{"id":31797,"date":"2020-10-20T19:47:35","date_gmt":"2020-10-20T19:47:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/caseyfamilyv2.wpengine.com\/cps-role-bclc\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T15:28:49","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T15:28:49","slug":"papel-de-cps-bclc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casey.org\/es\/cps-role-bclc\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00bfCu\u00e1l es el papel de la agencia de protecci\u00f3n infantil en la Campa\u00f1a del Legado del Ni\u00f1o Negro?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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With communities at the helm, the Black Child Legacy Campaign (BCLC)<\/span><\/a>, a cross-sector alliance1<\/sup><\/a> deeply rooted in a shared vision of equity, has been working to reduce the preventable deaths of Black children in Sacramento County by 10% to 20% by 2020. The campaign began in 2015 as a result of data showing that Black<\/strong>\u00a0children in Sacramento County were dying at twice the rate of other races<\/b><\/span> as a result of perinatal and infant sleep-related conditions, third-party homicides, and abuse or neglect. A steering committee<\/span> <\/a>was formed with stakeholders from multiple sectors to identify and implement strategies and key system changes to improve the life expectancy of Black children. For more information about how the BCLC galvanized the community to reduce equities and facilitate lasting transformation, see the companion brief: How is the Black Child Legacy Campaign saving children and advancing equity in Sacramento, California?<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

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At the core of the campaign are the Community Incubator Leads (CILs). Located in each of the seven neighborhoods experiencing the greatest disparities in Black child deaths, CILs operate as community resource hubs providing supports and services to local residents. County staff from public assistance, child protection services, and probation agencies are co-located at the centers so that families can easily access the assistance they need in a coordinated and collaborative way. Each CIL operates differently depending on the specific needs of the community, but they all focus on engaging with families early to establish natural relationships and supports so that families know where to go for help if needed. The CILs provide services such as Black birth coaches, violence prevention street outreach, and culturally responsive home visiting programs that build parental protective factors and individual resiliency. At the systems level, members of the steering committee meet, with input from community members, to determine how their individual agencies can better coordinate to support the CILs and identify structural changes within their agencies to reduce inequities.<\/p>\n

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This community-led movement is making a difference. The outcomes from the first few years show great promise for reducing or eliminating the disparities in Black child deaths. When comparing 2014 and 2016 data for Black children, there was a 46% reduction in the rate of sleep-related deaths, a 37% reduction in the rate of child abuse or neglect deaths, and a 60% reduction in the rate of third-party homicides for youth under 18.<\/b><\/span> Recent data from the Sacramento Police Department found that not a single juvenile was the victim of murder within the city limits in 2019<\/b><\/span>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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21st century child and family well-being system<\/h2>\n \n \n \n

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The BCLC illustrates the promise of a 21st century child and family well-being system<\/span><\/a>, one in which the safety and well-being of children is the collective responsibility of an entire community, not just the child protection agency. A 21st century child and family well-being system brings together stakeholders committed to a shared vision of promoting child and family strengths and ensuring that all families can access the supports they need to reach their potential. All sectors of a community must be engaged, including government agencies, community-based organizations, faith institutions, philanthropic organizations, and the business community, along with individual members of the community taking ownership to ensure that all children are physically safe and emotionally nurtured. It is grounded in a public health approach, which shifts the current response to child safety from intervention after harm to prevention of harm, and supports and serves all families so that every child can not only survive, but thrive.<\/p>\n

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While child protection agencies have a mandate of responding to allegations of child maltreatment and intervening when appropriate, they are only one part of a larger continuum. In a 21st century child and family well-being system, the majority of investments are dedicated to building natural supports within communities so that families have what they need and do not come to the attention of the child protection agency. Population-based strategies are prioritized in order to have the greatest impact, while involvement in the child protection system is minimized and used as a last resort.<\/p>\n

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Practice changes<\/h2>\n \n \n \n

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As part of the BCLC effort, Sacramento County\u2019s Department of Child, Family and Adult Services\u2019 (DCFAS) Child Protection Services (CPS) implemented practice changes at every level of the child protection continuum. The goals of these changes were not only to prevent child abuse and neglect and safely reduce entries into foster care, but also to increase permanency for those in care. At a population level, the goal of DCFAS and its partnership with the BCLC was to more effectively serve and support Black families and communities, and ultimately reduce child maltreatment and child deaths.<\/p>\n

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Investment in primary prevention programs<\/h3>\n

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Data showed that Black families were not participating in and completing prevention services at the same rate as other families involved with the child protection agency. This was due in part to the programs not being offered in the communities where families lived, or by organizations that they trusted. Through the BCLC contracts, Sacramento CPS began to invest in culturally relevant prevention programs embedded in the communities, including home-visiting nurses and birth coaches. Any family in the community that expresses a need or interest, not just those involved in the child protection system, can participate.<\/p>\n

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Co-location of staff<\/h3>\n

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In a parallel effort to build trust and credibility in the community, DCFAS leadership made a decision to co-locate staff in the CILs, and deliberately chose voluntary informal supervision (IS) caseworkers, rather than emergency response investigation caseworkers. IS caseworkers work with high-risk families that have come to the attention of the child protection agency but their children remain at home as long as there is a safety plan in place and they participate in services. Co-location provided families with an easily accessible, neutral location where they could feel more comfortable meeting with their IS caseworker. In addition, leadership intentionally hired Black special skills staff to mirror the families in the community, laying the foundation for a more positive relationship. Given the unique role of the co-located IS caseworkers, the agency also needed to invest adequate time in selecting and appropriately training these staff in accordance with the BCLC vision, as CPS was fortunate to have existing Black special skills staff apply and transition to these roles.<\/p>\n

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Cultural broker program<\/h3>\n

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In collaboration with BCLC, DCFAS also led implementation of a Sacramento County Cultural Broker Program as a complement to the IS caseworkers. Cultural brokers provide advocacy and support to families that are involved with, or at risk of involvement with, the child protection agency and connect them to community resources, provide case advocacy, and offer support with identified case plans and court appearances. Cultural brokers live in the neighborhoods in which they work, and their life experiences and racial backgrounds echo those of the families they are trained to support. The cultural brokers leverage established community relationships to help families successfully navigate child protective services, and they serve as a bridge to mitigate the fraught power dynamic between child protection caseworkers and families.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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MDT prevention services<\/h2>\n \n \n \n

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Each CIL hosts a multi-disciplinary team (MDT) comprised of county human service workers, including child protection staff, probation officers, public assistance and employment workers, and cultural brokers. When families are welcomed into the CIL, they complete a MDT intake assessment, which gathers information about what they need, the social services they are currently receiving, the level of urgency of their needs, and who should \u201ccome to the table\u201d to support them. MDT members then coordinate with one another to connect families to the right services and supports. In this way, the team wraps supports around a family even before a crisis hits. Each CIL holds weekly team meetings utilizing the Safety Organized Practice<\/span> <\/a>(SOP) engagement approach.<\/p>\n

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Impacts<\/h2>\n \n \n \n

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Since the inception of the BCLC in 2015, outcomes have improved across the child protection continuum for all children, with improvements especially noteworthy for Black children. According to DCFAS data:<\/p>\n