Partnership Development Among Early Childhood Programs and the Substance Abuse Treatment Community

CFF received a one-year capacity-building grant (beginning May 2001) from the Orange County Children and Families Proposition 10 commission. This project supported CFF in building close partnerships between the Commission-supported children's services programs and the Orange County substance abuse treatment community. The primary goal of the project was to provide coordinated and comprehensive systems of care to meet the needs of substance-affected children. The project enabled CFF to provide systems-building technical assistance to all interested Proposition 10 - early action/service programs and women's substance abuse treatment programs in the county. The project also enabled CFF to provide conferences, workshops, and individualized training concerning "best practices" family-focused skill enhancement in the areas of prevention, identification, and management of pregnancy and post-partum substance abuse; neonatal and early childhood screening for the effects of in utero and environmental substance exposure; and state-of-the-art early intervention techniques for substance-affected families. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected concerning the effects of the project on agency competencies and inter-agency cooperation. The key staff involved in this project were Drs. Chernen and Young.