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THE STATISTICS CAN BE ALARMING

In 2022, every day over 140 children in California experienced child abuse or neglect. And in San Francisco alone, one child was reported to Child Protected Services every 1.8 hours.

Every child deserves the right to grow up in a safe and sound environment, yet child abuse and neglect know no boundaries, affecting families regardless of socioeconomic status. There is hope, because Safe & Sound knows that almost all of these incidents can be avoided by providing timely guidance, the right resources, and the support parents need.

THE SOLUTION CAN BE SIMPLE: TALK TO PARENTS

Logging over 650 calls per month, and an astounding 85,000 calls in the past decade, Safe & Sound’s 24/7 TALK (Telephone Aid in Living with Kids) Line has been a lifeline for families in San Francisco and the Greater Bay Area since 1976. As our longest running program ever, this round-the-clock service plays a huge role in our prevention efforts as we are able to connect with caregivers in need of support no matter the time or the issue.

“I knew to call the TALK Line to get help before doing something I would regret. Both my wife and I grew up with lots of struggles, and when our son acted out, we had a hard time agreeing on how to respond, and our conflict made it worse. It got so intense one night, and I am glad the TALK Line was there. They ‘talked’ me down and helped me get connected again playing video games with my son. That first call to the TALK Line led to the support and resources we still get from Safe & Sound, and it has made all the difference in keeping our family together.” – Parent and a client of Safe & Sound

YOUR SUPPORT WILL ADDRESS THESE URGENT NEEDS

  1. Families are still struggling. The demand for our supportive services—like the TALK Line—is still higher than it was before the pandemic.
  2. Technology advancements can make our response time faster and more efficient. We can make upgrades with your support.
  3. Parents need to talk to people who have experienced what they are going through. Your support will help us recruit individuals who have overcome economic challenges, domestic violence, child welfare involvement, and other life adversities—and want to lend their strength.

The TALK Line is our “front door” that many families use for our direct, supportive, wrap-around services. Just one call to the TALK Line can change a family’s life forever. Your gift today, no matter the amount, will have a significant impact on the children and families in our community who reach out to us every day.

Right now, you can help ensure that ALL children can grow up safe, protected, and loved.

Joyous sounds fill Safe & Sound’s Therapeutic Children’s Playroom as children giggle and play. The Playroom, always buzzing with activities, nurtures positive interactions among the kids, fostering bonding and social-emotional learning and school readiness skills. The children, ages 1 month – 12 years old, visit the Playroom while their parents participate in therapy services, attend workshops, or receive support from the dedicated Safe & Sound staff.

Recently, amidst the cheerful atmosphere, a poignant moment emerged. A child’s unexpected words cut through the laughter, “We do not have a home to go back to, my family doesn’t live there anymore.” The Safe & Sound team’s eyes swiftly turned toward Joey, the child who had just spoken these heartfelt words.

Immediately, our Care Coordination team (our Care Management Support who work directly with families) talked to his caregiver, Barbara, who was attending one of our parent education workshops. The team learned more about their situation and provided support by securing a safe accommodation and arranging a rental home. Additionally, the team provided for some basic needs, including warm clothing, food, an airbed, and gift cards for purchasing necessities. This assistance was made possible because of donors like YOU! Safe & Sound was able to immediately provide support to a family in crisis, minimizing the obvious trauma Joey—and his caregivers—were experiencing.

I don’t know what I would do if Safe & Sound didn’t exist”, says Barbara, the child’s mom. “Because of Safe & Sound, we live under a roof, and Joey is in a safe place now.” Many families in vulnerable situations face stressful challenges like this, and the stress is compounded when a parent has to worry about their child being removed from them if they can’t provide basic needs like housing. Imagine life circumstances getting in the way of being able to provide care and nurturing for your child.

More than 10,000 families utilize the vital programs and services of Safe & Sound annually not because of a crisis but rather to help cope with their family’s daily stressful challenges.

Your generous donation today contributes directly to Safe & Sound’s success in improving life for children and families in San Francisco and the Bay Area. The assistance and support of the Safe & Sound community—individuals like YOU—empower us to fortify families like Barbara’s so they can be the most effective caregivers for their children. Your gift as a Safe & Sound community member ensures all families are not alone during some of the biggest challenges faced by parents and children.

  • Our multilingual Clinical Care Coordinators provide:
    • Immediate assistance such as applying for affordable housing, securing educational services for children, and supporting parents in navigating the referrals, connections, and applications that will help secure tailored support for their long-term success.
    • Integrated Family Services (IFS) for families requiring a more structured and comprehensive support system as they work to increase their parenting skills and build strengthening relationships in the community.
  • The TALK Line volunteers provide 24/7 parental stress phone support because the journey of parenting can be challenging.
  • Staff and volunteers who manage our Playroom and parenting classes ensure that all children are safe, protected, and loved.
  • Our therapists offer personalized one-on-one therapy services designed for children, parents, and families to deliver comprehensive support to our clients.
  • And finally, generous donors make sure that parents and children receive all of these services for free, including funds for childcare when needed.

Your gift as a Safe & Sound community member wraps all of this support around every family that comes Safe & Sound with hope of a better future for themselves and their children. Thank you for being a partner in our mission to prevent and reduce the impact of childhood abuse, neglect and trauma.

Happy holidays,

Gagan Sandhu
Chief Program Officer

As a new school year approaches, the excitement of seeing friends and learning new things can quickly be erased by the stresses too often felt by families living in vulnerable situations. With rising inflation, financial constraints, limited access to resources, and emotional and psychological strain, parents may be unable to afford basic school supplies and support for their children. Your continued generous support helps Safe & Sound ensure that all children can return to school happy and ready to learn, and that families facing hardships receive the necessary support to overcome challenges all year long.

Safe & Sound plays a critical role in helping families by providing a wide range of services, resources, workshops, and classes specifically designed to alleviate the stress that often accompanies summer holidays and back-to-school time.

One of our signature programs, the Therapeutic Children’s Playroom, has experienced a surge in drop-in visits this summer. Our program is a vital resource, offering therapeutic care and early interventions for children and their parents/caregivers. Beyond providing a safe environment for children to participate in educational and enjoyable activities, we also facilitate a food pantry, organize family dinners, and offer emergency support for immediate needs. The other engaging and popular summer activities include movie sessions in the playroom, where children and caregivers enjoy together while indulging in popcorn, candy, and other fun treats. These additional services empower parents to access stabilizing resources and alleviate stress so parents and caregivers can do what they most want to do—focus on their children.

Sometimes even more support is needed. Our Integrated Children & Family Services (ICFS) program is dedicated to assessing and providing targeted interventions for high-needs children. It strengthens their social and emotional competence, ensuring they are ready to thrive in school and in our community. Additionally, we host a special Child Safety Awareness session designed specifically for parents. This session equips them with the necessary language and knowledge to keep their children safe as they return to school. Importantly, this session is conducted in both English and Spanish, ensuring accessibility for a wider range of families.

Families need our partnership all year long, so we offer ongoing services to support families throughout the year.

  • Our 24-hour TALK Line is available around-the-clock to provide immediate assistance and guidance whenever needed, handling more than 8,000 calls annually.

  • We provide parental drop-in services where parents can take a break and seek advice and support from our knowledgeable staff.

  • We offer parenting education classes and support groups that strengthen children’s social emotional learning and give parents the tools to foster healthy development.

  • For children, we provide ongoing and weekly groups that incorporate hands-on activities, adventures, arts and crafts sessions, such as PlayTime Together, yoga, Superheroes and Music Together.

These services and activities aim to create a supportive community where everyone can thrive. You remember the joy of returning to school—or the excitement in your child’s eyes on that first day back. Your generous support helps Safe & Sound create those memories for so many children and families in our community.

Your generous gift directly contributes to our mission of ensuring that our families have access to vital resources that prepare them for back to school and equip them for a strong year ahead. By alleviating the financial burden and reducing parents’ stress about affording these necessities, we can work together to prevent child abuse, neglect and trauma, and help open the door to a great school year ahead.

After fleeing her home country because of domestic violence, Amanda found herself staying with one of her four children in an emergency shelter in San Francisco. Unable to speak English, and faced with the legal process of a divorce and child custody without an attorney’s support, it was the most challenging time of her life. That’s when Amanda connected with Safe & Sound and things started to look up. With a contribution today, your generosity will help families like Amanda’s receive the vital programs and services they need—not just to survive, but to thrive. 

THE RIGHT SUPPORT CAN HELP FAMILIES STAY STRONG

After participating in nearly every available family strengthening service offered at Safe & Sound, Amanda’s story has a new chapter of success. Amanda has custody of her four children (three of whom she had to petition to legally have with her in the U.S.), educational services for her son with special needs, stable housing, and a full-time job. It took a lot of work on Amanda’s part, and the partnership of her Safe & Sound Clinical Care Coordinator, to create an individualized therapeutic plan and follow it through. From parenting classes that taught positive strategies for managing challenging childhood behavior, to access to a supportive caregiver community, Amanda parented her children through the challenges and gained tools that will support their family for a lifetime. She stays connected to Safe & Sound through our 24-hour TALK Line and parental drop-in services. 

WE CAN ALL HELP FAMILIES GET THE RIGHT SUPPORT

With the assistance and support of the Safe & Sound community—people like YOU—Amanda reached the goals she set when she first walked through our doors.

Your gift as a Safe & Sound community member ensures families like Amanda’s are not alone during some of the biggest challenges faced by parents and children. 

WITH YOUR HELP AMANDA’S SUCCESS STORY CONTINUES!

Amanda’s story does not stop here. She wants to attend a program that will build her skills and put her on a job path to improve her family’s future. Your contribution is a vote of confidence and support for Amanda, and for all of the families that work with Safe & Sound. 

Sincerely, 

Melina León

Senior Program Manager-Care Coordination

Safe & Sound

DONATE

P.S. Your gift to Safe & Sound will have double the impact. The Quest Foundation will generously match your gift dollar for dollar up to $100,000. Help us meet this challenge grant by mailing a gift today or donating online at: www.safeandsound.org/donate.


Partnering with communities to create a child & family well-being system

We are in the midst of a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reimagine the child welfare system. Most notably is new federal policy—the Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA)—that allows for federal dollars to be used to support families in which children are at “imminent risk” of entry into foster care. This pending policy and practice shift requires the creation of “community pathways” that allow families to access services and support without fear of over-reporting to Child Protectives Services (CPS).

In support of these changes, Safe & Sound, a community-based organization dedicated to strengthening families and ending child abuse invites you to read Creating a Child & Family Well-Being System: A Paradigm Shift from Mandated Reporting to Community Supporting—and support the recommendations.

The proposed paradigm shift from mandated reporting to community supporting is not a new idea, but one that has been proposed and championed by advocates, social workers, researchers, philanthropists, pediatricians, educators, and others across the country who have been informed by deep listening to families with lived expertise in the child welfare system. 


What does the data tell us about mandated reporting in California?

432,736 children were subject to a CPS investigation between April 2021 – March 2022
56,079 children were found to be maltreated
This means only 13% of reports by mandated reporters are substantiated


This brief offers action steps in these five categories

  • Embrace a new frame
  • Advance legal and legislative reforms 
  • Implement policy and practice reforms
  • Increase access to supports and services
  • Engage communities, tribes, and other stakeholders to guide reform

For more information on how to take action


Watch Our Webinar: Shifting From Mandated Reporting to Community Supporting

In case you missed it, on August 25th we hosted a Lunch & Learn on this topic as part of our series on The Facts and Faces of Prevention. Here is a link to the session recording, and we hope you will share it with your colleagues to expand the conversation on these much-needed reforms.
 Type in the passcode: %@f1KA%K
WATCH THE RECORDING

We welcome your feedback! Please let us know if you have any questions or other feedback to share from reading this brief by emailing us (communityaction@safeandsound.org).  

In gratitude for your support of children and families.

Katie Albright 
Chief Executive Officer 
Safe & Sound

We recognize and honor the memory of Madeleine K. Albright, 64th United States Secretary of State and first female secretary of state in U.S. history. She was also the loving mother of our CEO Katie Albright. We extend our thoughts and prayers to her family. 

– Sarah Whitelaw & Wayne Osborne, Co-Chairs of the Board of Directors

Sometimes we all need a little help, but it’s not always easy to ask. Ms. Yang’s son needed a new pair of shoes after his current and only pair had holes from years of use. The two of them also needed food as the financial uncertainty of a pandemic-impacted city collided with other barriers for Ms. Yang. The first barrier she would have to overcome would be asking for help.

Having recently immigrated from her home in China and with limited knowledge of English, Ms. Yang had been having difficulty finding housing, clothes, food, and other resources for herself and her son. This was particularly true having also left a violent relationship with her son’s father. At first, she came in quietly to our family support center to find the few items for her everyday needs, unaware of all the clinical services, trauma-recovery support groups, and parenting classes available at Safe & Sound. She just wasn’t comfortable asking for help and, therefore, didn’t explore what resources might be available.  

As Safe & Sound’s Parent & Child Education Manager, I want each family to have the knowledge, resiliency, basic resources, and connections in the community to support a strong family and healthy home. I met Ms. Yang a few months ago and reached out to offer help. Safe & Sound has been actively working towards providing more inclusive services, including the expansion of Chinese language translation services. Ms. Yang speaks Mandarin and fortunately, so do I.

Ms. Yang expressed how grateful she was to have someone with whom she could speak in her native language. It made a difference, and through our shared language, we developed a strong rapport. We spoke in-depth about her homeland, why she immigrated to the US, and the courage she found within herself to leave the domestic violence to protect herself and her son. 

During the past several months, I have stayed in touch with Ms. Yang, knowing that she would need more support to maintain stability in her home and safety for her son. Through our coordinated programming, Safe & Sound partners with caregivers to build family strengths and supports them with parenting classes, educational workshops, and basic needs.

Support Safe & Sound with a donation today

Safe & Sound has helped Ms. Yang fulfill her family’s needs for food through our pantry program and provided personal hygiene products. Tapping into my own Chinese American culture, I understood that it was really difficult for Ms. Yang to ask for help even when she really needed it. Through our conversations, I connected Ms. Yang with resources around the City to help with language translation for virtual family court to secure her son’s child support and advocacy for other community resources.

It can be hard to ask for help, yet we know that as family stress escalates, so does the risk of child abuse. Ms. Yang developed the courage to assess her stressors and worked with me to find solutions to support and protect her family. Working together, Safe & Sound is here through our 24/7 TALK Line, our family support center, and socially-distant connections to ease isolation and nurture resilience. Through a range of one-on-one services, community education, partnerships, and policy, we bolster our ability to prevent child abuse and reduce its devastating impact. 

We need YOU too! Especially during this challenging year, you can volunteer or provide a year-end gift to our programs for stabilizing support to families. Your generosity will help Safe & Sound build a society where children are safe, and ultimately where we can end child abuse in our community.

Thank you for considering a gift to Safe & Sound that will continue this important work in the community to keep children safe and free from abuse. I know it has been a unique year with extreme challenges, but one thing remains true — together we can overcome these obstacles and thrive.

Best,

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Christine Juang

Parent & Child Education Manager

P.S. This year your gift to Safe & Sound will have double the impact. The Quest Foundation will generously match your gift dollar for dollar up to $100,000. Help us meet this challenge grant.

Make Your Donation Today

Safe & Sound is excited to be highlighted by Casey Family Programs in their recent “Bright Spot”, which focuses on our programs and services provided at our family support center on Waller Street in San Francisco. Casey Family Programs works in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and two territories and with more than a dozen tribal nations to influence long-lasting improvements to the safety and success of children, families, and the communities where they live.

For many years now, we have partnered with Casey Family Programs to help expand services and resources available to families across the country. In 2019, San Francisco was honored by Casey Family Programs with the JIM CASEY BUILDING COMMUNITIES OF HOPE AWARD, which recognizes communities that have brought together public, business, nonprofit, philanthropic and community partners to improve the safety and success of children and their families.

Check out Casey Family Program’s recent post about our work.

With deep sadness on his recent passing, we respectfully honor our long-time supporter, Frank Caufield, who helped so many in a humble and quiet way.

Serving as Chair of the San Francisco Prevention Society (SFCAPS) Board, Frank supported Safe & Sound when we were known as San Francisco Child Abuse Prevention Center. He was particularly interested in our Children’s Needs Fund and underwrote a yearly program to send our families’ children to summer camp. Without fanfare, he asked Safe & Sound to forward the list of needs identified by clients directly to him and would regularly underwrite many of the simple yet vital items that made a difference to families’ lives: anything from mattresses to music lessons to school uniforms for scholarship students. He participated in our annual events, even donating his beloved Slim’s for one of our benefit venues. His commitment and generosity never wavered.

Frank wanted a real connection and took the time to make sure he understood the stories of the families with whom we work. We are honored to have known Frank and grateful for his support for our work. His legacy will be that he helped create a better, safer world for children and families.

What is the Children’s Playroom?

The Children’s Playroom here at the San Francisco Child Abuse Prevention Center provides therapeutic play and support groups for kids as well as childcare to parents accessing services on site. We work to ensure that each child visiting the Playroom has an experience that is most supportive of their social and emotional growth. Indeed, that is our focus here in the Playroom, to help children learn and practice their social and emotional skills that will help them be successful in other areas of their lives.  The Playroom supports 440+ kids for a total of 3,600+ visits a year.

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