Board Receives Report on Strong Families, Thriving Communities Initiative
The County Board of Supervisors received an in-depth look today at how the Strong Families, Thriving Communities initiative has improved the lives of minority families interacting with the County’s child welfare and juvenile justice systems.
Strong Families, Thriving Communities was created in 2017 in partnership with The San Diego Foundation and the Clinton Foundation. The collaboration was a response to national and local data that shows children of color, when compared to their white peers, have a disproportionate involvement in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems.
Since the program started, the County has worked with more than 100 community partners to examine challenges and identify solutions to make child welfare and juvenile justice systems more equitable for families and children.
Together with its partners, Strong Families, Thriving Communities created a Blueprint for Action. The initiative outlined 29 specific goals, including suggested system changes and timelines for completing them. Significant accomplishments of the three-year coalition include:
- Development of the Trauma-Informed Care Code of Conduct by youth to ensure that all child and family-serving systems and community supports have policies and practices that demonstrate trauma-informed principles.
- Creation of the San Diego Mentorship Network which supports the work of community mentors and evaluates the impact of mentoring.
- Partnership with the Health and Human Services Agency Behavioral Health Services in the creation of behavioral health hubs that increase access to clinical care in communities.
County departments have focused their efforts to ensure that all staff receive trainings in trauma-informed care and an awareness of how biases impact decisions, relationships, and healthy outcomes for children and families in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems.
For more information about the Strong Families, Thriving Communities initiative, visit The San Diego Foundation website.