Children And Families Commission Of Orange County Approves $500,000 In New Funds For Eight Programs To Assist County's Children

Posted February 4, 2005
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IRVINE, Calif. -- (February 4, 2005) -- The Children and Families Commission of Orange County announced the approval of $500,000 in new capacity building grants to develop programs benefiting Orange County’s young children and families.

“We are pleased to fund these new and innovative programs to ensure that Orange County’s children are healthy and ready to learn when they enter school,” said Julie Poulson, chairperson of the Children and Families Commission. “Several excellent programs were reviewed and considered in the Commission’s effort to promote the health and early education of Orange County’s youngest population.”

The Commission-funded Capacity Building Program is designed to provide a grant to support the development or expansion of innovative programs that benefit the health and early education of children from the prenatal stage through age five.

The following projects will receive Capacity Building funding:

• The Cambodian Family ($75,000) – Explore options for opening a licensed, developmentally appropriate center to serve working families in Santa Ana.
• Collette’s Children’s Home ($75,000) – Expand services to include services for homeless men with children ages zero to five until they are transitioned to permanent safe and appropriate housing.
• Community and School Collaboration ($62,000) – In collaboration with the Newport Mesa Unified School District Early Learning Center at Sonora School in Costa Mesa, the Early Learning Center Project will provide educational support programs to children of low-income families.
• Cypress School District ($44,000) -- Develop and pilot a special education preschool mainstreaming program in addition to developing a service plan for a sustainable, replicable model.
• Down Syndrome Association of Orange County ($75,000) – Enhance the Association’s ability to provide parents, children and teachers, with the best available resources to ensure that preschool-aged children with Down Syndrome maximize their skills.
• Orange County Child Abuse Prevention Center ($75,000) – Expand the parent education program to include the Parent-Child Interactive Therapy program, a treatment approach designed to improve the relationship between parents and children.
• The YMCA of Orange County's Childcare Health Consultation Program (CHC) ($59,000) –Address the growing need to provide children with mental health services in childcare environments by expanding current program infrastructure and the creation of a long-term leveraged funding plan.

The Commission received seven applications that focused on teen parenting support programs. Based on these applications, the Commission will research best practices and incorporate effective strategies into Commission funded programs. The Commission also allocated $35,000 to an organization that supports teen parents to expand the agencies capacity to provide services throughout Orange County.

The Children and Families Commission of Orange County was created as a result of Proposition 10, the California Children and Families Act of 1998. The proposition added a 50-cent sales tax on tobacco products sold in California and requires that funds raised be used to support education, health and child development for children from the prenatal stage to age five. The Children and Families Commission of Orange County is responsible for overseeing the allocation of tobacco tax revenues received annually from the State Commission. For more information, please see the Commission website at www.occhildrenandfamilies.com.