CCCC- Coordinating Council for Children in Crisis

History

Background Information

The CCCC, originally named the Coordinating Committee for Children In Crisis, is a private non-profit agency founded by Jean Adnopoz in 1977 to address the lack of adequate support services for families at risk of child abuse or neglect. At that time, services for children seemed fragmented and isolated, making it difficult to provide comprehensive services to children and families. Jean Adnopoz explains "There was a perceived need to integrate the public and private sectors' interest in child abuse and neglect... Services in the New Haven area, as they were throughout most of the country, were fragmented on behalf of this newly identified population of abused and neglected children."

Coordinating Council for Children in Crisis

Initially spearheaded by a group of hospital volunteers, an effort to achieve a public and private sector coalition resulted in the creation of this new community-based agency committed to the concept of prevention through the strengthening and support of troubled families and to cooperation between sectors that were historically separate. What ultimately became the Coordinating Council For Children In Crisis began with a mission that was twofold:

To prevent child abuse in order to maintain children in their own homes, reducing the number of children placed in foster care and outside institutions and...
To develop a collaborative network of public/private individuals and agencies who would help to support families vulnerable to child abuse and neglect.

The basic assumptions of the agency were as follows:

That understanding and meeting the needs of parents of young dependent children would be an essential element in serving the children. Goals for service to children were both to protect them from harm and, beyond that, to positively enhance their development.
That family stressors were often both intra-familial and extra-familial, or environmental. To be able to effectively reduce family dysfunction, major consideration had to be given to impacting both areas. This should include the quality of interpersonal relationships as well as family needs in areas such as housing, entitlements, nutrition and education. In addition, the agency should be prepared to examine systems problems and play an advocacy role when appropriate. It was expected that the provision of concrete services to address the family’s needs would enhance the utilization and effectiveness of the mental health services already available.
That empowering client families to claim the benefits of community resources could make a difference not only in The utilization of services but in their effectiveness. the program hoped to create independence by providing an opportunity for clients to gain understanding of the various systems with which they interact and to feel more powerful in their transactions.
That coordination of available community services on behalf of individuals and families would promote their effectiveness. In this regard, the new agency should seek to identify needs, assess resources already available to meet those needs and develop only those additional programs which were not available elsewhere in the community and which did not fit the program mix of other agencies or institutions. The new agency should be sensitive to the territoriality. of other programs in the community and bring these programs into a family support network, rather than compete with them.
That location of the program in the private sector could be an advantage because it would reduce the possibility of the perception of the agency as a coercive intervenor, as public programs often are characterized, and would minimize the stigmatization of its clients. To foster client acceptance and commitment to working with the agency, all cases were to be voluntary; families themselves should believe that the help offered could be useful in dealing with the problems facing them.
That the involvement of multiple funding sources in the program would have advantages beyond the important first step of realistic support; it would be evidence of a commitment on the part of each funding entity to the goals of coordination of services, as well as the acknowledgment of shared responsibility for children and families.

With these goals in mind, a large Board of Directors was recruited and specific programs were developed. The Board of Directors originally served as an educational and planning forum where members could discuss issues of concern, learn about each other’s role and services, identify how existing services could be effectively coordinated and where services were needed that were not provided elsewhere. Jean Adnopoz would be the first of only three Executive Directors in the agency’s twenty-three year history, contributing to consistency in the continuation of the CCCC mission.

Program Services

The first program developed at the CCCC was a multidisciplinary case consultation Team known as a Child Protection Team. This was a group of professionals representing education, medicine, law, child guidance, child protection, psychiatry and private and public agencies who believed that services to families much be coordinated across systems. These individuals volunteered time to meet regularly to review cases, coordinate service delivery and identify gaps and barriers to effective service provision. Today, a Multidisciplinary Investigative Team established by CCCC, led now by another organization, coordinates the investigation and treatment of sexually abused and seriously physically abused children.

The next programs, added in 1978, were the Parent Aide and the Family Advocate Programs, designed to work with families where children have been identified as being at risk of abuse or neglect. These two programs worked to reduce external, environmental stresses and to strengthen parenting and communication skills in the hopes that early in-home interventions such as these would prevent child abuse from occurring. In 1997, these two programs merged to become the Parent Education Program.

The CCCC’s commitment to client advocacy and service coordination led to the development of a Sexual Abuse Prevention Program. This program began in 1983 with a part-time staff person who provided administrative support to the New Haven Child Sexual Abuse Task Force and advocacy services to sexually abused children and families. In 1986 the program was expanded and a full time Coordinator was hired. The advocacy component was broadened to include an emphasis on community education, networking and short term counseling.

In 1986, the Family Violence Outreach Prevention Program was developed by the Connecticut Department of Children and Families and based at Domestic Violence Services, Inc., in New Haven. Working with the the DVS staff, the CCCC Sexual Abuse Prevention Coordinator provided support services to the children of emergency shelter residents and education about battering to youth, parents and agencies serving dual victim populations. In 1989, the Family Violence Outreach Program moved to the CCCC. Recognizing the link between domestic violence and child abuse, the CCCC was the first family support agency to develop domestic violence services in the context of child abuse prevention. The program’s goal is to help women recognize and understand the effects of domestic violence on children, increase their safety. decrease trauma and stabilize their lives. In 1999, the Sexual Abuse Prevention Program was formally folded into the Family Violence Outreach Program.

Recently

In 1996 the Neighborhood Victim Advocacy Program was begun for victims of domestic violence, robbery, burglary, assault and elder abuse. The program is a collaboration with the New Haven Department of Police Services and staff work closely with the community-based police. The program’s goal is to increase safety and provide support services and education for crime victims. The program started with a part-time Victim Advocate based in one New Haven neighborhood and now employs five Advocates covering the entire City.

In 1998 the CCCC was awarded the contract for Greater New Haven Sexual Assault Crisis Services (SACS) and began providing 24 hour/7 day/week crisis counseling, advocacy and police, hospital and court accompaniment to survivors of sexual assault. Although the program’s mission to end sexual violence was very consistent with the mission of the CCCC, we decided effective July 1, 2003 not to renew our contract for this program. In light of pending state budget cuts and already-strained resources we could no longer provide the administrative support the program required. The Women and Families Center is the new umbrella organization for this program.

Another CCCC program also fell victim to changes in state funding. The Homeless Outreach Peer/Professional Engagement program came to CCCC From the CT Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS) and provided intensive case management to substance abusing homeless mothers. However, effective July 1, 2003, DMHAS decided to consolidate the two HOPE Teams in the State and this program has moved to Advanced Behavioral Health.

Our recognition that many parents are dealing with a psychiatric disability has grown and we have developed specialized services for parents with a mental illness. In 2002 we were awarded a contract for the Parenting Support and Parental Rights Initiative program. This is the first program in Connecticut funded by a state agency to help parents understand their mental illness and its impact on their children and to develop guardianship plans in case a hospitalization is needed. We also work collaboratively with other organizations including ALSO-Cornerstone and New Haven Home Recovery to provide these families with a comprehensive network of supportive housing, case management, parenting and clinical services.

In the Fall of 2005, we were awarded a grant from the Connecticut Children’s Trust Fund to provide screening, risk assessment and a continuum of services including a parenting education group, telephone contact and intensive home visiting to first-time parents to prevent child abuse and neglect and improve health and developmental outcomes for children. This Nurturing Families Network began as a collaboration with the Hospital of Saint Raphael but will be an expanded and independent program in the Spring of 2007.

In 2006, The CT Department of Children and Families ackowledged the combined expertise that CCCC has developed in domestic violence and child protection and began subcontracting two full time CCCC staff members to provide consultation to DCF workers as part of a new statewide initiative to improve services to families experiencing violence.

CCCC began two new initiatives in July 2007. The Teen Outreach Programwas developed in collaboration with Troup Middle School and is a science-based program model first developed in 1978 and shown to be highly effective in preventing risk factors that contribute to drop out rates, academic failure, teen pregnancy and other negative behaviors among program participants. The model is based on research and theory about the developmental, social and educational needs of young people ages 12-17 and the principles of positive youth development. It utilizes weekly discussion and structured community service to help young people explore their values and their relationships with parents, peers and community, and to develop life skills such as communication, decision making and goal setting.

Care Coordination For Children and Youth with Special Health Needslinks children and youth with special health care needs and their families to services and resources in a coordinated effort to maximize the potential of children and youth, optimize health outcomes and improve quality of care. Comprehensive, patient-centered services are provided by four Care Coordinators responsible for completing initial assessments, developing an individualized, comprehensive and coordinated Care Plan, helping families and providers to understand, support and implement the Care Plan, making needed service referrals and addressing barriers to provision of needed services, monitoring and updating the Care Plan and providing information, education and supportive counseling to children, youth and family members and working closely with the regional and statewide Family Support Networks.

Changes in grant funding are just one reason that program services may change over time. The CCCC’s relatively small size and focus on advocacy, outreach and in-home service delivery has enabled the agency to develop programs which are flexible enough to be responsive to the changing needs in the community. As new issues develop, we are able to adapt, add or make changes to program services to address them.