In 1985, the Grand Jury of San Bernardino County approached
the Board of Supervisors with a strong recommendation to find
a better way to deliver services to the at-risk children that
fell under the responsibility of the respective County departments.
The Grand Jury had come to the conclusion that some children
were receiving multiple services, other children were receiving
no services, but needed them, and it appeared there was no communication
between the agencies.
Patrick J. Morris, who at the time was the presiding Judge of
the Juvenile Court, accepted the invitation to serve as a leader
of a task force to investigate the situation and offer a solution.
Many concerned individuals, who were in a position to understand
the issues being scrutinized, joined Judge Morris in his quest
for an answer. The group came back to the Board of Supervisors
with a recommendation to form a Policy Council, consisting of
heads of all the departments that had a reason to touch the
lives of children. This council had a mandate to meet on a regular
basis to discuss issues related to children, to work collaboratively
to resolve those issues, to share resources when appropriate,
and to communicate with each other about cases that needed assistance
from more than one agency to have success. The Board of Supervisors
accepted these recommendations and implemented this Policy Council
in the form of the Children's Network.
The Network/Policy Council met for a number of months and diligently
shared problems they were facing within their various agencies,
offering assistance to each other when appropriate. However,
it soon became apparent that no matter how much they collaborated,
there were some resources simply not available within any of
their departments. In the past, they individually did what was
within their scope to do, and assumed the rest of the problem
was going to be taken care of by another entity. Now that they
were communicating with each other, they realized that simply
was not the case. Many times, children were not receiving the
goods or services that were essential to their well-being and
they did not know where to turn to find those resources.
Once again, the Board of Supervisors was approached and the
Policy Council had a novel idea! This time, the recommendation
was to add a non-profit 501(c)(3) component to the Children's
Network. This non-profit would be a public/private partnership.
The county would assume the overhead costs for the agency, and
in turn, the non-profit would guarantee that 100% of donations
solicited from the private sector would be used specifically
to provide essential resources for at-risk children in the county.
The Board of Supervisors accepted the recommendation, and in
1986, Children's Fund was founded. In 1988, Children's Fund
began to educate California lawmakers on Children's issues and
work with them on state policy changes to benefit at-risk children
and their families. One of the important results was the drafting
and enactment of the “Interagency Children's Services
Act, Senate Bill 997, in 1989. This legislation made San Bernardino
County Children's Network a state model for delivering services.
Children's Fund Board of Directors Chairmen have included Jack
H. Brown, Gene Wood, A. Gary Anderson, Matthew A. Jordan, Vaughn
Bryan, Lee R. Redmond, Jacob Zeidman, Mark Ostoich, Douglas
McAdam, William Meyer, Bob Kain, Joseph P. Barr, Dave Harris,
Dianne Crowther, Bill Nietschmann and Russ Moore.
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Last Updated May 16, 2008 |
