Center for Family Strengthening receives two major grants

Posted: 9:02 am, September 16, 2016 by Guest Contributor

By Ann Berry Gallegos

Grants from the State Office of Child Abuse Prevention will improve child abuse prevention outcomes

–Center for Family Strengthening has received a $70,000 grant from The Office of Child Abuse Prevention to be funded at a level of $35,000 per fiscal year beginning July 2016, and ending June 30, 2018. The purpose of this grant is to develop regional collaborative networks between Child Abuse Prevention Councils and community stakeholders, to improve child abuse prevention outcomes.

CFS as a key member of the Coastal Tri-Counties Child Abuse Prevention Coalition (San Luis Obispo, Ventura, and Santa Barbara Counties) will collaborate to support and strengthen parenting and parental resilience throughout the Tri-County Region. The coalition will establish an organizational model to support regional parent engagement for the purpose of policy development and effective marketing to create awareness of prevention messages.

The Coastal Tri-County Coalition will:

Establish a shared vision for change that includes a common understanding of regional child abuse and neglect issues.
Establish a joint prevention approach through agreed-upon actions.
Adopt a shared measurement system and learn from successes and failures.
Develop parent education resources and parent leadership approaches for a diverse group of stakeholders.

CFS has also been selected to participate in Strategies 2.0 in which OCAP has invested $2.5 million in training and technical assistance for family strengthening and child abuse prevention throughout California. CFS receives a three-year award of $35,000 to participate in a rigorous development path for professional staff. Strategies 2.0 provides an online foundation course for individuals at all levels, which augments intermediate certification and senior credential levels. There will be Regional Learning Communities, technical assistance, and train-the-trainers opportunities to address the range of needs to help agencies and networks increase their impact on families and communities.

“We are thrilled to receive these two significant grants,” said Executive Director of Center for Family Strengthening Lisa Fraser. “We are an active member of Coastal Tri-Counties Child Abuse Prevention Coalition and have seen a notable decline in our rates of substantiated child abuse cases. Our collective vision is that no child should suffer from abuse or neglect. These funds will help us expand our proven family-strengthening programs across the region to reduce child abuse.”

To donate or learn more about Center for Family Strengthening go to www.cfsslo.org or call (805) 543-6216.