Stopping Child Abuse & Neglect
Last year, approximately 10,000 substantiated cases of child abuse and neglect were reported in San Diego County. The county's rate of child abuse is higher than the national average: 11.9 cases per 1,000 children nationally, versus 13 cases per 1,000 in the county. Types of abuse include neglect, physical, sexual and emotional. The consequences of child abuse and neglect are among the most serious facing our community, including crime, teen pregnancy, substance abuse and increased high school dropout rates.
United Way recruited a vision council of top experts in this field to create a plan for how it can best use its resources to make a significant change in the lives of abused children in San Diego County. The vision council is chaired by Blair Sadler, retired CEO of Rady Children's Hospital, and includes members from county government, child advocates, representatives from the legal and medical communities, and social service providers.
The vision council, which started meeting monthly beginning in September 2006, determined its initial focus would be on supporting evidence-based programs. Evidence-based programs are those that have been rigorously tested in a scientific setting and compared to a control group and demonstrated superior results. The council determined to focus on the issue of neglect, since neglect is the primary type of abuse in the majority of reported child abuse cases. With these criteria in mind, the vision council considered a number of evidenced-based programs United Way could support. The council eventually selected four for consideration and had the opportunity to meet with researchers and program experts in January 2007 to discuss each program in more detail to help determine what program would be the right fit for United Way. In February 2007, the council voted to direct its funding toward the implementation of a service delivery model called Project SafeCare. Project SafeCare is an evidence-based, home-visitation model that has proven successful with families in which one or more children have experienced neglect. A caseworker provides direct-skill training to parents in child behavior management over a period of 20 weeks. The program uses planned-activities training, home-safety training and teaches child health care skills to prevent child maltreatment. When implemented in Atlanta, families in the Project SafeCare group had significantly lower rates of reoccurring-abuse reported during the 24-month, follow-up period than the control group. In order to implement Project SafeCare successfully, local knowledge of the program and expertise must be developed since the program has never been delivered. As an evidence-based program it must be implemented with fidelity to the original model. This requires more attention to training, supervision, data collection and reporting, and modifications in service delivery based on San Diego findings. The researchers and consultants working with the council recommend a "cascading diffusion model" where one small team of organizations is selected and funded exclusively in year one of implementation. Within the team, eight to 10 case managers and one supervisor will receive intense training and deliver services, they will train other organizations in San Diego to spread the program in year two. United Way's consultants believe focusing intensely on one team in year one is the only way to increase the likelihood of successfully adopting Project SafeCare in San Diego County. United Way is partnering with the County of San Diego, Child Welfare Services and other organizations working with child abuse and neglect in the region. All cases of child abuse and neglect are reported through Child Welfare Services. Child Welfare Services believes that the partnership with United Way, created to integrate Project SafeCare into the system, will be extremely successful in increasing positive outcomes in the families they serve. United Way will sought applications for funding from the Child Welfare Services agencies that currently have contracts with Child Welfare Services in each of the six regions in the County. In year one, funding will go to one lead agency and two of its subcontractors and will cover two geographic regions. In year two, the lead agency from year one will be required to teach the SafeCare model to one or more additional regions, while still staying within the four lead agencies of the county contract. Child Welfare Services will divert some of its current contract funding for home visitation services to Project SafeCare, allowing more children to benefit from the program than with United Way funding alone. For more information, email Jan Ferree, Community Impact Manager.
