CA Title IV-E Education Program

El Nido (Carson): This satellite program of the El Nido Family Service Network is a strong example of a small community counseling program that has a significant impact on the area in which services are provided. In addition to providing child, adolescent and family out-patient services, this program has been a leader and innovator in developing specialized groups that operate in the local schools.

Aviva Center Counseling Services: This program provides in-home support, parenting, and counseling services to children, adolescents, parents and foster parents of kids being provided with intervention through the LA County Department of Children and Family Services. In addition, services are provided at the schools for certain children and/or at vocational sites for teens in after-school programs for high risk youth. Aviva Center spent a considerable period of time developing a model for preparing the first year student to eventually deliver services in the homes and schools of child welfare children and families provided with support, educational, and counseling services. This model involved teaming students with assessment, case-management and therapeutic staff of cases and eventually providing students with primary case-management and therapy roles. Students also participated in developing a group for high risk adolescents as a part of their job corps program. In addition, the students interacted with DCFS case workers and other providers on each case and did several reports with recommendations about visitation, therapy, and custody for the DCFS workers to use as documentation for their own comprehensive recommendations in their court reports.

Long Beach Child and Adolescent DMH: This program provides crisis intervention and on-going therapeutic services to children and adolescents who are identified as struggling with serious emotional problems, often emotional problems that will be a part of their experience throughout their lives. In addition, these children and adolescents are growing up in an ethnically diverse and impoverished area of Long Beach, frequently in homes where substance abuse, unemployment, and complicated immigration and naturalization issues are present.

Our students have an opportunity to develop assessment and intervention skills with these children and families that involve a full range of out-patient options, day-treatment services, and case-management and multi-disciplinary team collaboration. Students have also participated in the development of specialized groups and resource materials for the clinic population.

Foothill Family Service: This program maintains a child, adolescent, adult, marital and family out-patient program. In addition, this Family Service agency realized many years ago that it was critical to continue to evaluate and to develop programs relevant to the changing community. The CalSWEC students participate in developing and providing different individual and group services to children in the local schools. Our students have been critical to developing specialized community outreach to the mono-lingual Hispanic community and they have contributed to the development and implementation of a ‘Family Safe’ and ‘Dinners on the Table’ programs to assist both parents and children at risk of future difficulties and placement. This is accomplished through a supportive model of intervention which combines education, communication and problem solving skills, learning from peers, mentoring, and preventive services for multiple family groups that often involve families with three or more generations participating at one time.

Edelman Community Mental Health Clinic, Los Angeles County DMH; Harbor/UCLA Department of Psychiatry, Los Angeles County DMH: This program contains services for Adults with persistent and chronic mental illness, those with dual diagnosis, parents and children who are a part of the CALWORKS intervention programs in Los Angeles County, and children and teens with serious acute and chronic mental illnesses. Interns within this program develop many important assessment and interventions skills with both adults and children who are at risk for or who have been in placements of various kinds and who struggle with mental illness, substance abuse, and are exposed to and suffer from the effects of family violence. Students develop clinical practice skills, case management, collaboration, program development and evaluation skills in addition to doing community outreach.

Long Beach Asian Clinic Services, Los Angeles County DMH; Coastal Asian Community Mental Health Center, LA County DMH: This clinic serves a number of Asian immigrant and non-immigrant groups that live and work in the surrounding community. It is a facility that was developed by the county to house a number of professional and community workers with specialized knowledge and language skills. There are workers who speak Lao, Cambodian, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese and share other language and cultural experiences with the clients served. In addition to having a family member with a severe and persistent chronic mental illness, the families that attend the clinic are often from war-tom countries and a part of refugee groups who have been subject- ed to torture, witness to mass murders, and who have lost their connections to family, work, and homeland that is core to their self identity and sense of community. Our students become involved in all aspects of traditional and innovative community outreach services.

Kaiser Permanente Watts Counseling and Learning Center: At Kaiser Watts, students are able to become immersed in the provision of traditional and innovative services to children, adolescents, emancipating minors, adults, and families. At the same time, our students are able to see and participate in the many challenges that lie in maintaining a relevant community service under the umbrella of a large HMO administration. Students have participated in developing community outreach services and in providing resource guides and information that supports the centers attempts to define itself within the parent organization.

Venice Family Clinic: In this facility, our students become a part of the social service program of a family health center. As a result, they participate in evaluation, brief treatment, longer term interventions, and in the development and implementation of educational and support groups. Students see a range of child, adolescent, and adult living and emotional stressors often related to a primary health concern. Our students often work with bi-lingual or mono-lingual pregnant Hispanic mothers-to-be. As a result of some of the needs that have arisen in this work, over the last several years our students have participated with another staff member in the development of literature and services for Spanish speaking women who are the victims of spousal battery.  Project Impact: This agency contains a juvenile diversion program which provides an opportunity for students to run prevention groups at schools and the agency. Project Impact is also a “hub” for the Family Preservation Program, hence students placed here come to understand how this large community treatment program is administered. Students participate in providing services to the juvenile diversion teens and their families, they also work with the parents and children in the Family Preservation program. In addition the students assist with the development of program services and grant applications for both programs.

Vista Del Mar: This facility has been a hub for developing innovative programs that focus on high-risk child and family services. Students intern in a specialized school based, non-public school program that provides educational, mental health, peer support and case management to children and teens with specialized needs.