Superior Court of California, Riverside County Collaborative Drug Court Division

Riverside, CA

The Riverside County Dependency Drug Court or Family Preservation Court (FPC) is requesting $1,480,000 over a four-year period in order to expand and enhance our program to include additional supportive services for children and adults affected by methamphetamine abuse.

FPC provides immediate access to a comprehensive network of services to substantially reduce substance abuse, improve family functioning, and establish healthier lifestyles by delivering intensified substance abuse treatment, mental health, and other support services. With the enhancement, FPC plans to add in-home visitation, an educational liaison for all school-aged children, assessments and referrals with Public Health Nurses for all children, the Father's Time curriculum for men, and Peer Support Groups for all parents enrolled in the program to create and maintain permanent positive life changes.

On average each parent in the FPC has 2.5 children that will receive the enhanced services of the program. FPC proposes to offer these enhanced comprehensive range of services to 150 currently enrolled children and 60 currently enrolled parents. We will expand our program to accommodate 1288 newly enrolled children and 515 newly enrolled parents, for a total of 1438 children and 575 parents over the four-year grant period.

Our target population is children affected by methamphetamine in families participating in Family Preservation Court. These parents are referred to the Department of Public Social Services, Children's Services Division (CSD) for child abuse and/or neglect and will be referred to FPC prior to filing a case in order to keep the children in the home or when necessary, after a petition is filed and the children are removed.

The proposed outcomes for the project include:

• 10% increase in the numbers of families entering the program through Pre- File, enabling more children to stay in the home.
• Reduce the average length of stay in foster care to 6 months or less.
• Improve the retention of families in the program to 80%.
• 80% of families will demonstrate improvement in family functioning.
• 95% of children will receive linkages/referrals to needed physical/mental health services.
• 95% of children identified at-risk will receive links to special educational services.
• 100% of new born babies in program will not be drug exposed.
• Improve overall child well being.
• Improvements in parent criminality, employment, mental health status, and substance use.
• 98% of families who complete the program will not reenter the foster care system.