Child Abuse Prevention Center Changes Name to The Priority Center

The Child Abuse Prevention Center of Orange County recently unveiled a new name to better represent the 36-year-old nonprofit organization’s move to provide programs and services for people of all ages in Orange County.

Now known as The Priority Center, the charity’s new identity reflects its expansion into a broader spectrum of programs beyond child abuse services. According to Lisa Fujimoto, executive director, The Priority Center will focus on serving all age groups through 10 life-changing programs that are designed to work with each family’s unique needs and ensure they reside in violence-free homes. The programs include:

· Adult and Adolescent Mental Health Crisis Stabilization – The program serves suicidal and homicidal adults ages 18 and up. This program’s field-based treatment team consists of clinicians, case managers and peer mentors. The program has three stages: Assessment, Therapy and Case Management; Peer Mentorship; and lastly, Support Network Resources and Linkages for progression of long-term resolution and treatment.

· Children’s In-Home Crisis Stabilization – The Priority Center serves suicidal and homicidal children who can’t be hospitalized or are just being discharged from a medical facility and are referred to the center through the County Contract of Mental Health Program. This program sees only children ages 5-18 experiencing a mental health crisis. The child either has had active suicide attempts, suicidal thoughts and plans, and self-harming behavior. The child has active homicidal ideation/plans and assaultive behavior. The center provides field-based crisis services that include: short term in-home therapy (individual and group); case management; mental health rehabilitation; focus on maintaining family stabilization and prevention of hospitalization; and out-of-home placement. Referrals come from CHOC and the county’s Centralized Assessment Team (CAT).

· Connected Care for Adults – Connected Care offers services to adults who went through The Priority Center’s Adult Mental Health Crisis Program and provides yearlong support. Services include accompanying people to court appearances and connecting them with helpful resources and referrals to get their life back on track.

· Infant In-Home Visitation – This program serves high-risk families with infants in order to strengthen bonding, attachment and self-sufficiency. The center serves infants up to 17 months old and services are provided in multiple languages: English, Spanish and Vietnamese. The program works through utilization of Partners in Parenting (PIPE) and uses Keys to Interactive Parenting (KIPS).

· Toddler In-Home Visitation – This program serves high-risk families with toddlers ages 18 months to 5 years old. The focus of the program is to promote positive parenting, positive behavior and healthy relationships. The training and tools used in this program are Triple P: Positive Parenting Programs. Services are provided in multiple languages: English, Spanish and Vietnamese.

· Home Visitation Program – This program is derived from CALWORKS and provides resilient parenting and early learning connection services, including monthly home visits for up to two years. The purpose of this program is to provide voluntary, high-quality, home visiting services to support positive health, development and well-being outcomes for pregnant and parenting women, families and infants born into poverty.

· Outreach and Engagement – This program provides educational and skill-building presentations, including topics such as growth and development, bullying, anger and stress management, healthy communications and healthy relationships to support emotional and social well-being. The program serves Central Orange County and all services are free. The population served by this program is comprised of underserved at-risk children, adults and seniors. The Priority Center has partnerships with outreach in the LGBTQ community, Deaf Community and various faith communities. The goal is providing mental health outreach in order to provide services and connections/linkages to resources in the community

· School Readiness Program – This 12-week program reaches out to Orange County families with toddlers who have fallen through the cracks to prepare the family to support their children’s transition to school. The program is designed to ensure healthy emotional development for children ages 0-8 by providing education, coaching, mentoring and support for parents. School Readiness engages families to connect to community-based services that support their children’s development of emotional and behavioral milestones.

· Child Abuse Services Team (CAST) - This program serves victims of child abuse to reduce the trauma they experienced while the sexual abuse, witness to a murder, violence or rape along with sex trafficking case is being investigated. The Priority Center’s role in CAST is one of advocate for the children. The sole focus is to help them feel comfortable and safe with trained advocates in a friendly playroom while they go through the forensic interview and medical examination. More than 800 children have come through CAST in 2018-2019. More than 160 children were repeat children visiting CAST.

· Basic Needs Program – The Priority Center serves at-risk families who are working to gain custody of their children, and ultimately, family reunification or preservation for children already in the Orange County Child Welfare System. Basic Needs delivers goods provided through the County Contracts, along with private donations through gifts in kind to provide critically needed items such as bunk beds, car seats, blankets, pool gates, food, safety kits for homes and diapers. This program serves Orange County, Los Angeles County and the Inland Empire.

Fujimoto said the new Priority Center name embodies the center’s growing focus on clients from all age groups.

“When our organization was founded 36 years ago, the mission was to end child abuse,” Fujimoto said. “That is still at the heart of what we do but even the concept of child abuse has evolved over the years. We see the generational cycle of trauma in which adults who were abused as children and did not receive the assistance for the trauma they experienced carry this hurt, pain, abandonment, and lack of support into their own families and relationships. Thus, the generational cycle of trauma and abuse continues.

“The Priority Center works with young children, latency age children and young adults. We work with former foster youth, emancipated youth and adults who carry their trauma into all areas of their lives. Orange County is experiencing a growing need for a much broader spectrum of programs and services. Our goal is to support adults, young adults and families in addition to children who are in crisis and help stabilize them so they can live healthy lives both physically and mentally. We are committed to providing hope and encouragement, as well as the opportunity to thrive, to our clients each and every day.”

For more information about the Priority Center, please go to www.theprioritycenter.org.

The Priority Center

Established in 1983, The Priority Center (formerly known as the Child Abuse Prevention Center) serves at-risk adults, families and children in crisis to prevent and break the generational cycle of trauma and abuse. The center matches individuals and families at risk of trauma with professional caseworkers who work with them directly within their homes. The Priority Center also works with adolescents and adults in crisis who need intervention services dealing with a mental illness and suicidal ideations.

A recent report by the Orange County Health Care Agency notes that suicide in the county is at an all-time high with a rate of 10.9 people per 100,000 people. The Priority Center teams work with adolescents and adults experiencing suicidal ideation and self-harm. The Priority Center is the only nonprofit organization in Orange County offering in-home crisis stabilization for children, adults and families. The center employs more than 120 professional staff members, two-thirds of whom provide direct services to individuals in need. In 2018, the center’s programs served more than 6,000 individuals in crisis and families.

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