Initiative & Partnerships

Office of Early Care & Education

Vision:
Santa Barbara County has a system that supports high quality early care and education services for children, and those services are recognized as essential for a strong community.

The Early Care & Education Initiative is a partnership aimed at increasing the availability of high quality early care and education services in Santa Barbara County by strengthening the infrastructure and raising awareness of the importance of early care and education to the economic and social vitality of the community.

Services:
The Initiative encourages the development of new child care spaces through technical assistance and training on licensing, permitting, program development and business support for family child care and center-based programs, and on policy development and work-life programs for government and business. Data, expertise and resources including planning for universal preschool are available to those who want to start up, expand, or support child care.

The initiative encourages current early care and education programs to increase their quality through program quality improvement support such as accreditation technical assistance and Spruce Up for Kids - a mini-grant program for family child care providers. The initiative also promotes professional growth of early childhood providers through staff retention and training programs such as the Child Care Initiative Project (CCIP) and Comprehensive Approaches to Raising Educational Standards (CARES.)

Partner Contact Information:
Office of Early Care & Education
First 5 Santa Barbara County
Santa Barbara: (805) 560-1037
Santa Maria: (805) 739-8740

Children's Resource & Referral Program
Santa Barbara Family Care Center
Santa Barbara: (805) 963-4592
Santa Maria: (805) 925-4789

Santa Barbara County Child Care Planning Council (805) 964-4710 x 4473

Early Childhood Mental Health-Special Needs

Vision:
A comprehensive, integrated, culturally responsive System of Care working with children prenatal through 5 and their families in the areas of mental health and other special needs.

Description:
The partners in the Early Childhood Mental Health and Other Special Needs Initiative are working together to develop a system of care to ensure that all high-risk children birth through age five in Santa Barbara County have full access to early identification, comprehensive assessment, and a full range of therapeutic services.

Services:
The partner organizations provide coordinated services to children and families including individual and family counseling, screenings, assessment, and parent education. In addition, training, outreach and education are provided to parents, service providers and the community-at-large. The collaborative annually hosts an Early Mental Health and Special Needs Summit to bring the latest in research, information and resources to the community.

Partners:
The Initiative is administered by Santa Barbara County's Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health Department with funding provided to: CALM, Santa Barbara County Office of Education's CATCH Program, Alpha Resource Center's Family First Program, Sojourn Services Inc., People Helping People, and the UCSB Autism Research & Training Center.

Additional partners include: Parents, California Children's Services, Community Action Commission, Department of Social Services Child Welfare Services, Tri-County Regional Center, Domestic Violence Solutions, Santa Barbara County Public Health, SELPA, Easter Seals.

Contact Information:
Santa Barbara County Alcohol, Drug & Mental Health Department
Early Childhood Mental Health & Other Special Needs Initiative
(805) 934-6502