Crittenton Earns Human Rights Campaign Seal of Approval and Highlighted in All Children – All Families 2019 Report - Crittenton

05 Jul

Crittenton Earns Human Rights Campaign Seal of Approval and Highlighted in All Children – All Families 2019 Report

Crittenton Services is proud to announce that we are 1 of 25 child welfare organizations, nationwide, recognized by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, All Children – All Families (ACAF) project, as an organization that has met their benchmarks and has a proven “Solid Foundation for Inclusion” in all programming efforts agency-wide. We are humbled to have earned the “You Are Welcome Here” seal of approval!

The All Children – All Families (ACAF) project has partnered with hundreds of child welfare agencies across the U.S. by offering expertise and resources to help each organization achieve safety, permanency, and well-being for the LGBTQ youth and families they serve.

“Crittenton has taken our mission of helping and empowering youth to reach their full potential – regardless of who they are and where they come from – seriously. Helping youth who are experiencing challenging life circumstances achieve a sense of self-worth and overall wellness is the reason we exist in the first place,” Martha Jasso, Communications Director, said and added, “As an agency that operates within the context of trauma-informed best practices and a space where the tenants of child welfare and children’s mental health are prioritized to support ALL youth we can say without doubt that this distinction means the world to us. We thank the Human Rights Campaign for this opportunity and for recognizing our mission’s sincerity of truly caring for every youth we serve.”

More than 70 organizations this year took part in the ACAF’s 2019 Celebrating Everyday Change-Makers in Child Welfare Report and assessment process. Organizations who partnered in this endeavor participated in an assessment, prioritized staff development, and implemented the ACAF’s Benchmarks of LGBTQ Inclusion, which tracks policy and practice changes within participating agencies.

For those agencies that took part in ACAF’s report assessment, this year, were recognized in one of three Tiers of Recognition, depending on the extent to which each agency implemented the ACAF Benchmarks of LGBTQ Inclusion.

Through this process, Crittenton was recognized within the “Solid Foundation for Inclusion” tier of agencies and has been given the “You Are Welcome Here” seal of distinction.

The “Solid Foundation for Inclusion” is a tier of recognition in which child welfare agencies have implemented the essential elements of LGBTQ inclusion in policies and affirming practices. The benchmarks go beyond basic non-discrimination protections to the policies and practices necessary to actively “roll out the welcome mat” to the LGBTQ community. These agencies have also assessed their practices specific to youth and parents to ensure LGBTQ inclusion and acted to make these efforts sustainable for the long-term. The following are the benchmark requirements for the “Solid Foundation for Inclusion” designation and Crittenton has proudly met the following ACAF standards:

Non-Discrimination: We have no tolerance for any form of discriminatory practices throughout our agency programming, whether providing services to the youth and families in our care and our foster family recruitment, employee hiring, and contracting practices.
Staff Training: As a child welfare agency, we must keep up with certain licensing requirements in the form of staff training and development; this includes cultural competency training for all employees and volunteers.
Rolling Out the Welcome Mat: From the inception of our agency, the goal has been clear to help ALL youth that need our help – no exceptions.
Parent Best Practices: We work with both biological and foster parents and encourage all parents and Crittenton staff members to engage in a respectful and dignified manner that focuses and places our youth’s health and well-being above all else.
Youth Best Practices: We are an agency that interacts and serves youth from every conceivable background and lived experience, and we take our duty of providing a safe environment for all by helping every youth in a respectful, culturally responsive and child-focused manner. The priority has always been the health and well-being of ALL youth in our care.
Sustainability and Capacity Building: Prioritizing a healthy and respectful work and treatment environment for those that we serve is essential in our standard operational practice. We believe that to succeed; we must be inclusive of all perspectives and adapt to ever-changing local and national child welfare practices and policy standards.

To be included in the All Children – All Families 2019 Report and highlighted as an organization that deeply cares for and respects the healthy development of ALL children in our care is an honor. We continue to thank the Human Rights Campaign for their efforts in publicly acknowledging the work being accomplished in child welfare agencies across the country, and celebrating the everyday change-makers in our profession. It’s a distinction we are proud to be associated with and recognition we will continue to work diligently to hold.

For more information about the All Children – All Families 2019 Report:

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Crittenton Services for Children and Families of Southern California (CSCF) is a non-profit social services agency whose mission is to heal the wounds of abuse and neglect; strengthen families; and help troubled adolescents reach their full potential. Established and incorporated in 1966 Crittenton has a highly trained workforce operating 24 hours a day / 7 days a week providing comprehensive mental health services, residential care, and other support services to the clients in our care. We provide a full array of short-term residential services, in-home, community-based programming, family preservation, school-linked mental health, outpatient mental health, transitional age youth and foster care programming with a service planning area throughout Southern California that covers Orange, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and Riverside Counties.

Visit www.crittentonsocal.org to learn more about our programs and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Flickr