Purpose of Platform: Crittenton Services for Children & Families is a 501(c)(3) child-welfare agency headquartered in Fullerton, California. With offices spread over five counties (Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego), Crittenton is proud to serve a diverse and broad base of clients and their communities. Since the late 1800’s the Crittenton legacy is firmly based in the belief that all children deserve a happy, healthy home in which to grow, and we continue that work throughout Southern California today.

Crittenton’s services range from intensive, therapeutic residential care for significantly broken youth, to community based programming including foster care, Wrap Around services, THP+ and prevention resources. Specialty programming for children who have been victims of sex trafficking, are pregnant and parenting, struggle with substance abuse issues or have co-occurring mental health problems allow Crittenton to work with the most troubled children in the region who are often referred to as “hard to place.” The compassion and expertise of Crittenton staff is reflected in the breadth of services and treatment modalities offered, and based in a restorative-justice model grounded in mental health.

In furtherance of our mission, “….to help heal the wounds of abuse and neglect; to strengthen families, whether birth, foster or adoptive; and to help troubled adolescents reach their full potential,” Crittenton staff identified the following 5 policy priorities to guide the agency’s legislative and advocacy efforts in 2016.

Questions or comments regarding this document should be directed to Jeanette Cheng, Director of Public Policy and Advocacy at jcheng@crittentonsocal.org.

Prioritizing the unique mental health needs of children by identifying and implementing the most appropriate service delivery models.

The overwhelming majority of clients served by Crittenton, whether in the home or at our residential facility, struggle with significant mental health issues. These issues are often compounded by additional stressors such as trauma, substance abuse, poverty or residing in communities in crisis. It is the belief of Crittenton that the mental health needs of children are vastly different from those of an adult and therefore must be treated with an understanding of a child’s development, family structure and overall needs to ensure that they grow up and thrive. While it is generally agreed upon that a child struggling with mental health deserves appropriate treatment, challenges are ahead for professionals in the field due to the implementation and unforeseen consequences of policies such as the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Crittenton then, advocates for legislation that would:

(1.1) Recognize the unique mental health and substance abuse needs of children in care.

(1.2) Encourage a network of specialized, professional services that can effectively work in the community with traditionally-difficult or hard-to-treat populations.

(1.3) Maintain a focus on resiliency when treating children with mental health needs and avoid, an irresponsible overreliance on psychotropic medications.

(1.4) Recruit and retain qualified mental health professionals with a passion for working with troubled and at-risk youth.

Improving outcomes by increased integration of trauma-informed services, models and systems.

Across the various programs Crittenton provides is the common thread of trauma, or adverse childhood experiences (ACES). More recent work being done at the national level by Crittenton and its affiliates have honed in on the more relevant traumas to children growing up in poverty stricken and violent communities, who we know are already have a greater likelihood of system involvement than their peers. Crittenton advocates for legislation that better focuses on traumatized youth, that:

(2.1) Mandates all children entering, or identified to be at-risk of entering, the child welfare or juvenile justice systems be screened for trauma.

(2.2) When possible, provide trauma informed services not only to caregivers and youth, but to bio-families to better educate parents and prevent future trauma.

Support Restorative Justice programs at federal, state and community levels that emphasizes repairing the harm caused by the crime or wrongful occurrence, while balancing the roles and needs of the victim, offender and community.

Crittenton’s history of restorative justice practices began at our inception. Crittenton has long valued treatment and care over punishment for children, most of whom have experienced significant trauma and brokenness that has lead them to our programs. Our advocacy will support a juvenile justice system that

(3.1) Intends to emphasize guidance, education, treatment, and rehabilitation over punishment.

(3.2) Effect significant systemic changes by incorporating the victim, offender and community-centric principles in state and federal laws.

(3.3) Balances the mission approach to include accountability, community safety and competency development.

(3.4) Best accomplished through cooperative processes that include all stakeholders. This can lead to transformation of our youth, people, relationships and communities.

Continuing to support the implementation the Continuum of Care Reform.

The Continuum of Care Reform (CCR) is new 2015 law and the result of a collaborative effort between the California Department of Social Services, the state’s Child Welfare Directors Association and the California Alliance of Child and Family Services. The general framework for the sweeping reform has been agreed upon by stakeholders, and implementation is expected to kick off in 2016.

(4.1) Ensures that all children in need are able to access timely, appropriate and professional services that are determined not by bureaucratic policy but instead by the child’s circumstances.

(4.2) Clarifies that mental health services be consistently bundled in programming and “follow” the child through their placements.

(4.3) Establishes a sustainable funding model that could, optimally, serve as an example for the federal child welfare reform proposals.

(4.4) Effectively weaves trauma-informed and gender responsive care throughout the continuum, and continues progress made in both areas and encourage further innovation.

Combatting the trafficking of minors through prevention, intervention and reintegration programming paired with a robust effort to deter demand.

Crittenton remains one of a handful of agencies in Southern California with an established expertise in serving minor victims of trafficking, both international and domestic, labor and sex. Our experience has informed our legislative advocacy for this population of victims and, most recently, has resulted in a robust effort to defend these children from well-meaning policy that would have unintended consequences potentially resulting in more harm than good. Consequently, Crittenton supports legislation that:

(5.1) Holds predators (both purchasers and exploiters) accountable.

(5.2) Utilizes psychological/clinical treatment interventions that effectively address the severe early childhood complex traumas that many trafficking victims suffer from.

(5.3) Authorizes a continuum of care response for victims, acknowledging that a “one size fits all” approach to this issue will inevitably result in some children being left without adequate or appropriate care as they heal.

(5.4) Empowers the community as a whole by arming them with resources and tools to better advocate for the needs of children they believe are most at risk.

(5.5) Acknowledges the challenges to serving trafficking victims from a regulatory and licensing perspective by finding new, safe and effective ways of providing oversight to direct-care providers of this population.