Highlighting America’s 100 Best Communities for Young People
The 100 Best Communities for Young People competition honors outstanding efforts on behalf of young people by multiple sectors of communities. In cities, suburbs, small towns and counties across the country, this annual competition is leading communities to assess their efforts, work more effectively together for young people, and share best practices. Each week one of the 2007 100 Best Communities will be highlighted in the America’s Promise Bulletin and on our web site.
Santa Clarita, California
By Cynthia Hobgood
Located in Northern California about midway between San Francisco and Sacramento, scenic Solano County was one of the original counties in California, deriving its name from a Native American Chief. Solano’s public, private, nonprofit, educational, and faith sectors work together to create a positive environment for the county’s 100,000 young people.
Solano County Children's Network provides services for children, prevents child abuse/neglect, and ensures quality child care. The network is made of up several collaboratives including Children’s Alliance, Child Abuse Prevention Council, Family Resource Network, Child Care Planning Council, Solano Parenting Partnership, and Integrated Family Support Initiative.
The Solano County Office of Education serves approximately 85,000 students playing a crucial role in educating children of vastly different backgrounds and widely different needs. Six issues form the foundation for these efforts: fiscal responsibility/accountability, students successfully transitioning from school to work, engaging parents, involvement in the legislative process, planned use of technology, and interagency collaboration.
Each district sets goals for its high schools that are aligned with the High Performing High Schools Initiative focusing on five critical initiatives for boosting achievement: 1) Implementing High Expectations for ALL Students; 2) Fostering Development of World-Class Teachers/Site Administrators; 3) Developing World-Class Instructional Materials; 4) Creating/Supporting Successful Transitions to Postsecondary Education; 5) Nurturing/Developing a Community of Support for High Achieving Students.
Like many communities, Solano County faced a challenge to provide healthcare to all children. The Health Access Strategic Plan was created in 2001 and adopted by the County Board of Supervisors. The Solano Kids Insurance Program (SKIP), created in 1998 as a centralized health insurance resource for the County's uninsured children, connecting families with health care services/resources, provides enrollment assistance for families and advocates health-related legislative policy solutions. SKIP enrolled over 14,000 children ages 0-18 in 5 years but 2002, 12,000 Solano children remained uninsured. The county’s solution? A 100% Enrollment Strategy for Schools was instituted with school-based representatives helping identify 1-3 target schools per district. One school went from 44% to 100% insurance rate in four months. As of 2006, 33 Solano schools have 100% children’s health insurance coverage with a total of less than 3,500 children still uninsured.
Some of the initiatives in Solano County that led to its selection as one of 100 Best Communities for Young People include:
Friday Night Live Mentoring:
Cross-age mentoring program in operation over 7 years in Solano County. High school students mentor middle school students.
Link Crew:
Students work as mentors to younger students, aiding in the transition from middle school to high school and providing help and advice for those who need it; instrumental in helping freshman during orientation.
Court Appointed Special Advocate
(CASA): Mentors/volunteers advocate in juvenile court for best interests of abused, neglected and other dependent children to ensure each child's right to a safe, permanent home.
Fairfield: “Place to Be After 3:”
After School Program for middle schoolers. Provides indoor/outdoor recreational activities as well as homework help and tutoring to over 150 students yearly.
Additionally, youth have a strong voice on many programs in the County. Among those programs that have involved youth are:
Youth Takin’ On Tobacco
(YTOT): A youth-developed/driven peer education program that focuses on dangers of alcohol, tobacco, other drugs. Since 1995, membership includes 75-80 high school students meeting weekly to develop/present curricula to elementary, middle, high school students. Successfully advocated for city ordinance prohibiting smoking in local public parks.
Vallejo’s Fighting Back Partnership’s Youth Partnership:
A voice for the community’s younger generation; hosts a Candidates Forum to address issues presented by members of various Vallejo youth groups.
Solano County Office of Education's Youth Development, Support, Leadership:
Since 1996, engages youth as active leaders/resources in their schools/communities with programs like Friday Night Live, youth mentoring, academic decathlon.
With a countywide strategic plan in place, the Solano County Board of Supervisors continues to look to the future, finding ways to keep improving the lives of its young people. The group has spearheaded an effort to identify and assess commonalities and gaps of all the Strategic Plans for children in existence in the County, identify funding streams associated with the services outlined in these plans, and develop recommendations on leveraging funds and partnerships to increase progress toward helping children and youth thrive in Solano County.