Existing law establishes the Office of Child Abuse Prevention in the State Department of Social Services and requires the office to apply for federal funding for the administration of its functions. Existing law requires the office to use those funds to undertake specified activities, including, among other things, supporting coordination and sharing of best practices implemented by family resource centers with other agencies, when the best practices reflect strategies and outcomes that were achieved and supported by evidence-informed programs and data.

Existing law authorizes a county to establish a child abuse multidisciplinary personnel team within that county to allow provider agencies to share confidential information in order for provider agencies to investigate reports of suspected child abuse or neglect, as specified, or for the purpose of child welfare agencies making a detention determination. Existing law specifies that the multidisciplinary personnel team may include a representative of a local child abuse prevention council or family-strengthening organization, including, but not limited to, a family resource center.

Existing law defines “family resource center,” for purposes of these provisions, to mean an entity providing family-centered and family-strengthening services that are embedded in communities, culturally sensitive, and include cross-system collaboration to assist in transforming families and communities through reciprocity and asset development based on impact-driven and evidence-informed approaches with the goal of preventing child abuse and neglect and strengthening children and families.

This bill would instead define “family resource center” to mean a family-friendly entity serving as a hub for multigenerational, family-centered, and family-strengthening support services that are provided at no cost or low cost to participants, embedded in communities, culturally sensitive, reflective of, and responsive to, community needs and interests, build communities of peer support for families, and include cross-system collaboration to assist in transforming families and communities through reciprocity, development of social connections that reduce isolation and stress, and asset development based on impact-driven and evidence-informed approaches with the goal of preventing child abuse and neglect and strengthening children and families.