Updates
CCCS Prioritizing Strategies to Advance Racial Justice
CCCS is focused on advancing racial equity. All four CCCS communities identified the advancement of racial equity as one of their top four goals for children’s success. Our communities are more activated now than ever before to manifest that goal as our country contends with some of its ugliest racial injustices. The CCCS partners developed a list of ideas for how to meet the moment –ranging from resolutions codifying commitments to racial justice, community conversations on race, to police reform policies.
$100K Google Impact Funds to Support CCCS Priorities!
We are excited to share that we received $100,000 from Google Impact Fund in support of our CCCS joint proposal with Silicon Valley Community Foundation (SVCF) to support local community leaders to help Big Lift families navigate complex systems and resources to support family and children’s success. System navigation support was one of the top strategies to support youth success across all four CCCS communities.
Trauma-informed Leadership Training
Trauma Transformed leaders trained over 40 CCCS partners on June 1st on how to be a trauma-informed leader during this time of COVID crisis. They presented us with a framework to guide us – the 5 C’s of Leading During a Pandemic: 1) give people Clarity – keep staff up to date with clear, accurate and essential information. 2) build team Cohesion – trust and support others to speak vulnerability and freely, 3) Connect with youth people – connection is central to healing. 4) Communicate – early and often. 5) have Courage – prioritize progress over perfection. See the full 1-page overview.
Trauma-informed Leadership During Crisis
CCCS partners are leading our communities during this crisis but are struggling with the heavy loads and how to best support their teams and communities during this unique and uncertain time. Trauma Transformed will be doing a training for our CCCS network on June 1st focused on trauma-informed leadership specifically during times of crisis. We will share more in next month’s newsletter. Looking forward to learning!
Please Share Resources
As a community of families and community based leaders, the CCCS network is an important place to share resources and information that our families could use during this difficult time. We are emailing resources to our network weekly and any new opportunities would be appreciated. If you have services or resources you are aware of that are relevant to our CCCS families, please contact Shireen Malekafzali at smalekafzali@smcgov.org.
Family Priorities During COVID-19
Our CCCS partners are at the front lines of experiencing the challenges of COVID-19 and supporting families through their challenges. The issues that our families were facing before COVID-19 have just become more difficult and new challenges have been added. And community partners everywhere have stepped up to provide support however they can. Neighbors are supporting neighbors, community-based organizations are giving out food and clothing, leaders are calling to check-in on residents, and so many are helping families sign up for services and resources.
Community Resource Development and Sharing
The NFO/RWC CCCS Implementation Workgroup connected and identified the need for community resource sharing as a key priority. Each CCCS partner was connecting with residents and sharing information but needed a place where all the resources could live. Partners sent in resources and we compiled a list of resources to assist residents during this crisis. The list includes resources to food access, Wi-Fi access, housing support, legal support, resources for immigrants without proper documentation, school resources, mental health support, domestic violence support and more.
Concerns for Gaps in Support for Our Immigrant Families without Documentation
CCCS partners expressed the challenges faced by our immigrant families and households without documentation. The gaps in resources with unemployment and more, created a particular concern for our immigrant communities. A subgroup was formed and recently had a speaker, Yaya Ruiz, the California Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance join them to share national and state resources and efforts to support immigrant communities. The subgroup is continuing to meet regularly, led by Sienna Youth Center, to identify opportunities to fill gaps and share existing resources.
Daly City Creative Healing and Empowerment Program Proposed
Community Collaborative for Children’s Success (CCCS) partners in Daly City came together to develop a concept to provide healing, community building and empowerment in creative ways for the Woodrow Wilson Elementary School community and surrounding neighborhood. The CCCS Action Planning effort highlighted the challenges with community engagement in Daly City given the number of jobs many families are working and the diversity of the population.
Now Available! East Palo Alto and Daly City Hardcopy Action Plans
Our small business print shop pulled through their difficulties and we now have hard copies of the executive summaries of the East Palo Alto and Daly City Action Plans. While the electronic versions have been on our webpage for months, the paper version provides a great visual handout to share with partners and residents in person.
CCCS Schools Get Pro-Social Skills
Martin Elementary in South San Francisco and Woodrow Wilson Elementary in Daly City are two sites for the evidence-based Teaching Pro-social Skills (TPSS) Program that our Human Resources Agency and Behavioral Health and Recovery Services are supporting to address prioritized needs in the CCCS Action Plans: providing mental/behavioral health supports at schools for students, providing social-emotional learning opportunities, improving school climate, and helping keep students in the classroom. Teaching Pro-Social Skills (TPSS) is a ten-week program that uses “Skillstreaming”, an
San Mateo County Youth Commission to Support CCCS Priorities
San Mateo County’s Youth Commission voted on January 16 to champion the voices of young people around the County with a letter of support for the Community Collaboration for Children’s Success (CCCS)’ findings to the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors. The Commission reviewed findings from the planning process which engaged over 450 young people, and youth expressed interest in seeing Board funding aligned behind the youth-identified priorities in the upcoming budget cycle.
CCCS & Big Lift Partner to Develop Promotora Concept
CCCS and Big Lift have partnered to develop a concept for addressing the top three CCCS priorities across the four communities: economic opportunity/housing instability, navigation of systems/services and mental health supports to Big Lift families. The concept focuses on bringing local champions (promotoras) into Big Lift schools to support families’ needs around navigating complex systems, accessing social services and connecting easily with mental health clinical staff onsite.
Implementation Updates
In North Fair Oaks / Redwood City the CCCS implementation workgroup is focusing its attention on the need for families to more easily navigate support services. The workgroup is now connecting with existing efforts to simplify the navigation process to learn more about their work and identify ways they can be supportive or fill a gap. The workgroup will meet again in mid-January to review learnings and plan their approaches for the New Year.
California’s Comprehensive Approach to Addressing Toxic Stress
This month, the state of California launched ACEs Aware, a new initiative focused on identifying, treating and healing harm from ACEs or Adverse Childhood Experiences. The initiative offers training material for medical providers and clinic administrators in screening for ACEs and getting state reimbursement for the cost of screening. It also offers guidelines for incorporating screening results into clinical care, and resources to reduce the impact and prevalence of ACEs and toxic stress.
Mental Health Legislative Roundup
Young people and caregivers who engaged in the CCCS process overwhelmingly identified mental health supports for families as a top priority for children’s success as identified in the Community Action Plans. California’s mental health system of care is undergoing changes to increase the quality, responsiveness and ease of access to mental health care for youth and their families.
CCCS on the Road
Have we mentioned the four CCCS plans are finalized? We are excited that local implementation is up and running and we’re actively looking for more opportunities to connect with local groups and partners in South San Francisco, Daly City, East Palo Alto and North Fair Oaks/Redwood City.
North Fair Oaks / Redwood City Implementation
A group of stakeholders from the Redwood City/North Fair Oaks planning process met this month to discuss possible next steps for moving forward community-identified priorities. Participants decided to create three working groups: Mental health, youth engagement in decision-making, and a peer to peer model for parents to more effectively navigate systems. If you would like to be involved in these groups going forward please contact Maeve Johnston at mjohnston@smcgov.org.
Pediatricians Unite Against Racism
The American Academy of Pediatrics recently released a statement on the profound impact of racism on children’s health and development.
CCCS Implementation Updates
CCCS staff continue to move forward with implementing community-identified strategies! In South San Francisco, front line staff at the Boys and Girls Club and City of South San Francisco were trained in trauma informed practices for working with youth. At the most recent implementation meeting in South San Francisco, stakeholders formed small implementation committees to move forward service connection, trauma training and economic development priorities.