Go to the Summer Meal Coalition Web Page to access case studies and tool boxes to help summer meal sites with administration, programming and outreach.

Join the Summer Meal Technical Assistance Network.

PRIMERS

CalWORKs Primer - download and get information on ordering printed copies.

Child Welfare Services Primer - download and get information on ordering printed copies.

2010 WORKING FAMLIES POLICY SUMMIT

Recommendations and Resources

California’s welfare program is at the center of the state’s budget debates.  CCRWF’s updated  and newly released CalWORKs primer can help you deepen your understanding of the history, purpose and structure of this essential social service program.

Understanding CalWORKs: A Primer for Service Providers and Policymakers (2^nd edition) reviews the major laws, programs and financing mechanisms for California’s welfare program.  The primer also provides a profile of welfare families and highlights some of the key issues confronting practitioners and policymakers.

Understanding CalWORKs is one in a series of primers offered to assist practitioners and policy leaders in advancing their basic knowledge of complex social service systems.  Originally published in 2002, this 2^nd edition of the CalWORKs primer was made possible due to support from the Zellerbach Family Foundation.

This primer and a companion publication on Child Welfare Services also support Linkages, a statewide effort to coordinate welfare and child welfare programs in California.

Recommended Citation:

Reed, D. F., & Karpilow, K. A. (2010). Understanding CalWORKs in California: A primer for service providers and policymakers (2nd ed.).  Berkeley, CA:  California Center for Research on Women and Families. Available on the CCRWF website: www.ccrwf.org.

Permission to download and copy is granted.  Please notify CCRWF at ccrwf@ccrwf.org.

Printed Copies:

While supplies last, printed copies are available at no charge through the Resource Center for Family Focused Practice (RCFFP), The Center for Human Services, U.C. Davis Extension, through a grant from the California Department of Social Services’ Office of Child Abuse Prevention.

Contact Monica Caprio at mcaprio@unexmail.ucdavis.edu or (530) 757-8643.

Please do not contact CCRWF about printed copies.

Click here to view and listen to the April 7, 2010 Summer Meal Webinar.

Worried about what might be involved in starting up a new summer meal program?  Not sure how to go about reaching out to families and neighborhoods?  Wondering what programming you might offer, week to week?

As showcased on our April 7 Webinar, the Coalition has developed case studies and tool boxes to provide sponsors and sites with model materials relating to administration, outreach, programming and nutrition education.

Why  start from scratch when you have access to the materials, memos and lessons learned from leaders who run successful summer meal programs?

During this summer of heightened food insecurity, the Coalition is urging any organization that hosts a summer program to also offer subsidized summer meals.

San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD)

In 2004, 16 park and recreation sites served 11,000 summer meals.
In 2009, 44 schools and 23 park and recreation sites served 250,000 meals

Want to learn more?

SDUSD Case Study
SDUSD Tool Box

Redwood Empire Food Bank (REFB)

In 2004, REFB partnered at 13 sites that provided 15,115 summer meals.
In 2009, as a sponsor, REFB supported 35 sites and helped serve 75,824 summer meals.

Want to learn more?

REFB Case Study
REFB Tool Box

YMCA of Silicon Valley (YMCA-SV)

As a new sponsor of summer meals in 2009, the YMCA-SV served 18,308 meals.

Want to learn more?

YMCA-SV Case Study
YMCA-SV Tool Box

Click here for more information on the Summer Meal Program Coalition.

Click here for policy papers released at the Summit.

400 California leaders attended the CCRWF California Working Families Policy Summit keynoted by Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis.  Secretary Solis discussed “Creating Jobs and Family-Friendly Workplaces in the 21^st Century.” At the conclusion of her remarks, the Secretary received a standing ovation in appreciation of her commitment and vision.

A copy of the Secretary’s speech and additional photos from her visit are available on the Department of Labor website.  The luncheon concluded with a DVD message from First Lady Michelle Obama that called for commitment and action to increase policies that support work and family balance.

The theme for the 2010 Working Families Policy Summit was “Confronting Current Crises and Forging a New Vision for Working Families.”  More than 15 policy papers were released or reviewed, including a report released by Senator Carol Liu on options to draw down additional federal funds.  Click here to go to the CCRWF website for more information.

Members of the Coalition include:

▪ California Department of Education

▪ California Association of Food Banks

▪ California School Boards Association

▪ California After-School Network

▪ Bay Area Partnership

▪ California Food Policy Advocates

▪ Food Research Action Center (in DC)

▪ Redwood Empire Food Bank

▪ San Diego Unified School District

▪ YMCA of Silicon Valley and more!

Sign up for Summer Meal Program Webinars!

The Summer Meal Program Coalition will host a series of webinars from April through June of 2010, working closely with our network partners representing food banks, school districts, and summer & after-school programs.

Click here to sign up to be notified of the Coalition’s webinars.

Case Studies and Tool Kits on Summer Meal Programs

The Coalition will also develop case studies and tool kits to help school districts, food banks, and summer programs easily access best practices for program administration, programming, and nutrition education.   Working closely with CDE and our network partners, we will encourage new sponsors and sites to sign on to provide summer meal programs - and join the statewide effort to combat hunger and obesity.

Click here if you would like to be notified when the case study/tool kit resources are available.

For specifics about our 2010 Summer Meal Campaign, click here.

To contact the Summer Meal Program Coalition, email ccrwf@ccrwf.org.

Click here to hear and view the Child Care and Early Learning webinar.

The webinar featured Senator Carol Liu, Chair, Senate Human Services Committee; Catherine Atkin, President, Preschool California; Nancy Strohl, Executive Director, Child Care Law Center; and Jennifer Peck, Bay Area Partnership for Children and Youth.

Please Cal WebEx directly at 1-866-229-3239 if you have any trouble connecting to the presentation.

Interested in directly viewing the PowerPoint presentations?

Click on the links below.

Preschool and Child Care
Catherine Atkin and Nancy Strohl

After-School Programs
Jennifer Peck

An announcement about our next webinar will be posted on this website and e-mailed to all previous webinar participants.

On August 20, CCRWF launched its first Working Families Webinar: How Safe is California’s Safety Net?

The webinar featured Senate President pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg; Scott Graves, California Budget Project; Farrah McDaid Ting, California State Association of Counties; and Ana Pagan, Merced County Human Services Agency.

Please Cal WebEX directly at 1-866-229-3239 if you have any trouble connecting to the presentation.

Interested in viewing the PowerPoints from the webinar?

Click on the links below.

An Overview of Recent Cuts to California’s Safety Net
Scott Graves, Senior Policy Analyst, California Budget Project

California Counties: How Healthy are County Health and Human Services Safety Nets?
Farrah McDaid Ting, Senior Legislative Analyst, California State Association of Counties

California Budget Cuts: Impacts on Merced County
Ana Pagan, Director , Merced County Human Services Agency

And . . . save the date!

Our next webinar will be held on Thursday, October 15, at 2:00 PM and will focus on child care, preschool, and after-school care.  Registration will be available in early October.

While it is typically thrilling (and exhausting) to complete a long project, this conclusion is punctuated not only by exclamation points and asteriks to acknowledge incredible partners, but also by an ellipses. . . . as we all wait for cuts to the programs and services that support our state’s most vulnerable children and families.

I am among the many pragmatists struggling with the state’s deficit, knowing that cuts are inevitable.  But what causes my own personal stay-up-at-night distress is our lack of shared values:  How can we not draw a protective circle around services dedicated to abused and neglected children?

Until the budget passes, we won’t know how deep the cuts will be to the state’s child welfare system.

To those local and state leaders who will then be forced to pick up the pieces, who will once again have to bypass a focus on prevention to deal with immediate crises, we send our support and thanks for shouldering the responsibilities we wish all Californians would share.

We also have considerable appreciation for an extaordinary team that produced this most recent primer.

Diane F. Reed, primary author of the Primer, was a fabulous partner during the past year of research and writing.

Thanks also to Stuart Oppenheim and Danna Fabella at the Child and Family Policy Institute of California (CFPIC), our primary partners in the updating of the primer.  We could not have asked for more knowledgeable and responsive colleagues (who we could absolutely count on to open up emails after 10 PM!).

An invaluable cadre of experts responded to frequent queries and helped research current law, practice and statistics.  Our thanks go out to Greg Rose, Deputy Director for Children and Family Services at the California Department of Social Services; Lee Ann Kelly at the Office of Child Abuse Prevention (OCAP) ; Diana Boyer, Senior Policy Analyst, County Welfare Directors Association of California; Kathy Watkins, Legislative Program Manager, San Bernardino County Human Services System; and Barbara Needell, Research Specialist at the U.C. Berkeley Center for Social Services Research, and the entire Linkages Advisory Committee.

Support to update the CWS Primer and a forthcoming CalWORKs primer was provided by the Zellerbach Family Foundation (ZFF).  ZFF also funded the original publications, and we would like to especially acknowledge ZFF’s extraordinary Program Executive, Ellen Walker.

Thanks also to Deborah Yip-Lowery and the Resource Center for Family Focused Practice (RCFFP), The Center for Human Services, U.C. Davis Extension, for printing the primer through a grant from the California Department of Social Services’ Office of Child Abuse Prevention.

And we can’t say enough about the talented team at Uptown Studios—their design expertise, attention to detail, and extraordinary collegiality.

For printed copies, contact Monica Caprio at mcaprio@unexmail.ucdavis.edu or (530) 757-8643.

Please share comments and any corrections about this primer in the comment section under Publications.

In addition to providing a resource for local and state policy leaders and providers, this primer and a companion publication on CalWORKs support Linkages, a statewide effort to coordinate welfare and child welfare programs in California.  Linkages is now directed by the Child and Family Policy Institute of California (CFPIC).  CCRWF designed and directed the first phase of Linkages.

Primer Addendum: Summary of Federal & State Child Welfare Laws

Recommended Citation:

Reed, D. F., & Karpilow, K. A. (2009). Understanding the child welfare system in California: A primer for
service providers and policymakers (2nd ed.). Berkeley, CA: California Center for Research on Women and Families. Available on the CCRWF website: www.ccrwf.org.

Printed Copies:

While supplies last, printed copies are available at no charge through the Resource Center for Family Focused Practice (RCFFP), The Center for Human Services, U.C. Davis Extension, through a grant from the California Department of Social Services’ Office of Child Abuse Prevention.

Contact Monica Caprio at mcaprio@unexmail.ucdavis.edu or (530) 757-8643.

Please do not contact CCRWF about printed copies.