Imperial County

Department of Social Services

Children and Family Services (CWS)

Child Welfare Services with a  staff of 69 employees provides a variety of services to children and families. The goal of CWS is to promote child safety, permanency and provide family maintenance services.

Emergency Response

The Emergency Response Unit provides 24-hour in-person response seven days a week to reports of abuse, neglect, or exploitation. The purpose is to investigate and determine the necessity for providing initial intake services and crisis intervention to maintain the child safely in his/her own home, or to protect the safety of the child through emergency shelter care. The intake unit took over 1,370 calls though the child abuse hotline during the 2004-2005 fiscal year. Of those calls 1,115 were reports of abuse or neglect where a referral was generated for the emergency response unit to assess for risk and safety. Another 255 callers received information and referrals to resources in the community.

Family Support Services

Family Support Services are primarily community-based prevention activities to which families are referred. The activities alleviate stress and promote improved and positive parenting skills and behaviors to increase the ability of families to nurture their children.

Family Maintenance

Family Maintenance consists of time-limited services that were designed to provide in-home protective services when the child can remain safely at home. The services may be court ordered or accepted by families on a voluntary basis.

Foster Care (out-of-home care)

The purpose of this program is to protect those children who cannot remain safely in their homes. Placement options include relatives and licensed foster family homes, foster family agencies, or group homes. It also includes payments to cover the cost of providing food, clothing, shelter, daily supervision, school supplies, a child’s personal incidentals and reasonable travel for family visitation to maintain family connection. Social workers travel out of county monthly to visit approximately 60 children. The daily average of children at the Betty Jo McNeece Receiving Home was 16.

Family Reunification

Family reunification is a time-limited service to children in out-of-home care to prevent or remedy neglect, abuse or exploitation when the child cannot remain safely at home and needs temporary foster care while reunification services are provided to the family.

Kinship Guardianship Assistance Payment (Kin-GAP)

Kin-GAP is a program for foster children who have been in foster care placement for at least 12 months  and are living with relative foster parents. The relative foster parents must be willing to make a permanent commitment to care for the child and accept legal guardianship. They gain desired freedom from the foster care system and control over the child’s welfare without intrusion into family life. Monthly payments equal to the basic monthly foster care rate are issued through the Kin-GAP program upon dismissal of the child’s dependency case. Currently, approximately 60 children receive Kin-GAP payments in Imperial County.

Permanent Placement

The Permanent Placement Unit provides alternative family structures for children who, because of abuse, neglect or exploitation cannot safely return home. These services are provided when there has been a judicial determination of a permanent plan for adoption, legal guardianship, or long-term care.

Independent Living Program (ILP)

The ILP provides education and services for both current and former foster youth ages 14-21 based on a needs assessment and is designed to help them successfully transition from foster care to adulthood. These services are provided to enhance basic living skills, employment skills and promote vocational training and higher education. The county also provides emancipation services and aftercare for persons between the ages of 18-21. Staff works closely with two local ILP contractors, Imperial Valley College and Imperial Valley Regional Occupational Program/Accessing Careers through Education (IVROP/ACE) to provide these services.

Adoption

Adoption services provide permanency and stability to children. In cases where a child cannot be returned to the care of the parent or guardian, an alternative permanent plan is arranged. Adoption is the preferred option. The adoption program provides a full range of adoption services and ongoing support, including recruitment of potential adoptive parents and financial assistance to support the adoption of foster and special needs children. A total of 35 adoptions were finalized in fiscal year 2004-2005.

Foster Family Home Licensing and Relative Home Approval

These services include recruitment and promotion of safe family homes for children in out-of-home care. These homes are licensed or approved by the county and are primarily a temporary placement for children in the reunification program.

Highlights

In this past year, approximately 50 youth left Foster Care, Kin-GAP and probation programs. There were 16 high school/GED graduates, 7 enrolled in junior college, 2 enlisted in the military, 2 entered vocational training and 15 became employed. On June 23, 2005, CWS held the First Annual Graduation and Emancipation Recognition Celebration. Certificates of Recognition were presented to the 15 youth that attended the event.

Foster homes increased from 71 to 87 and relative homes increased from 60 to 80, a total of 36 additional homes this fiscal year. In May 2005, the annual Resource Family Appreciation Day was held. Workshops were offered to caregivers to enhance their skills and provide resources to support them as they care for children placed in their homes.

Assembly Bill 636, signed in 2001, requires an outcomes-based accountability system for Child Welfare Agencies in the areas of safety, permanency and well-being. This includes mandated activities such as the County Self-Assessment (CSA), System Improvement Plan (SIP) and Peer Quality Case Review. Every three years, the county is required to assess how it performs on each of the outcomes.

¨ The County Self-Assessment involved the entire community in assessing the strengths of Child Welfare Services and identifying areas needing improvement. Through collaborative efforts, a team comprised of local agencies and service providers met to complete the CSA by June 2004.

¨ Through continued partnerships, a SIP was completed and submitted to the State. In September 2004, the Imperial County board of Supervisors approved the SIP as the operational agreement between the county and state that outlines how the Children and Family Services section plans to improve its system of Child Welfare Services.

¨ CWS coordinated with the Public Child Welfare Training Academy, Imperial County Probation and other counties to conduct a Peer Quality Case Review in April 2005. The purpose of the review was to identify the strengths and challenges of county CWS delivery systems and social work practices.

¨ To further support changes and enhancements to improve outcomes for children and families, the Board of Supervisors approved 12 additional CWS positions in November 2004.

The Parent and Children Together (PACT) Project is a partnership newly developed with Behavioral Health to provide intensive case management and support for parents whose children have been removed from their homes. The goal is to increase timely and successful reunifications of children with their families through specialized strength-based, family focused services.

Judges, Attorneys, Clerks, CASA and Services (JACCS) was established this fiscal year which is a collaboration of local judges, attorneys, court clerks, court appointed child advocates and Children and Family Services staff. JACCS meets quarterly to discuss enhancements or improvements to the juvenile court process for children and families.

Children and Family Services staff strive to have children remain in their own homes whenever possible. Differential response, implemented this past year, is a new proactive practice in child welfare. This new approach is designed to respond to child abuse/neglect where there is low to moderate risk and assessments indicate that, with targeted services, a family is likely to make the improvements needed to maintain children safe and families intact. These families are linked to community services to provide a multi-disciplinary approach in working with families.