OCAP Annual Report Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Promoting Safe and Stable Families (PSSF)

Promoting Safe and Stable Families (PSSF) funds offer counties an opportunity to provide programs and services across the spectrum of prevention to treatment through aftercare. There are four PSSF program components: (1) family preservation, (2) community-based family support, (3) family reunification, and (4) adoption promotion and support. A minimum of 20 percent of the county’s total annual PSSF allocation must be spent under each of the four program components. Counties have flexibility in how the remaining 20 percent is expended. The objective, target population and allowable services and activities vary by component. More information can be found on the Promoting Safe and Stable Families (PSSF) Fact Sheet.

Administrative Costs

Administrative costs are defined as costs incurred for common or joint objectives that cannot be identified specifically with a particular project, program, or organizational activity. Depreciation, software, and office equipment are examples of administrative costs. Allowable costs that would not have been incurred had it not been for the programs are direct program costs not administrative (e.g. program personnel, training, supplies, and travel).

• No more than ten (10) percent of CAPIT funds may be used for administrative costs.
• No more than ten (10) percent of CBCAP funds may be used for administrative costs.
• No more than ten (10) percent of PSSF funds may be used for administrative costs.
• Counties shall use no more than 5 percent of the amounts in the county children's trust fund for administrative costs.

What if I want to make changes to the OCAP expenditure plan?
Changes to the Expenditure Plan for CAPIT, CBCAP or PSSF funds must be pre-approved by OCAP. Contact your County Consultant.

What is prevention?
Prevention is a pro-active process of helping individuals, families and communities to develop the resources needed to develop and maintain healthy lifestyles so that child abuse and neglect does not occur. Prevention focuses upon the development of innovative programs and carefully planned interventions that are implemented before the onset of physical, psychological, emotional or social problems. Prevention is broad based in the sense that it is intended to alleviate a wide range of at-risk behaviors and causal factors.

How do I evaluate prevention activities?
Evaluating the outcomes of prevention and family support programs is critical for program growth and improvement. Programs need to provide convincing evidence that their work makes important differences for the children, families, and communities they serve. The Family Resource Information, Education, and Network Development Service (FRIENDS) National Resource Center for CBCAP has developed resources to assist family support and child abuse prevention programs conduct meaningful evaluations of their services. For more information see the Evaluation Tool .

What is program evaluation?
Program evaluation is the systematic process of studying a program (or practice, intervention, or initiative) to discover how well it is working to achieve intended goals. For more information view the Evidence-Based Program Evaluation .

What is a Logic Model?
The Logic Model provides an effective method for charting progress from initial and short-term outcomes toward intermediate and long-term outcomes. A Logic Model focuses on identifying the logical links between the outcomes you desire, your program assumptions or theories, and your program strategies or services. As you work through each step, you will build a road map showing how your program works. The logic model will help you get started in planning an evaluation of your program. The FRIENDS Logic Model Builder helps programs identify anticipated outcomes, indicators of success, and evaluation instruments that may be appropriate to measure success. For more information view the Logic Model Builders toolkit .

What is “unmet need?”
In the context of a Needs Assessment, the words “problem,” “situation,” “opportunity” or “need” are often used interchangeably. Avoid citing the lack of a method or service as the need or the problem. Needs are supported by evidence drawn from your experience, from statistics provided by authoritative sources and/or from the testimony of persons and organizations (e.g. stakeholders, experts) known to be knowledgeable about the situation. Use these sources to identity the problem you will address, then select the strategy or solution best suited to address that problem.

A simplified example, “the problem is high number of daytime crime by juveniles.” Then, your objective might be “to establish a youth center” and your outcome could be a “80% decrease in daytime crime by juveniles after the youth center opened.”

Avoid statements such as, “the need in this community is for a youth center.” This leads to circular reasoning: the need is a youth center; the objective is to create a youth center; the plan is to build a youth center; and the outcome is that we now have a youth center. Nowhere in this discussion are youth mentioned as the most important part of your plan.

What is an output?
Outputs are the direct products of program activities (e.g. number served, number of classes, number of sessions, etc.)

What is an outcome?
An outcome is a change that is likely to take place as a result of the target population’s participation in your program. There are three types of outcomes: short-term (changes in skills or knowledge that you expect, usually occur within one to three years); intermediate (changes in skills & behaviors that you want); long-term (changes in status and conditions that you hope for). For more information view the Details section of “what is an outcome?”.
 
That is Continuous Quality Improvement?
Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) is a process to ensure programs are systematically and intentionally improving services and increasing positive outcomes for the families they serve. CQI is a cyclical, data-driven process; it is proactive, not reactive. A CQI environment is one in which data is collected and used to makes positive changes—even when things are going well—rather than waiting for something to go wrong and then fixing it. CQI is an ongoing process that involves the Plan, Do, Study, Act cycle. For more information view the Continuous Quality Improvement on the FRIENDS website.

What is a cost-benefit analysis?
Cost-benefit analysis may be viewed as a way to calculate society's "return on investment" from an activity or program. These analyses attempt to calculate the actual costs of delivering services and the monetary value of improving outcomes for children and families, and to measure whether the benefits exceed the costs. Measuring return on investment in combination with program evaluation that measures change at client, community or systems level can be powerful information that you can convert to sound bites to garner support for your investments and long-term sustainability of worthy programs. For more information view Cost Analysis on the FRIENDS website.

What is an evidence-based or evidence-informed program?
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) defines "evidence-based practice" as a combination of the following three factors: (1) best research evidence, (2) best clinical experience, and (3) consistent with patient values (IOM, 2001). These three factors are also relevant for child welfare.

Where can I learn about evidence-based programs?
There are a number of program registries that rate program effectiveness. The California Evidence-based Clearinghouse is a nationally recognized source. The Title IV-E Prevention Services Clearinghouse was established by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to conduct an objective and transparent review of research on programs and services intended to provide enhanced support of children and families and prevent foster care placements. Other sources: Office of Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Prevention , SAMHSA National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices

What is a Child Abuse Prevention Council?
A child abuse prevention coordinating council is a community council whose primary purpose is to coordinate the community's efforts to prevent and respond to child abuse. For more information view the Welfare and Institutions Code Section 18982-18982.4

What is a Family Resource Center?
Family Resource Centers are one of several community approaches in California focused on improving the well-being of children, youth, families and communities. Family resource centers, like many community building strategies, share the key principles of family support, resident involvement, public/private partnership, community building and shared accountability. For more information view the Family Resource Centers Network of California website.

What is the Strengthening Families Framework?
Strengthening Families is a research-based, cost-effective strategy to increase family strengths, enhance child development and reduce child abuse and neglect. It focuses on building the Five Protective Factors that promote healthy outcomes: 1) parental resilience; 2) social connections; 3) knowledge of parenting and child development; 4) concrete support in times of need; and 5) social and emotional competence of children. For more information view the Strengthening Families page on the Center for the Study of Social Policy website.

California Regions

To connect with your OCAP County Consultant, email us at ocap-pnd@dss.ca.gov.

Prevention Network Development Unit 1

Prevention Network Development Unit 2

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