Up to 80% of youth in foster care and 70% of youth who touch the juvenile justice system have significant mental health issues that are the result of both biological and environmental factors including exposure to trauma, violence, stress, and separation. The juvenile court can play an important role in addressing the need for care and supporting good mental health outcomes for youth. Keeping Kids in School and Out of Courts, an initiative of The California Courts, presents this series of seven bench cards and a linked Resource Guide to provide quick and easy-to-reference information on key topics.

insights Volume XVII, Part 1. This issue of insights is the first of a two-part edition to share definitions, data, and perspectives to further the understanding of the role of trauma at the individual, family, community and system level and perhaps more importantly, how to promote resilience and healing to improve outcomes for children and families. See Part 2.

The California Child Welfare Co-Investment Partnership is a collaboration of private and public organizations working to improve outcomes in the child welfare system, and insights is an ongoing publication of the Partnership that examines the links between data, policy, and outcomes for our state’s most vulnerable children and families.

insights Volume XVII, Part 2. This issue of insights is the second of a two-part edition to share definitions, data, and perspectives to further the understanding of the role of trauma at the individual, family, community and system level. Part 2 explores California’s progress on its implementation of trauma screening in pediatric settings for eligible children, youth, and adults. See Part 1.

The California Child Welfare Co-Investment Partnership is a collaboration of private and public organizations working to improve outcomes in the child welfare system, and insights is an ongoing publication of the Partnership that examines the links between data, policy, and outcomes for our state’s most vulnerable children and families.

In this brief, California Children’s Trust and First Five Center for Children’s Policy share their vision for a new approach for California to conceptualize, deliver, and fund a system of care—grounded in family wellness—for Medi-Cal eligible infants and toddlers.

In this brief, the California Children’s Trust and Children Now outline fiscal opportunities to initiate and invest in a fundamental re-imagining of how public child-serving systems approach and support children’s social, emotional, mental, and developmental health in California.

This document contains a set of practices intended to guide correctional administrators in their efforts to support parent-child relationships. We believe these practices hold promise for benefiting incarcerated parents and improving the lives of their children and families overall without compromising the safety and security of the correctional facility. This set of practices was created in collaboration with a subject matter expert committee selected for this project.

A shift from trauma informed care to healing centered engagement (HCE) is more than a semantic play with words, but rather a tectonic shift in how we view trauma, its causes and its intervention. HCE is strength based, advances a collective view of healing, and re-centers culture as a central feature in well-being.

“The Economics of Child Abuse” is a study quantifying the economic cost of child abuse to the state of California, Bay Area, and San Francisco.

Study of California (2019)

Study of the Bay Area (2018-2019)

Study of San Francisco (2017-2019)

In the Young Women’s Freedom Center’s work to decriminalize and decarcerate women, girls, and Trans and Gender Non-Conforming (TGNC) people of color, this first research project has developed a comprehensive analysis of the extent to which those on the margins have been criminalized in the context of the rise of mass incarceration over the past 50 years. Locally, our goal with this initial report is to reveal how regional institutions in California create a systemic criminalization of women, girls, and TGNC people of color. More broadly, the report challenges the structure and practices of patriarchy as they are embedded in criminal justice systems, the current economic landscape, and academic research.

This paper summarizes findings from a scan and brief analysis of the children’s mental health advocacy landscape in California that was conducted by i.e. communications. The paper also includes links to several databases with more information about the various organizations currently working in this space, as well as related efforts in other states. This is intended to help inform and ground further conversations among advocates, philanthropy, providers, and public agencies, with the hopes of moving forward in a more collaborative, coordinated and strategic manner toward a shared vision of child and youth well-being.

An Agenda to Transform Promises into Practice

Young Minds Advocacy uses communications and collaborative advocacy to help youth, their families, and communities access mental health services and supports, and improve mental health system performance. This report provides an overview of California’s publicly-funded youth mental health system, examines challenges related to access, coordination of services, quality of treatment, leadership and accountability, and provides recommendations for stakeholders and advocates.

Led by Dr. Jill Duerr Berrick, researchers at the University of California at Berkeley worked closely with staff from the child welfare agencies in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties to examine the economic well-being and characteristics of kin and non-kin caregivers. This report summarizes the findings.

The Alameda County Children of Incarcerated Parents Partnership and the San Francisco Children of Incarcerated Parents Partnership worked closely with the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office and the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department to conduct a first-of-its-kind survey of the entire jail population in both counties to better understand the numbers and realities of children with parents incarcerated in local jails. The report describes the methodology and presents detailed findings from the survey.

Young Minds Advocacy is a nonprofit organization founded in 2012 to address the number one health issue facing young people and their families—unmet mental health needs. Using a blend of policy research and advocacy, impact litigation, and strategic communications, YMA works to change attitudes towards mental illness and break down barriers to quality mental healthcare for young people and their families. This new report finds that thousands of juvenile justice-involved youth in California may be eligible for intensive home- and community-based mental health services, which could greatly improve the lives of these vulnerable young people.

This blueprint outlines the Youth Transition Funders Group’s ten tenets that lay the groundwork for juvenile justice reform in the United States. YTFG is composed of grantmakers who support policies and programs that treat youth like youth, and help governments and nonprofits preserve public safety and improve young people’s chances to become successful and productive adults.

California has emerged as a magnet for commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC). Following the release of this pivotal report In 2013, the California Child Welfare Council created a CSEC Action Team, a multidisciplinary group, to improve systems, policies, services and supports for sex-trafficked and at-risk children and their families.

The San Francisco Children of Incarcerated Parents Partnership works to improve the lives of children of incarcerated parents by increasing awareness of their needs, strengths and rights both within the public systems that most affect them and among the broader public. This ten-year anniversary report presents an overview of SFCIPP’s efforts, examining changes in systems, policies and practices, and addressing the needs of children with incarcerated parents.

The Zellerbach youth voice group is made up of organizations serving youth facing challenges including homelessness, incarceration, transitioning out of foster care, and mental health needs, casting a wide net that has changed the lives of thousands of young people. This retrospective evaluation explores youth voice as a strategy, and examines changes in policies, practices, and systems resulting from authentic youth engagement.