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

New Publication: CFPIC Retrospective

NEW REPORT RELEASED: Shared Learnings from California's Collaborative to Transform Independent Living Programs and Practices
This report, based on the insights and innovations of nine county teams in California, offers a new conceptual model for supporting youth in and transitioning from foster care.
Highlighting Youth-Adult Partnerships and a 360° approach, youth, caregivers, child welfare agencies and their community partners worked together in creating the practice, policy and data strategies brought together in the report. In youth's words, this hands-on approach "connects us in real ways to all the things we need in life through the people we have relationships with."

Visit http://www.co-invest.org/resources/360-ILP-Report-REV11-11-FINAL.pdf to view or download the report.

This report and the Collaborative for ILP Transformation were made possible by the leadership and support of the California Child Welfare Co-Investment Partnership, with day-to-day coordination and support provided by Child and Family Policy Institute of California and New Ways to Work. Thank you to all the youth, caregivers, county and community partners whose passion and creativity helped steer the road toward transformation and youth-adult partnerships.

California Disproportionality Project Final Report Now Available:
From 2008-2010, the Child and Family Policy Institute led a partnership between Casey Family Programs, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Stuart Foundation, and the California Department of Social Services. This partnership supported 14 county-level teams and a state-level team in California to intensively address the issues of disproportionality and disparities in outcomes for African American and American Indian children and families involved with the child welfare system. This final report presents promising practices at the direct service level, successful strategies for agencies doing race and culture focused work, and lessons that were learned from these 15 teams and the project broadly.
Download the Report

CalWORKs Children with Disabled Parents on SSI,
A CFPIC Policy Brief and Report based on telephone and in-person interviews with 60 SSI parents raising children with CalWORKs aid in San Francisco, examine the situation of the parents in these cases as well as the wellbeing of their children. This unique study yields findings on parents' health and mental health limitation, availability of practical and social support to families, hunger and other hardships, children's physical and behavioral health, and services for children. Recommendations address strategies to meet children's needs and strengthen families through SSI advocacy and family support, subsidized housing, mental health services for parents, early childhood education, and support for successful parenting.
Download the Policy Brief Download the Report

The Policy Brief and Report are the latest documents 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. For more information, see our self-sufficiency page

TANF Child-only Case Characteristics, Dynamics, and Context: CFPIC is currently collaborating on a multi-state research project that uses administrative data, a review of current state and local policies, key informant interviews, and a national survey of state TANF administrators. The project is designed to yield descriptive statistics on child-only cases, document change in caseload size over time, research the dynamics of case entry and exit, and provide context for understanding the administrative data findings. The TANF administrator survey will yield a broad assessment of whether and how the states are addressing child-only cases, feel the need to do so, or otherwise anticipate program or policy changes - or challenges - in this area. Results, anticipated in spring 2012, are expected to support program and policy considerations at local, state, and national levels. Project funding is provided by a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago, one of the project research sites.