Yolo County Children and Youth Portfolio, 2003 -- Introduction

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Introduction

Children are Healthy

Children are Engaged in Lifelong Learning

Children are Socially and Emotionally Supported

Children are Safe

Children's Basic Economic Needs are Met

Services in Action

November 2003

Dear Residents of Yolo County,

It is our pleasure to introduce the Yolo County Children's Portfolio, 2003. The Portfolio is a report on the conditions of children in our community and represents the hard work and dedication of Yolo County organizations, public agencies and individuals who are committed to improving the health and well being of Yolo County's children and youth.

We are especially proud of the efforts of the committee of volunteers that met many times over the past year and brought a depth of knowledge and wisdom to this project.

Ultimately, we hope the information in this publication will assist the community in achieving its goal of improving the health and well being of children and youth in Yolo County. The indicators in this report were chosen to present a well rounded picture of Yolo County children and youth including their mental and emotional well being as well as their physical health. The best available data was used for this purpose.

The good news is, overall, we find Yolo County is doing well by its children. More children and youth appear to have health insurance and fewer children are hospitalized for asthma in Yolo County than the state average. Fewer Yolo County teens start smoking or contract sexually transmitted diseases, and the County has a much lower teen birth rate than the state as a whole. Test scores on the Stanford 9 assessment are higher than the state average for both reading and mathematics and more high school students graduate ready to attend college.

However, we also see some disturbing trends developing in our county. For many Yolo County teenagers, completing their education requires a significant effort. The high school dropout rate is higher than state average and our high school graduation rate is lower. Housing is also a serious issue. We have forty percent fewer affordable homes than the national average and over twenty percent of our children live in poverty. Finally, of grave concern is the physical health of many of our children. Thirty five percent of our children are at an unhealthy weight, an additional thirty percent are at risk for obesity, and almost thirteen percent are already clinically obese.

The Children and Youth Portfolio presents only the facts about the conditions of our children in Yolo County. It does not contain any recommendations because we hope that the facts themselves will serve as valuable information for decision making. We hope the facts will serve to raise public awareness of children's circumstances, guide and encourage effective policy development on their behalf, support improvements in the allocation of resources, and, most importantly, help us keep children and youth our highest priority by promoting community responsibility for positive change.

We must commit ourselves and our resources so that our children will achieve the promising futures we know they deserve.

Sincerely,

Lois Wolk
California Assemblywoman
8th District

Helen Thomson
Yolo County Supervisor
2nd District

600 A Street, Suite Y • Davis, California 95616 • (530) 757-5558

About the Yolo County Children's Alliance

The Yolo County Children's Alliance & Child Abuse Prevention Council is a partnership of parents, youth, consumers, members of the business and faith communities, and over fifty public and private organizations that provide health, education and social services for children.

Created by Resolution 2002-60 of the Yolo County Board of Supervisors in the Spring of 2002, the Yolo County Children's Alliance has generated a surge of interest and enthusiasm in the community. Members of the Alliance share a common, stated vision - to improve the well being of children, youth, and their families in our communities by working collaboratively to determine our highest health, education and social priorities, coordinate service delivery, and expand access to services - especially where gaps are found to exist.

In order to determine where resources for Yolo County children and their families should best be concentrated, the YCCA commissioned the "Children's Portfolio," a study of the present children's conditions in Yolo County. The project focuses on the health, safety, education and economic well being of our children and families, measures how well we are doing now, and provides a baseline upon which to track future trends.

The Yolo County Children's Summit, a public forum where community leaders and stakeholders will engage in health and education priority setting, strategic planning, and advocacy on behalf of children, youth and families, will follow publication of the "Children's Portfolio" and has been scheduled to take place on January 23, 2004 at the University of California, Davis.

The Yolo County Children's Alliance serves as the Yolo County Child Abuse Prevention Coordinating Council and is responsible for raising public awareness about child abuse and neglect and for educating the community about child abuse prevention. The Council also assists the Yolo County Board of Supervisors in the evaluation of proposals by local agencies and organizations to provide child abuse prevention, intervention and treatment services and makes recommendations to the Board for the award of contracts in Yolo County.

The YCCA Policy Council also serves as the Alcohol Drug and Mental Health Services Department's CSOC, or Children's Systems of Care, Policy Council for Yolo County, supporting and giving direction to the program.

The YCCA is governed by a 45 member Policy Council which includes representatives of state and local government, the county health, mental health, welfare, housing and transportation agencies, non-profit organizations, education, the business sector, and the community. A thirteen member Executive Committee, (the Board), of the Policy Council is responsible for day to day management.

The Yolo County Children's Alliance was incorporated in March 2003 and is a 501 ( c ) 3 California public benefit corporation.

Yolo County Children's Alliance & Child Abuse Prevention Council
600 A Street, Suite Y
Davis, CA 95616
530-757-5558
ycca@yolocounty.org

About the Portfolio

The Yolo County Children and Youth Portfolio is a project of the Yolo County Children's Alliance (YCCA). The Portfolio was developed by a subcommittee of YCCA members who met throughout 2003. During the course of their work, the committee conducted a community survey, interviewed community leaders, and reviewed dozens of indicators of the well being of the county's children and youth aged 0-21. The Portfolio represents the culmination of these efforts.

The Portfolio Advisory Committee established five goals, or outcomes, for children and youth in Yolo County. The selected indicators that are included in the Portfolio support these important community goals:

Children are Healthy
Children are Engaged in Lifelong Learning
Children are Socially and Emotionally Supported
Children are Safe
Children's Basic Economic Needs are Met

Each indicator provides a snapshot of the success of the Yolo County community in achieving these goals.

The Children's Portfolio is a tool designed to help the community identify the most pressing priorities for Yolo County's children and youth, aged 0-21, and to determine where to focus resources in order to achieve the best possible outcomes for them.

Criteria for Selection of Indicators

To guide their efforts in choosing indicators for the Portfolio, the subcommittee approved the following criteria:

Accessible: Indicators should be user-friendly and accessible to a broad audience from the community; they should have a common interpretation such that people generally agree on the meaning of the indicator.

Available: Data are readily available and measured regularly and consistently over the long term so that trends can be tracked over time.

Reliable and valid: Data are reliable and valid. Data collection procedures are rigorous, consistent over time, and rely on dependable data sources.

Appropriate: Indicators are appropriate measures of the outcomes we are evaluating, reflecting the goals and objectives of local programs and communities.

Actionable: Indicators should measure things that can be improved; the data should be usable to influence public policy decisions.

Balanced: Data measure positive as well as negative aspects of well-being, and no one issue or population segment dominates the report.

Yolo County Children’s Alliance Children and Youth Portfolio Advisory Committee:
Ronda Adams
Bethany Brown
Susan Cassady
Shannon Cernek
Esther Cistone
Karen Davis-O’Hara
Don Ishikawa
Mary Jo Johnson
Elizabeth Jones
Martha Lehman
Jonathan London
Melton Losoya
Samrina Marshall
Diane Moreno
Irma Rodriguez
Don Schatzel
Kathleen Stafford
Robbie Townsley
Melinda Waring
Diana Williams
Tim Wilson

Yolo County Children’s Alliance Executive Committee:
Helen Thomson, Yolo County Supervisor, District 2, Chair
Jorge Ayala, Ed. D. Yolo County Superintendent of Schools, Secretary
Mary Jo Bryan, Executive Director, Hands Together, Treasurer
Kathleen Stafford, Executive Director, Yolo County Children & Families Commission
Bette Hinton, M.D.Yolo County Public Health Officer
Jerry Rose, Director, Department of Employment and Social Services
Esther Castillo, Director, Alcohol Drug and Mental Health Services
Hon. Donna Petre, Yolo Unified Family Court
Vic Singh, Yolo County Chief Administrative Officer
Robbie Townsley, Community Representative, Yolo County District 4
Don Schatzel, Director, Parks and Community Services, West Sacramento
James Perry , Superior Court Executive Officer
Janet Wagner, CAO, Sutter Davis Hospital

The Yolo County Children’s Alliance would like to extend a special thank you to the following organizations, whose financial support and community leadership made this portfolio possible:
Sutter Davis Hospital and Community Foundation
Yolo County Children and Families Commission
County of Yolo
Yolo County Departments of Probation and Health
Yolo County Maternal Child & Adolescent Health Advisory Board
Youth Opportunities Council, Yolo County Workforce Investment Board
City of West Sacramento
City of Davis
City of Woodland
City of Winters
Child Care Services Resource and Referral

California Institute for County Government
Under the direction of the YCCA Subcommittee, this report was prepared by the California Institute for County Government (CICG). CICG is a public policy research organization dedicated to improving county government in California through research and analysis. CICG is a joint program of the California State Association of Counties, the California State University system, and California State University, Sacramento. For more information, please visit www.cicg.org or call CICG at (916) 324-0796.

Yolo County Children’s Alliance &
Child Abuse Prevention Council
600 A Street, Suite Y
Davis, CA 95616
530-757-5558
ycca@yolocounty.org

Member Organizations

California State Senate
California State Assembly
Yolo County Board of Supervisors
County Administrative Officer

Directors of County Departments of Health, Employment
& Social Services, and Alcohol, Drug & Mental Health

Chief Probation Officer
Public Defender
District Attorney
Superior Court
Juvenile Court
County Library

Yolo County Housing Authority
Yolo County Transportation District
Yolo County Law Enforcement
Yolo County Children and Families Commission
Yolo County Superintendent of Schools
School Districts of Yolo County
The Five Supervisorial Districts
University of California, Davis
The Community Colleges
The Cities of Yolo County
Sutter Davis Hospital
Woodland Healthcare

Yolo County Branch, American Red Cross
Regnar Paulson Foundation
Davis Rotary
Youth in Focus

3 County Commissions:
Youth Opportunities Council of the Work Investment Board
Maternal Child & Adolescent Health Advisory Board
Juvenile Justice Commission

3 Non-profit Organizations:
CommuniCare Health Centers
Yolo Connections/ Hands Together
Sexual Assault & Domestic Violence Center

About Yolo County

Yolo County is located in California's central valley region; it lies between Sacramento and Solano counties. The majority of the county's land area, or about 80%, is reserved for farming. The total population of Yolo County is 181,291 and of that number 158,393 persons reside in the four incorporated cities -- Davis, West Sacramento, Winters and Woodland. The other 22,898 live in the county's unincorporated area. Over 60,000 residents, or about 37%, are ages 0 to 21. By the year 2020 nearly 80,000 Yolo County residents will be 21 and under.

While the projected population growth figures show both a general expansion and an overall increase in ethnic diversity, the distribution over age is not expected to change significantly over the next two decades. A large proportion of Yolo County residents are ages 20 to 24, probably due to students attending the University of California at Davis. It is projected that the population of Yolo County residents ages 0-14 will experience larger proportional growth than other age segments of the population.

The University of California is the leading employer in the county. U.C. Davis employs approximately 17,000 people on its main campus, which represents about 18% of the total civilian labor force in Yolo County. Government employment, including U.C. Davis employees, is the largest employment sector in the county.

Yolo County also has a large number of farm employees compared to the state average. This is to be expected in a county where 80% of the land area is reserved for agriculture, and where the value of farm production was $288.6 million in 2001.

The median household income in Yolo County is $40,769, considerably lower than the state median of $47,493. Nearly ten percent of Yolo County families live under the federal poverty line of $16,895 for a family of four (for 1999, the latest year for which data is available).