What Is the Children and Families Commission of Orange County?
The Commission is responsible for overseeing the allocation of tobacco tax revenues received by Orange County.
It sponsors programs and funds organizations that provide health, education and child development services to children in Orange County from the prenatal stage to age five, as well as their families.
In short, it supports services that further the Commission's goal that all children are healthy and ready to learn when they enter school.
How Did the Commission Come About
The Commission was created as a result of Proposition 10, the California Children and Families Act of 1998. The proposition added a 50-cent sales tax on tobacco products sold in California. Funds help pay for education, health
care and child development programs for children from the prenatal stage
to age five and their families. and requires that funds raised be used to support education, health and childcare programs that promote healthy early childhood development from the prenatal stage to age five.
The Orange County Board of Supervisors established the Children and Families Commission and appointed its first nine commissioners in 1999. The Commission allocated the first tobacco tax revenues on February 16, 2000.
What Does the Commission Do?
The Children and Families Commission of Orange County has a simple vision: that all children are healthy and ready to learn when they enter school.
In pursuit of this vision, the Commission advances four programmatic goals:
- Healthy Children: Ensure the overall physical, social, emotional and intellectual health of children during the prenatal period through age five.
- Ready to Learn: Provide early care and education opportunities for young children to maximize their potential to succeed in school.
- Strong Families: Support and strengthen families in ways that promote good parenting for the optimal development of young children.
- Capacity Building: Leverage resources with our national and state programs, facilitate best practices among grantees, and prioritize those areas where there is a unique need.
In 2007-2008, programs supported by the Commission served more than 115,000 Orange County children.
How Much Money Do You Spend?
In 2007-2008, the Commission committed more than $54 million in state and local funds to major health and early education programs. The commission's allocations went to programs in four categories:
- 56 percent to Healthy Children
- 27 percent to Ready to Learn
- 8 percent to Strong Families
- 9 percent to Capacity Building
The Commission regularly updates a Ten-Year Financial Plan to guide the annual allocation of funding, reflecting the latest available projections of tobacco tax revenue. The plan includes financial and investment strategies to achieve the Commission's goals of sustainable programs to improve the health and school readiness of all young children in Orange County.
Is It All About Money?
No, it's about involvement. The Commission seeks to connect the knowledge of Orange County's public and private-sector leaders to worthy programs that serve the community. It also seeks to involve local people—from the workforces of large organizations, to retirees, to students—in hands-on, volunteer relationships with the programs we support.
What Do Your Programs Do?
The Commission funds dozens of programs and services to meet the overall goal of preparing young children for success in school and life. Our programs support goals ranging from child safety, to dental health, early literacy and language development, homeless prevention, physical fitness and nutrition, and special issues in pediatric health care (such as early identification of autism and ADHD).
We fund programs that provide parenting classes and issue video kits and brochures for new parents. Our programs help families get access to insurance and health care, provide immunizations, as well as obtain dental, vision, hearing and mental health care.
We not only help parents with their parenting skills, we also help them find English as a Second Language classes, as well as programs ranging from physical fitness and nutrition, to dealing with substance abuse.
Other programs provide School Readiness Coordinators to every elementary school district in Orange County, connecting children and families to programs ranging from health care to learning and language skills. Every elementary school district also has a Commission-funded School Readiness Nurse to expand health services for children from birth to age five.
Can You Help Me?
If you are an Orange County parent, we can help you locate the resources you need in raising your child, from videos on parenting, to immunizations, to health care, to stimulating your child, to promoting early literacy and dealing with specific care issues-from mental health to children's dentistry.
Click on the following links to connect to each service:
How Can I Get Involved?
Whether you are a business, foundation or individual, we seek your active participation in our programs. CLICK HERE.