CACFS and the May 19th Special Election

Sunny Hills Services is a member-agency of the California Alliance of Child and Family Services (the Alliance), a statewide association over 130 private nonprofits that serve children and families. The Alliance has advocated on behalf of California's most vulnerable children and families and the organizations that serve them for over 60 years. They provides legislative and regulatory advocacy on a wide range of key policy issues, representing member agencies to the Office of the Governor, the State Legislature, and all relevant state government departments and agencies.

In the State of California May 19^th special election, there are two propositions that directly impact the member agencies of the Alliance. Propositions 1D and 1E were covered this week in the San Francisco Chronicle (http://tinyurl.com/Chronicle1E and http://tinyurl.com/Chronicle1D) and those articles provide some overview of the propositions. Essentially, Proposition 1E redirects $226 million of funds previously earmarked for new mental health programs to be used as part of the state match for existing mental health services for children. Proposition 1E redirects $340 million of Proposition 10/First Five funds to the state general fund, along with an additional $268 million annually for five years. This would be used to help fund the state’s share of core children’s services including foster care.

Although at a glance this may appear to be a compromise and a solution, last Friday the Alliance board of directors voted to oppose Propositions 1D and 1E in the upcoming May 19^th special election. According to a statement put out by the Alliance, some of the principle reasons for this opposition are:

1. Precedent: In redirecting these dollars to the state general fund, the governor and legislature are setting a precedent for redirection of funding from voter-approved initiatives to the state general fund any time a state budget crisis is declared.

2. Defeat may not impact state share of cost for entitlements: The state is obligated to pay its share of costs for foster care and EPSDT services because they are federal entitlements to eligible children. Without the funds from Propositions 1D and 1E, the state could reduce foster care rates or lower the SMA for Medi-Cal services, but the state may not reduce the percentage of its share of cost.

3. Impact on children and families: While it is unclear the impact redirection of Proposition 63 funds would have on current full service partnerships and other county specific mental health services for children, the impact of loss of Proposition 10 funds on local early childhood services would be devastating. Programs and services would be cut at a time when they are most needed.

4. Advocacy groups are opposed to both propositions: Virtually all other advocacy groups supporting mental health and children’s services have come out in opposition to Propositions 1D and 1E; in fact, the coalitions opposing the initiatives have joined forces to fight the ballot measures.

As CEO of a member agency of the CaliforniaAlliance of Child and Family Services, I invite you to use this information and support or oppose the propositions as you feel necessary and believe appropriate.

Marin Marathon Recap

This past Sunday, I participated in the first annual Marin Marathon! (No, I did not run the full marathon … but I did participate in the 10K, and I personally raised $2600 to benefit Sunny Hills through the event!) This fully sustainable event benefitted several community agencies, including Sunny Hills Services. As an agency, we were thrilled to be selected as a beneficiary; many of our employees and volunteers participated in the event, running, walking, handing out water bottles, and cheering on the 1200+ participants in this inaugural event. For more information about the marathon (including the results and more marathon photos) visit http://marinmarathon.com/

Selection of photos by Drew Andrews:

Awards from New Foundation Donors

I am very excited to announce that among Sunny Hills’ new donors thus far for our current fiscal year are two prestigious foundations, the Irene S. Scully Family Foundation and the Albert & Elaine Borchard Foundation. As new supporters of the agency, both have given significant gifts to programs at Sunny Hills.

The Irene S. Scully Family Foundation has donated $10,000 for program support at the Marin Academic Center (MAC). MAC is one of Sunny Hills’ longest standing programs; there have been children in this program for over thirty years. MAC is a California certified nonpublic school serving children ages 5 to 15 whose educational and behavioral challenges are too acute to be handled in traditional public school environments. MAC provides high-quality, individualized education that addresses each student’s needs, and builds upon their interests and fundamental desire to learn and grow. Serving children from throughout the Bay Area, MAC aims to move their young clients, when ready, into less restrictive academic environments in their local public schools. I am particularly pleased that this excellent historic Sunny Hills program is receiving this recognition and support.

The Albert & Elaine Borchard Foundation has given a grant of $20,000 for one of our newest program, the Parenting Teens Program at BAYC. This new program is an expansion of BAYC’s Transitional Housing Program. It is designed for foster youth who either have children or are six to nine months pregnant. This specialized population of foster youth is underserved and youth currently have limited options for housing. It is important that these youth be given the same opportunities to build the skills necessary to be independent. In addition to the educational, vocational and mental health services common to all of BAYC’s housing programs, the Parenting Teens program also provides assistance with parenting skills, parent-child bonding techniques, stress reduction, creating safe and healthy living conditions, time management and balancing life responsibilities. The Borchard grant is a strong show of support for a program that supports one of the traditional Sunny Hills client populations (emancipated foster children) in an entirely new way.

I am particularly appreciative of these two new foundation gifts given the current economic situation. A recent New York Times article looking at foundation giving this past year predicted that the coming year will be even tougher and more competitive for nonprofits seeking foundation support. As we look ahead and prepare for the continued ripple effect of the economic situation in the world of philanthropy, I am pleased appreciate that our programs – both new and old – remain relevant to these foundations.

Closing Red Hill Academy

It is with great sadness that we announce the closure of Red Hill Academy. (Click here to read Executive Director Brad Freed’s statement about the closure).

In 2008, Sunny Hills launched a new educational program, expanding our treatment spectrum to include a whole new service area. We opened Red Hill Academy because we envisioned a new kind of learning environment—an environment that was specifically designed for students who struggled with learning challenges accompanied by emotional problems. It is with regret that I write that we are closing Red Hill Academy at the end of this academic year (June 15th).

Like many of our sister agencies, Sunny Hills had to close our residential treatment program in 2008 due to insurmountable funding gaps. As we prepared for that closure, tremendous research and analysis went in to determining how to continue using our 35-acre campus to fulfill our historic mission. We identified an unmet need for specialized services for learning disabled children with mild to moderate emotional problems. Convinced that there was a demand for this kind of specialized academic environment, we developed a plan to meet that need. And with the full support of our board of directors, the idea of Red Hill Academy was born.

The small cadre of students who began at Red Hill Academy in September are bright and curious, but also vulnerable. They come from loving families that have faced their share of life’s challenges. Many felt tired, others frustrated. In coming to Red Hill Academy, these families – for once – felt like they had found their place. And the students, each in their own way, began to thrive. It was thrilling for all of us on campus to see. But after more than a year of intensive marketing and outreach, enrollment levels were not meeting our expectations. Red Hill’s student population remained at four students for most of the past school year, despite a large number of inquiries from interested parents. This level of enrollment is far too low to maintain a viable, financially sound organization, and the downturn in the economy had a direct impact on families’ abilities to meet the tuition requirements. The economy also dampened our ability to attract philanthropic sources of capital and program support to seed this new venture. Ultimately, the Red Hill and Sunny Hills boards both recognized that continuing to operate under these conditions was not only challenging; it was dangerous to the long term good of the overall organization.

In these challenging times, it is heartening to me that even with significant programmatic and budgetary setbacks we continue to help so many children thrive. This year we will serve well over 1,000 kids. Our array of mental health, special education, supportive housing and youth development programs continues to expand and grow despite extremely real hardships. Each of the programs we run is guided by our mission to serve vulnerable children, and I have tremendous gratitude for all of the support that we continue to receive. It is in times like these that you realize the roots we have in our community are over 100 years strong, and that despite the challenges, we continue to help so many kids build better and brighter futures.

Fostering Connections

Fostering Connections at the Federal Level

Last week I co-hosted a luncheon for Christine James-Brown, CEO of the Child Welfare League of America (CWLA). The Hon. Peter Breen – Mayor of San Anselmo and a CWLA fellow and longtime child welfare advocate – joined us to welcome Chris, and representatives from fifteen regional nonprofits came to learn more about how they can support the federal Fostering Connections legislation that was passed last October. Fostering Connections is the most significant piece of child welfare legislation to be passed in last twenty years: it provides an opportunity to reorganize how funds are made available to assist families. It creates different categories for funding and so provides greater flexibility, and it also provides federal money that states can access should they chose to for child welfare.

As a member of the Board of Directors of the CWLA one of the principal things that I work on is advocacy. At the end of February, I participated in CWLA’s Advocacy Day in Washington D.C. We spoke with members of Congress, including representatives from Nancy Pelosi’s office and the offices of Senators Boxer and Feinstein, urging them to help the administration hold a Conference on Youth in 2010: if held, it would be the first such conference since 1970! We also talked with Congress people about the federal Fostering Connections legislation and the economic stimulus package. This advocacy work on behalf of children makes a big difference: in the past, members of Congress have co-sponsored crucial legislation as a result of our visits. After CWLA's 2007 conference, Congress introduced legislation that addressed youth aging out of the foster care system. In 2004, the CWLA helped congress with the introduction of monumental kinship legislation.

California’s AB 12

The San Francisco Chronicle published an excellent editorial on California’s response to this federal legislation last week. In addition to recognizing the “moral obligation to do more for the thousands of foster youth who ‘age out’ of the system every year,” the editorial also clearly explains the strong financial incentives for the state to continue supporting these young adults through the age of 21. The Chronicle supports California State Assembly Bill AB 12, the California Fostering Connections to Success Act; as a child welfare advocate and CEO of a major child welfare agency, I am also urging support of this effort to help foster children and their caregivers.

Reasons To Support AB 12

If passed, the California State Assembly Bill 12 (AB 12), the California Fostering Connections to Success Act, will significantly reform California’s foster care system in two ways: 1. Assisting youth who ‘age out’ of foster care, and 2. Supporting relative caregivers. At Sunny Hills Services, we know first hand how important both of these reforms would be to the foster care system.

Through our range of programs in our BAYC division we have witnessed the huge impact we can have on youth who “age out” of the system when they turn 18 and are no longer eligible for foster care. There are over 4,000 of these children aging out each year in California alone; without the support of a family, these youth do not fare well as typical young adults. They are far more likely to experience homelessness, unemployment, criminal justice involvement and low educational attainment – AB 12 helps by expanding support for foster youth to age 21. This is an approach that we know works; our story about Annahlisa is a great example of how extending support for youth until they turn 21 can make a huge difference in their lives.

Sunny Hills Services also offers programs to support kinship caregivers through our Sonoma Kinship Family Center in Santa Rosa. Relatives who take legal guardianship of children who would otherwise be in foster care receive critical support through our center, similar to the types of support that are provided to foster parents but including additional services such as respite care, guardianship clinics, and other support programs designed specifically for kinship caregivers. If passed, AB 12 will help programs like the Kinship Family Center continue to operate while allowing them to utilize federal dollars that they have not had access to before. You can read more about how the Kinship Center supports caregivers in Abilene’s story.

Welcome to the Sunny Hills Services Blog!

Sunny Hills Services is a non-profit organization serving vulnerable youth and their families. Founded in 1895 as the Presbyterian Orphanage & Farm in Marin County, Sunny Hills is now a regional child welfare organization dedicated to protecting, serving, nurturing and healing at-risk children and adolescents.

For more than a century, Sunny Hills has been at the forefront of creating best practices in child welfare. Today, this nationally recognized agency operates 15 distinct programs throughout the greater San Francisco Bay Area. In 2009, Sunny Hills will serve more than 1,000 young people through education, mental health, supportive housing, and youth and family services.

Sunny Hills Services transforms young lives by giving hope and teaching skills, enabling our clients to face their challenges, develop their strengths and lead productive and satisfying lives. We look forward to sharing more about our agency with you through this blog; thank you for your interest, and welcome to our community!