Two free apps have been launched in California to support the mental health of families with children aged 0 to 25.

This app offers personalized support for California families. Parents and Kids ages 0–12 get free, expert coaching for sleep issues, worry, social skills, and more.

Everything BrightLife Kids offers is fully paid for by the State of California. If you have a California zip code and a child ages 0–12, you’re qualified.

Infants/toddlers Age 0-4
Coaching for new(ish) parents/caregivers
Learn about developmental milestones, manage separation anxiety, build patience, get kids to try new things, discover strategies for better sleep, and so much more.

Kids Aged 5-8
Coaching for kids and their parents/caregivers
Work on how to express big feelings like sadness, worry, and anger in healthy ways, encourage age-appropriate learning, balance alone time with social time, and so much more.

Tweens Aged 9-12
Coaching for preteens and their parents/caregivers
Learn to set boundaries on social media, manage peer pressure, nurture your tween’s growing sense of independence, build self-esteem, confidence, and inclusivity, and so much more.

• Personalized, 1:1 video sessions with diverse coaches
  Many are bilingual in English/Spanish and have experience working with BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities
  

• Secure chat with your coach and on-demand resources
  To get help with day-to-day challenges and questions that come up between sessions

• Expert guidance
  To help you understand your child’s needs and navigate community resources for therapy, psychiatry, or medication management

• Peace of mind
  Knowing your concerns are heard, your child has support, and your family’s information is always kept private and secure

This app offers free, confidential mental health support for 13- to 25-year-olds in California including 1:1 coaching and interactive tools. They want to create a space to de-stress, bounce back, and reset.

The app is completely free and confidential for California teens and young adults.

Connect with a trained Soluna coach whenever you need someone in your corner. Whether you’re looking to talk right now or want to schedule ahead, their coaches are there for you. Get judgment-free support on your terms — absolutely free, no insurance needed.

• No cost
  Thanks to the California Department of Health Care Services, Soluna is free to users.

• No pressure
  No subscription necessary. Just confidential support when you need it.

• No worries
  The Soluna experience is confidential, and your data is private and secure.

On a chilly San Francisco summer evening, families slowly trickle into Safe & Sound’s Waller Street location, most coming directly from school or work. They are arriving to collect a freshly cooked dinner to take home for their family so that they can enjoy an evening free from the stresses of meal preparation.

Safe & Sound’s weekly community dinner started as an in-person event, but after transitioning to a take-away model during the height of COVID-19 restrictions, families shared how much they appreciated the ease and comfort of a ready meal they could enjoy together at home, and so a new tradition was born. It’s a simple but powerful illustration of how responsive programming, guided by community voice, can evolve into lasting change.

Each week, volunteers come forward, individually or in groups, to shop for ingredients and make nutritious meals either in their kitchen or ours. Up to 150 members of partner families involved with Safe & Sound’s supportive programming visit our Waller and Bayview offices each Monday for pre-packaged meals intended to be taken home and enjoyed together. In 2024, Safe & Sound served over 3,700 meals, the majority of which were through this program.

The family dinner is just one example of the concrete supports offered to Safe & Sound families which also include diapers, clothes, bus tokens, and other items intended to support parents raising children in and around San Francisco. This program reflects Safe & Sound’s focus on strengthening the Center for the Study of Social Policy’s five Protective Factors in the families it works with which, in addition to concrete support in times of need, also include: parental resilience, social connections, knowledge of parenting and child development, and social and emotional competence of children. These factors have been shown to make positive outcomes more likely for young children and their families, and to reduce the likelihood of child abuse and neglect. You can read more about the five Protective Factors in this recent blog.

The Community Dinner program could always benefit from more volunteers, if you are interested to find out more about how you can contribute contact our Volunteer & Community Engagement Manager at chris.miller@safeandsound.org or (415) 213-7416, or visit our volunteering page.

There are so many different opportunities for you to join us this summer. We’ve been working hard to create different workshops to suit your needs, from shared playtime promoting bonding, social-emotional skills, and parenting education through play-based activities, to exploring inspiration and expression through the use of art, to practical parenting tips and supporting children to discuss their feelings.

For classes requiring registration, visit the dedicated website page for workshops. You can also sign up to our email newsletter to get advance notice of new workshops.

And remember, outside of our workshops and classes you can drop in to our Waller Street Building during PDI Summer hours:
Monday: 10:00am-2:00pm
Tuesday: 3:00pm-6:50pm
Wednesday: 2:00pm- 4:50pm
Thursday: 10:00am-2:00pm

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At Safe & Sound, we believe every family deserves safety, support, and the opportunity to build a brighter future. Families facing crisis—whether from domestic violence, financial hardship, or other challenges—turn to us for essential resources and compassionate care. With your help, we can continue to provide life-changing support to parents and children in need.

A poignant example of how Safe & Sound can intervene is Clara’s family. Clara, a single mother of twin daughters with epilepsy, faced unimaginable struggles when she left an abusive relationship. Her daughters were six months old, and due to their health issues, Clara couldn’t work. She was overwhelmed and unsure of where to turn for help. Luckily, she found Safe & Sound.

Safe & Sound welcomed her with open arms, immediately inviting her to join one of our parenting groups. This was the beginning of her journey with us. Through the group, Clara became more engaged with the organization and took part in a variety of activities that provided not only emotional support but also essential resources. Our programs helped her navigate the complexities of her new life, offering everything from food, diapers and hygiene supplies to access to crucial financial support for housing. She found a safe space in our Playroom, where her daughters could laugh and play while she focused on stabilizing her home and becoming a better parent. Our care coordinators connected her with legal support, parenting groups, and even a yoga instructor certification program, helping her regain confidence and build a better future.

Today, thanks to your generosity, Clara has secured full custody of her children and is stepping into a future filled with confidence and determination. With the strength she always had but that Safe & Sound helped unearth, she is ready to build a bright, stable life for her daughters—one where they can thrive, and she can provide for them independently, knowing she has the resilience and skills to navigate any challenge ahead.

But we cannot do this without you. Your donation ensures that families like Clara’s receive the support they need to rebuild their lives and create safe, nurturing environments for their children.

Your gift can help us reach even more families, offering them the support and stability they deserve. Donate today and be a lifeline for families in need. Together, we can build a safer, stronger community for every child.

*Name has been changed for confidentiality reasons

Following the successful conclusion of our three-year federally funded TASIE project, the Center for Youth Wellness (CYW) team within Safe & Sound is working on a new one-year initiative in partnership with the University of California ACEs Aware Family Resilience Network (UCAAN). This multi-campus initiative—anchored at UCLA and UCSF—aims to strengthen the implementation of CalAIM services in pediatric settings when a child screens positive for Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs).

Through this project, Safe & Sound will provide technical assistance and training to 16 healthcare practices across California—including Alameda Family Services, Bay Area Community Health, and UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland. Many of these practices already conduct ACEs screenings but underutilize the full range of CalAIM services available, such as Enhanced Care Management (ECM), Dyadic Services, Community Supports, and Community Health Worker services. Our goal is to bridge this gap, helping practices build integrated care models that directly connect ACEs screening with appropriate CalAIM supports. This will include:

• Delivering individualized technical assistance and training at each site
  
• Conducting sustainability assessments and case studies to identify scalable best practices
  
• Sharing learnings and strategies at statewide convenings, including submitting findings to the International Conference on Child and Family Maltreatment
  
• Disseminating results through UCSF’s Toxic Stress Network and broader Communities of Care networks.

This project runs until March 2026 and continues CYW’s leadership in advancing trauma-informed systems of care while leveraging Medi-Cal reforms to support whole-family wellness.

Youth involved in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems are at extraordinary risk of exploitation, particularly commercial sexual exploitation (CSE), especially when they become disconnected from these systems. This disconnection often occurs after young people experience systemic trauma, are repeatedly moved between unstable placements, or go missing from placement (MFP). Without trusted adults or consistent support, these youth are left exposed to harm and isolation, with exploiters often stepping in to fill that void. There is evidence that traffickers specifically target youth with such backgrounds [1]; and research indicates that once on the streets, these young people can be approached within as few as 48 hours by traffickers [2].

In response to this urgent need, a coalition of Bay Area service providers organized a Street Outreach Convening (SOC) in October 2023 to identify concrete, local strategies to better support these youth—especially those who are homeless, MFP, and/or experiencing sexual exploitation. The Convening brought together youth with lived experience, street outreach teams, public agencies, community-based organizations (CBOs), and legal advocates to chart a path forward.

These recommendations are grounded in the lived experiences of young people and the frontline providers who support them.

• Create stable and responsive placement options that minimize disruption and offer low-barrier, youth-informed alternatives for young people who are MFP or experiencing exploitation, including providing creative opportunities for systems-involved youth to access short-term emergency shelter in San Francisco.
  
• Center youth voice and experience in service design and delivery by expanding peer navigator programs and ensuring youth participation in key decision-making forums.
  
• Increase access to mental health and substance use services, including non-traditional models such as drop-in wellness support.
  
• Make services more accessible by reducing paperwork barriers, co-locating services, providing transportation and phones, and ensuring youth can access help without fear of arrest or forced return to systems.
  
• Strengthen coordination among providers, including expanding multi-disciplinary teams to include street outreach partners and developing a citywide directory of services.
  
• Support pathways to employment through career preparation, job placement programs, and wraparound support for disconnected youth.
  
• Distribute practical, youth- and provider-facing materials that increase awareness of rights, available supports, and effective engagement strategies.

These recommendations reflect a deep understanding of the challenges disconnected youth face and the opportunities available to build a more responsive, youth-centered ecosystem of care.

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[1] Walker, K. California Child Welfare Council, Ending the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children: A Call for Multi-System Collaboration in California, Child Welfare Council, referencing Francine T. Sherman & Lisa Goldblatt Grace, The System Response to the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Girls, in Juvenile Justice: Advancing Research, Policy, and Practice 336 (Francine T. Sherman & Francine H. Jacobs eds., 2011).

[2] Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation, Know the Facts: Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, 13 Connections 2 (Summer 2011)

We know life is not perfect, and we support parents and caregivers in using their great qualities of: strength, problem solving, asking for help, love, and bouncing back when things do get rough. These qualities happen within the context of a strong, connected, resilient community. That’s called parental resilience because families are leaning into strengths when it feels stormy, yet the growth is neverending!

Life throws curveballs such as a job loss, education advocacy, housing problems – this is when Safe & Sound will help families get through crises with:

• Tools: the tips and support to connect to resources or community to help with problem-solving and well-being. So when families encounter rainy days, asking for help is a sign of strength!
  
• Encouragement: “Look at how far you’ve come!” & “Your calm helps your child feel safe, even in the middle of a storm”
  
• Hope: A reminder that growth is possible because sunshine will help you grow after it rains.

When parents are supported in building resilience, it’s more than surviving, it’s thriving! Finding support can be the bridge to the other protective factors and ultimately to finding the right balance for yourself and your family.

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At Safe & Sound, we have served children and families for over 50 years and we’ve heard their stories.

We truly believe that storytelling can help us to see how diverse our experiences are but also the things that make us the same. That’s why we wanted to amplify the stories of our community through a collaboration with The Moth, a nonprofit dedicated to the art and craft of storytelling, by hosting an exclusive storytelling workshop and event during Child Abuse Prevention Month in April.

The event took place in our Therapeutic Children’s Playroom where children come to play, learn and gain the skills and knowledge to be able to thrive. The stories our speakers shared brought to life some of the work of Safe & Sound – including demonstrating the value of the 5 Protective Factors – areas of family functioning that help support children and families to be strong. Our work at Safe & Sound is grounded in strengthening those Protective Factors within the families we work with to help them thrive. You can read more about these factors in our recent blog.

In the meantime, we hope you will be captivated, inspired and moved by hearing these stories, and see for yourself the importance of Safe & Sound’s purpose to strengthen families and communities so that every child can thrive.

We plan to run this program again in 2026 so stay tuned for updates by signing up to our mailing list and following our social media channels.