United Advocates for Children
1401 El Camino Ave, Suite 340
Sacramento, California 95815
(916) 643-15330/Voice
(916) 643-1592/Fax
BACKGROUND
The United Advocates for Children (UACC) is a family-run, nonprofit, tax exempt organization that was incorporated in 1992. A ten member Board of Directors governs the organization. A majority of those Directors have experience raising children who have mental, emotional, and behavioral challenges and have received public mental health services. Twenty-three (23) part- and full-time staff and consultants operate the organization. Almost half of those staff and consultants have experience raising children who have mental, emotional and behavioral challenges.
As a family-run organization, UACC strives toward a stigma-free society that values and dedicates resources to the mental health of children and youth and their families across all cultures and communities. In this society, communities would be capable of embracing all cultures, and child serving systems supporting our communities would be accessible, effective and accountable, family driven and youth guided, stigma free, and respectful. To promote this vision for society, UACC works to improve the quality of life for all children and youth with mental, emotional and behavioral challenges; to eliminate institutional discrimination and social stigma; and to promote the empowerment of families to meet the mental health needs of children. UACC believes that the quality of life experienced by children and youth who have mental, emotional and behavioral challenges is hindered by social stigma associated with mental illness, cultural and racial discrimination, the education of service providers as well as family members, and economic imbalances in our society.
Based on this analysis, UACC implements three primary strategies to promote its vision for society. UACC educates mental health providers, multicultural family members who have experience raising children with mental health conditions, and the general public; builds coalitions among multicultural and multilingual families of children and youth with mental health conditions; and advocates for public policy that reflects the values of multicultural and multi-lingual families.
PROGRAMS
To implement its strategies, UACC operates four primary programs: Advocacy, direct service, statewide training and technical assistance, and national training and technical assistance.
Advocacy Program
The advocacy program operates the California Family Partnership Association (CFPA), which is a coalition of family leaders representing parents raising children who have mental, emotional and behavioral challenges across California’s counties. The CFPA works to influence public policy decisions that affect children and youth and their families. The advocacy program also operates the Educate, Equip, and Support: Building Hope train the trainer project. Advocacy program staff members train parents who have experience raising children who have mental, emotional and behavioral challenges to train a twelve (12) week course addressing childhood mental health conditions, research-based treatment for those conditions, and public programs that serve children and youth who have mental health conditions.
Direct Service Program
In partnership with Alameda and Placer Counties, the direct service program provides individualized support and assistance to parents raising children with mental, emotional and behavioral challenges who are currently receiving or seeking public mental health services. These supports and services include, but are not limited to, providing information regarding childhood mental health conditions and public programs that serve children, providing emotional support and information over the phone or in person, assisting a parent with accessing public services for their child, and attending treatment team meetings and court hearings with a parent. Direct service program staff members also participate in policy, administrative, and service delivery decision-making groups to ensure the perspective of a parent who has experience raising a child with a mental health condition and seeking public mental health services is included in the decision making process.
Statewide Training and Technical Assistance Center
The Statewide Training and Technical Assistance Center builds coalitions of parents and caregivers who have experience raising children with mental, emotional, and behavioral challenges, and provides training and technical assistance to those parents and caregivers to help them establish local family-run organizations. To achieve this goal, the Statewide Training and Technical Assistance Center hosts convening sessions, bi-quarterly in-person training meetings, bi-quarterly conference call training, and provides individualized technical assistance to community-based coalitions of parents and caregivers.
National Training and Technical Assistance Center
The National Training and Technical Assistance Center provides training, technical assistance, and publications to help forty-two statewide family-run organizations that receive a Statewide Family Network grant from the Center for Mental Health Services strengthen their organizational infrastructure and capacity. Training is primarily intended to enhance the Grantees knowledge and includes one annual meeting, two topical training events, and four phone-based training courses per year. Technical assistance is primarily intended to help the Grantees enhance a product, program, or practice that builds organizational infrastructure and/or capacity and includes advice and resources, product review, and product development. Publications are intended to enhance the Grantees knowledge and include one monograph, one training curriculum, four training briefs, and fifty-two listserv e-mails per year.
STAFF
Administration
Jennifer Clancy
Executive Director
jclancy@uacc4families.org
Kate Pahinui
Interim Executive Director
kpahinui@uacc4familie.org
Michael Welty
Chief Financial Officer
mwelty@uacc4families.org
Angela Tatem
Director of Operations
atatem@uacc4families.org
Sami McDonald
Executive Assistant
smcdonlad@uacc4families.org
Christine Pomo
Executive Assistant
cpomo@uacc4families.org
Advocacy
Pam Hawkins
Program Director
hawkinsp@uacc4families.org
Deborah Van Dunk
Program Coordinator
dvandunk@uacc4families.org
Direct Services – Placer County
Diane Shively
Program Director
dshively@placer.ca.gov
Sandena Bader
Parent Partner
Eric Jensen
Parent Partner
Direct Services – Alameda County
Rosa Warder
Program Director
rwarder@acbhcs.org
Tanya McCullom
Parent/Family Partner
tmccullom@acbhcs.org
Statewide Training and Technical Assistance Center
Roberto Ramos
Program Director
Rramos@uacc4families.org
National Training and Technical Assistance Center
Kate Pahinui
Program Director
kpahinui@uacc4families.org
Chuck Anders
Technical Assistance Coordinator
canders@uacc4families.org
Gayle Wiler
Technical Assistance Coordinator
Gaylewiler1@aol.com
Shelley Spear
Senior Writer/Editor
shelspear@verizon.net
Sireyia Ratlliff
Executive Assistant
sratliff@uacc4families.org
Consultants/Subcontractors
Conni Wells, FIFI
Consultant
cjwells@sprynet.com
David Gray, Placer Institute
Consultant
dgray@placerinstitute.org
Peggy Nikkel, UPLIFT
Consultant
pnikkel@upliftwy.org
Tawara D. Goode, NCCC
Consultant
Tdg2@georgetown.edu
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