and trembling and it's pretty much unconsolable the babies that come can be pretty much unconsolable So it can make it can have a huge impact on the stress of the baby and the stress of the parents Wow So well, thank you. I think people at home can see that that's That's a sad situation when a baby is born with and assume it has drugs in its system or the mother the pregnant woman was Addicted to drugs during the pregnancy and The baby then is affected that way. Do you have any sense of how long or is it permanent with a child that's born? It can be permanent Sometimes we'll have a foster Parents step in where a child is a baby's actually been removed from the home or the parents can't care for the child the foster family will step in in that situation and there are people that foster parents Particularly trained to take care of this type of infant and then we have backup From a crisis nursery to provide respite to that parent So there's there's a lot of ways that we could provide assistance to a child that's in this situation so ongoing support from the county which Would be very important. I would think it is there's the child usually removed from the home if No, that's not the first that's the last resort the first resort is to try to provide assistance to the family To develop a plan to make sure that the child is is properly taken care of and one of the resources we have for Families with a with a child particularly one who who might be difficult to care for is the crisis nursery It is a small home in Davis that we can utilize for parents throughout the county where volunteers will come in and take care of the baby for several hours a day with Assistance provided to the parent during that time so that the parent can get back in a place where they can care for the child And that's broader than simply babies who may have Drug issues. There's also for any family in a crisis, correct with the family. Oh, absolutely The typical Family has a support system and say grandparents and uncle that if they're in a crisis They're they're experiencing stress. Maybe they're sick. Maybe somebody's been called to work And there is nobody to take care of the child in an emergency Some people don't have that support system There's nobody to call and that's why we have the crisis nursery because now there is a support system for our families Which is one of the many things that are available to help families in Yolo County But also Katie the Children's Alliance is involved in a family strengthening Network exactly a little bit about that So the family strengthening network is a network of nonprofits and county agencies and we've combined it with our advisory council for the Children's Alliance and it works on looking at families through a positive lens basically and looking at their strengths What rather than their weaknesses which is a I think a better way to work with families and knowing that they're the experts And Alyssa can help me here The we're trying to integrate the goal of the family strengthening network is to integrate this positive framework Into all agencies working with families. So we're all talking the same language We're all looking at it at a family focused positive lens rather than so a lot of coordination with the various groups And can you talk about that a little bit exactly and really shared values about how we work with families and the goals that we're trying to achieve and So how is the Children's Alliance helping to coordinate or facilitate the coordination then between the various agencies Well because we're the Child Abuse Prevention Council. We actually lead this role, but we really work with Department of Employment and Social Services Yolo County Health Department first five Yolo the libraries and a nonprofit leaders Yolo family housing Everybody that's working with families in the community to try to get them to integrate the five protected factors in their Day-to-day work with families and what are the five protective factors? So parental resilience Social connections knowledge of parenting and child development. So you're using age-appropriate interactions with your child Concrete support in times of need which are family resource centers are a great example of that and social and emotional Competence of children. Okay, very good. And how is the home visiting program of the Children's Alliance? Fitting into the family strengthening. Well, it's a great example of family strengthening everything that the the nationally accredited step-by-step home visiting program does is a great resource for parents they work one-on-one with parents so they could work They could start during pregnancy and go up through five years Until the first child was five years old. So it's a great one-on-one experience. They teach parenting They do child development they connect them with social connections whether it be food housing clothing whatever the family needs Those family support workers can help great. So it sounds like a lot of coordination going on throughout the county with the various agencies and Maybe Jim you could talk a little bit about how the integration of health and mental services and Department of Employment and Social Services how all of that coming together is is helping families Well, the county is restructuring its social services in the past. We we had silos. We had drug treatment employment services Child protective services all the different services in their separate silos And so if a person was to go in for a particular service they might be sent across town for something else and then someplace else for a different service and It it doesn't work so well. Sometimes the person never gets to the second or third place With a reorganization, we're going to treat the individual holistically so if you have a family or child come in they would go to the the family and a child branch and receive wraparound services we would look at the individual and decide what services they need and Deliver it in that one location so that all of the services were coordinated and all the providers would be talking to each other Sometimes someone comes in With one issue and they have two or three other issues or the issue that's really crucial They haven't even come to talk to you about they've come to talk about something else so this method has been proven to work in other areas and I think when we when we fully implement it will be providing much better services and much better case management of the family unit as a whole because I think like what you just said that if they have to do to go to various silos or different departments and different locations for each Individual need some of those needs are not going to be met. Well, absolutely. Absolutely managing the case Multidisciplinary teams and the goal and we're going to be Monitoring these programs towards the goal of making this person's life better that the question that the board of supervisors and our Administrators are going to be asking is what did you accomplish in the lives of these individuals in this case? What did you accomplish in the life of this child? Not how many units of service did you provide? Right exactly? So I know that the children's Alliance Katie a big big Portion of what you do is child abuse prevention and it's not when people think of child abuse They often think of the physical abuse, but there's also the neglect factor and maybe you could talk a little bit all of you about How children are affected by neglect and then when you're done with that? I want to talk you brought a video So we want to go to that too, but exactly can you educate people a little bit about what neglect looks like? Well, I know that and neglect is probably one of the most common forms of child abuse in Yolo County and I know it with it with the Family Resource Center network throughout Yolo County Not only with the Children's Alliance, but also with Center for Families and Rise Incorporated We have eight family resource centers throughout the county and we all provide food distribution We all help folks get housing. We all help folks get health insurance and CalFresh So hopefully making low-income families less likely to be a neglectful Situation so I think that that provides a safety net of services for all families But I'll let Alyssa say anything that she wants to add into that now I think that that's really accurate and Most families do the best they can with what they have and if we can help them have a stronger Infrastructure to really meet the needs of their children That really is the goal and I think that's a beautiful segue into what we were going to do next which the Children's Alliance brought a video of the Annual community giveaway day that you sponsor and organize in West Sacramento Can you tell us what we're gonna see in the video and then we're gonna take a look? Well, this is one of my favorite events and it happens in West Sacramento I think we're on our eighth annual this year and it's always the Saturday before Thanksgiving And it's a place where about 400 families In this case from West Sacramento can get food clothing toys blankets Jackets for and household items For their families and so it there are our list has been filling up pretty quick And we're usually book solid before we get there, but it's a great place for people to volunteer It's always makes you feel really good about the holidays and how you can make a difference in the lives of families But I'll let the video do the talk. Well, let's take a look at the Ola County Children's Alliance Video of their annual community giveaway day. Yeah, I guess I'm an executive director of the Ola County Children's Alliance This is our seventh annual community giveaway day in West Sacramento And it all started with my son Vincent Who adopted a family on West capital Avenue and decided that that wasn't enough that we needed to do more So it turned into this and we're really excited. It's been a blast What we do is we help out the families here in West Sacramento We give them food bags as you can see here With turkeys in them and we give away toys and blankets and clothes to about 400 families here in no sack, and it's just been a great experience No, man, I mean I'm it. He'll come up on top of a Nougat, I guess up on the right We don't know if they were the first I don't know if you can even I'm a single father with six children So This is a blessing for me That they're doing something to you before forever when you know You know, I'm really needed Yeah, I'm just an average guy But unimportant for the past two years, you know friend of mine told me about this place here and Went down and I said, all right, they gave me a little voucher to come down there get a meal for my family Okay, so you're gonna be paired one-to-one with a family They're gonna come in they're gonna give you their card and that family is your responsibility Just toys and turkey Come eat Toys for for kids a few things for a little boy Thank you Thank you Gracias, thank you That is such a wonderful video Thank you so much for bringing it and sharing it talk a little bit about during the time the video was being shown You mentioned there's wonderful volunteer opportunities at community giveaway day. So can you talk a little bit about that? Absolutely anybody wanting to volunteer for the community giveaway day again the Saturday before Thanksgiving always the Saturday before Thanksgiving We set up on Friday and we distribute everything on Saturday can contact our office and our webs or through our website www.yolokids.org and We also have a weekly food distribution that folks can volunteer at and we take you know if kids are off for the summer We love to have volunteers every Friday And if they in West Sacramento and every other Tuesday in Clarksburg and that's part of your family resource center program the food distribution Right, absolutely. Okay. Yes, and Jim, maybe you can talk a little bit speaking of FRC's and the family resource centers Supervisor, could you talk a little bit about how the county is Co-locating with some of the FRC's throughout Yolo County and how that's happening both. Yes, we have done it In winters and we plan to expand throughout the county that resource centers Of course are where people are used to going to get food on a weekly basis They go and get food there. They go for other services and some of these people never make it to a county office They don't come to woodland. They don't come to the branch offices If we locate in those centers We will reach people where they are comfortable in going and we will be much more effective in delivering the services And that goes with the overall a model of coordinating services because we will be Providing services to that individual as they walk in the door and coordinating with the resource centers that the private nonprofit Cooperating with a county and working together towards a mutual goal I think that's where we would like to get get to and I think will be much more effective well, that makes a lot of sense and I know there's a lot of case management services offered at the family resource centers and a Lot of parent education and a lot of playgroup types of things There are eight family resource centers in Yolo County. Is that correct? Yes, and that's spread out everywhere from nights landing to winters Asparto West Sacramento Clarksburg, right? That's correct here in Davis There should be a family resource center somewhere close to you if you're and you can call the county I would assume Alyssa if we if they needed information as to where the family resource centers are located absolutely Okay, well, they're also on first five Yolo website. That's true. They are very good. Thank you for that So Jim talk about some other models of collaboration that you're familiar with that also support families well the family justice centers which exist in in many counties and throughout California and many other states are a way of Focusing services in child abuse and domestic violence cases in one location You have the same problem right now when somebody comes in with a child abuse case or domestic violence case They they have they go from office to office for those services at a time. They're under extreme stress They may need a restraining order They may be going through the criminal court system as a witness a family justice center brings the the victim into one Location brings all the services to the victim and make sure that they receive everything they need to correct that situation whether it be counseling a Contact with law enforcement help with a civil restraining order Interview teams to talk to the children who may be witnesses or may be suffering as a result of what's happened right now we're looking at at Developing a family justice program in in Yolo County and that issue is going to come before the board Within the next couple months Another model I mentioned which we do have in Yolo County is the crisis nursery and Through the generosity really of people in Davis and throughout Yolo County Most of the funding for that has been raised privately the county gave some funds We are also asking the state to begin funding crisis nurseries There's only a handful in the whole state and we would like to see that successful model Extended throughout the state of California and the one that we have and we only have one in Yolo County, correct in Davis Yes, and it's located in Davis But any family throughout the county any family throughout the county can you utilize it and it is right on a Yolo bus Line so it's a very convenient to get to from throughout the county and then we Provide transportation when it's necessary that that service is is probably one of our most effective child abuse prevention tools And Katie you have some exciting news going on with your home visiting step-by-step program, right? We do you know I think everybody's aware of the cuts in first five funding So our home visiting program that was formerly funded by first five Yolo is now going to be Getting state funding so it's awesome This is four years in the making and we're going to be allowed to expand that program by one home visitor serving a hundred families And we are tremendously excited about that and talk a little bit about what happens in the step-by-step program You shared about the babies and and that's part of the program where a family could Take the doll baby home for a while and get some practice and taking care of a little little newborn And what are the other kind of services that are offered through the step-by-step program? Well, usually a lot of our it's a bilingual program. We have Family support workers that speak Spanish and that's our target population with Spanish-speaking families and the home visitor will go in and meet with the the mom usually prenatally hopefully They're eligible when they are Three months before the baby is born and up to five years like I said So it's a long-term Intensive case management in the beginning the visits are pretty frequently and then they graduate out to different levels throughout the program But the the staff are highly trained paraprofessionals that teach parenting skills budgeting skills child development skills and Expectations and work really Individually with what each family needs so it's a wonderful program. It's nationally accredited It's been in place for almost seven years now, and it's it's incredibly successful The breastfeeding rates are high the literacy rates are high It's a wonderful program. So what other types of Information or support do you have for parents and in the last couple of minutes that we have here? If you could just share What resources you might have available for parents if they contact the Children's Alliance? Well, like I said go to our website yellow kids org But one of the new tools that we have is this parent toolkit, and it's called talk post play equals connect And it's age-appropriate suggestions for parents to work with their children and from activities to Books to all kinds of ways to bond and connect and you can find this on our website April 1st So they'll be able to download it from the website exactly and age-appropriate and like to remind everybody else that April 3rd is wear blue for child abuse prevention awareness and It contact our office with any questions that you have. Yes, so April is child abuse prevention month Yes every year and so if this is airing past April Just know that every year in April there's a huge campaign in Yolo County and around the country To help people become more aware of child abuse prevention and what they can do to help families So once again one more time on the website We're nearing the time to end the show and yellow kids org Okay, or they can call our office directly at 7 5 7 5 5 5 8 great, and you can watch this program again Anytime I think it's video on demand if you go to DC TV dot Davis media dot org and you can view the program again if you would like to So I'd like to thank the guests in the studio Katie VA guesting Supervisor Jim Provenza and Alyssa Sykes Thank you so much for being here. It was very very informative. Thank you. Thank you and Thanks for watching