County/City Partnerships

MCOE

Monterey County Office of Education and CAPC have a long-standing partnership. Working together we ensure that all of our educators across the county are well versed in child abuse prevention and the associated governing laws. It is critical that we all understand the impact and trauma that child abuse inflicts on the entire family. Supporting families in distress and ensuring that we are all aware of the resources across the county and then directing services towards those in need will help to mitigate the issues families are facing. CAPC is instrumental in supporting our schools and partner agencies to uplift the safety of the children in our county.

CAC

The Sally P. Archer Child Advocacy Center and Bates Eldredge Clinic is an accredited member of the National Children’s Alliance and the only child advocacy center (CAC) serving Monterey County. The Child Abuse Prevention Council (CAPC) is a partner in the oversight of the CAC. The purpose of the CAC is to provide a comprehensive, culturally competent, multidisciplinary team response to allegations of child abuse in a dedicated, child-friendly setting. The CAC serves as an interagency coordinated response center. The CAC functions as a multidisciplinary team (MDT) that includes disciplines from Law Enforcement, Victim Advocacy, Mental Health, Social Services, Medical, Prosecutors, and Forensic Interviewers. The MDT collaborates and coordinates intervention so as to reduce potential trauma to children and families and respecting the rights, mandates, and obligations of each agency. The CAC provides a comfortable, private, child-friendly setting that is both physically and psychologically safe for the clients. The CAC conducts forensic interviews that are conducted in a manner which is of a neutral, fact finding nature, and coordinated to avoid duplicative interviewing. The CAC provides specialized medical evaluations and treatment to victims through the county SART program. The CAC provides mental health specialists from Monterey County Children’s Behavioral Health, who respond to forensic interviews for support and offers services after leaving the CAC. The CAC provides victim advocates from Monterey County Rape Crises Center for both forensic interviews and medical evaluations that provide support and advocacy to the clients. After clients leave the CAC, therapists and advocates from Monterey County Children’s Behavioral Health, Monterey County Rape Crisis Center, and Monterey County District Attorney’s Victim Services collaborate to discuss client mental health needs and determine how services will be provided and continued throughout the court process and after the case is closed.

JSORT

JSORT is a collaborative partnership between Monterey County Probation and MCBH, providing supervision and mental health services to juveniles who have committed a sexual offense. The goals of JSORT are to safely maintain the youth in the community, improve the overall mental health and emotional functioning of the affected youth and their families, reduce the need for residential care and/or a custodial commitment, and reduce the risk of re-offending. Forensic psychosexual assessments are provided to youth who have been referred by Monterey County Probation and the Juvenile Court for sexually acting out behaviors. A range of intensive outpatient therapies (individual, group and family) are provided to build the tools needed to establish more adaptive prosocial behaviors, reduce recidivism and become a safe and more productive member of the community. JSORT also includes a multi-disciplinary team (MDT) with representation from: Law Enforcement, Probation, Behavioral Health, Victim Advocacy, Public Defender, Defense Attorney, and the Director of the Child Abuse Prevention Council.

CASP

The Community Alliance for Safety and Peace (CASP) is a cross-sector collaboration forged to reduce youth violence and to change the pervasive culture of violence that currently harms the families, neighborhoods, and communities of Salinas and Monterey County as a whole. CASP is part professional networking organization, professional learning community, and policy advisory group. Through partnership and alignment of resources, the over 60 member agencies do the heavy lifting of the daily violence prevention, intervention, enforcement and re-entry work. CASP’s strategy for doing this has been developed in partnership with the community, and focuses on Prevention, Intervention, Enforcement and Re-Entry.

CASP is an organization partnered with the Action Council staffed by the City of Salinas.