CFPIC | Child & Family Policy Institute of California

Supporting Human Services in strengthening the lives of California’s vulnerable adults, children and families.

The Child and Family Policy Institute of California (CFPIC) is a private non-profit organization incorporated in 2004 as a 501 c 3 entity under the auspices of the County Welfare Directors Association (CWDA). The purpose of the CFPIC is to “advance the development of sound public policy and promote program excellence in county Human Services Agencies through research, education, training and technical assistance.”

Beginning in late 2000 CWDA was privileged to receive the services of the National Network for Child Safety and the Public Child Services Association of Ohio, with funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, for the purpose of assisting CWDA in identifying strategies for supporting and advancing best practices among its members. In 2002, reflecting on work that was being done in Ohio, the recommendation was made that the county Human Services directors consider establishing a private non-profit entity that could solicit private foundation funding to support their collective work. Over the course of many months similar organizations, within and outside California, were researched. Finally, in 2004, a Board of Directors was named, by-laws were written, and the Child and Family Policy Institute of California (CFPIC) was formally incorporated. Funding was obtained from the Casey Family Programs and Zellerbach Family Foundation to enable the hiring of an Executive Director and the establishment of an office in Sacramento. Since that time, the CFPIC has implemented a number of projects to support the work of California’s Human Services Agencies.

CFPIC has worked since its inception to carry out its mission in partnership with a number of other organizations, including the following:

County Welfare Directors Association
California Department of Social Services
California Social Work Education Center
California’s Regional Training Academies
California Institute of Mental Health
US Department of Health & Human Services; Region IX
UC Berkeley Performance Indicators Project
California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare (CEBC)
Alcohol and Drug Policy Institute
California Center for Research on Women and Families
Research faculty at California universities
The Resource Center for Family-Focused Practice
Philanthropic partners, including Casey Family Programs, Zellerbach Family Foundation, Stuart Foundation, and Annie E. Casey Foundation

CFPIC Retrospective

A Framework For Advancing A Culture of Customer Service In Health And Human Services
This report presents a Framework from which county human services agencies can enhance existing customer service practices and embed those enhancements into the core of the agency's belief systems, behaviors, and structure. The goal is to create a culture of customer service that will enable county human services agencies to provide first class customer service to individuals seeking help under the Affordable Care Act and effectively promote health care coverage and access to vital human services for all eligible persons. The Framework combines ten Building Blocks of Excellent Customer Service and eight Core Principles for Achieving Culture Change into four stages of activity: The first stage incorporates the actions needed to position the agency for change. The second focuses on preparing the agency to implement customer service delivery enhancements. The third stage addresses full engagement in delivering excellent customer service. The fourth, and final stage, describes how to institutionalize the changes as part of the culture of the agency. This Framework is based on information collected through Internet research; interviews with key individuals; structured discussion groups with county representatives and community stakeholders; focus groups of customers, staff and advocates; customer surveys; and discussions at a major symposium of experts. The report was the result of the Customer Service and Culture Change Best Practices Project conducted by the Child and Family Policy Institute of California under the auspices of the County Welfare Directors Association of California through a grant from The California Endowment.

Download the Framework

TANF Child-Only Cases
"Child-only cases were far from the center of attention when the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program was created in 1996, and even when it was reauthorized in 2005. However, with adult-aided cases at less than one-quarter of their pre-TANF levels, child-only cases have become a substantial presence in the nation's TANF caseload, and interest in these cases is growing. In 2008, child-only cases were nearly one-half of all TANF cases. In 2011, despite recent growth in adult-aided TANF enrollment, they represented about two in every five TANF cases."

"Child-only TANF aid reaches a diverse mix of children, including children living in the homes of relatives, children of parents who receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and U.S-born children of parents whose immigration status renders the parents ineligible for TANF benefits. These groups have little or nothing in common with each other. They also have little in common with adult-aided TANF recipients. Most crucially, child-only cases are not subject to the federal and state program rules that have driven down TANF caseloads since TANF's inception in 1996."

So begins TANF Child-Only Cases: Who Are They? What Policies Affect Them? What Is Being Done? — a report resulting from a collaborative, multi-state research project designed to aid policy makers as they contemplate modifications to TANF. The report describes child-only policies, explores how these policies create and shape three distinct child-only caseloads, provides information about the needs of the children and adults in the households receiving child-only aid, and situates child-only TANF policy in the context of other relevant policies, including state and local choices with regard to child welfare practices.

The project relies on state reports of TANF caseload counts, administrative data on the characteristics of TANF cases, data from population-based surveys, and interviews with agency staff, policy makers and advocates regarding TANF policy, state and local implementation, and the needs of aided groups. Among other content, the report documents change in caseload size over time and examines the dynamics of case entry and exit. Findings are expected to support program and policy considerations at local, state, and national levels. Download the Report

The Report is the latest document from CFPIC's CalWORKs Child-Only Study, initiated in 2006 to understand the situation of individuals on CalWORKs cases that include no aided adult - so-called child-only cases.