NATIONAL STATISTICS

  • More than half of all foster care children come from welfare-eligible homes.
  • 70% of families receiving in-home support services via the child welfare system also receive welfare.
  • Children living in families earning less than $15,000 annually are 22 times more likely to experience some form of maltreatment than those children whose families earn at least $30,000 per year.
CALIFORNIA STATISTICS ON POVERTY: A key risk factor for abuse and neglect.
  • 60 percent of children in the California CWS system received TANF or CalWORKs aid prior to CWS involvement.
  • Percentage of children entering CWS with prior TANF/ CalWORKs aid varies by county from 44% to 87%.
  • Child Welfare Services involvement is predicted by AFDC/CalWORKs use rate, unemployment rate, family poverty rate and county population size.

LA COUNTY STATISTICS: Mutual Clients and Poverty

A significant portion of families receiving aid in Los Angeles County are enrolled in both DCFS and DPSS programs simultaneously, further pointing to the link between poverty and maltreatment.  Similarly, many of the families involved with DCFS are deemed living below the poverty line. The chart below gives point-in-time statistics for the three pilot DCFS Linkages sites:


San Fernando Valley Metro North Torrance
Mutual Clients 31.04% 36.46% 36.21%
Poverty 38.39% 57.54% 30.75%

NOTE: % Mutual Clients: Percentage of the clients involved in both DCFS and DPSS for the office.  (Calculated as point-in-time snapshot [Jan 07] of proportion of FM/FR caseload with an open DPSS case; represents the LOW end of what the actual mutual client population is because many families receive CalWORKs & child welfare services sequentially and this data only captures families receiving both services simultaneously).

 % Poverty = for the zip codes served by the DCFS office, percent of population from 2000 census data living at or below 200% of Federal poverty level.


LINKAGES STATISTICS:  How are families being helped?

During the pilot phase of implementing Linkages at three DCFS offices and their DPSS counterparts:

Three Linkages GSWs attended 746 TDMs.  Results:
  • 57 families referred to DPSS Substance Abuse services
  • 80 families referred to DPSS Domestic Violence services
  • 76 families referred to DPSS Mental Health services
CSWs consulted with Linkages GSW on 1,226 cases.  Results:
  • 95 families linked to Housing Assistance
  • 183 families coordinated services between child welfare plan and Welfare to Work plan
  • 383 families assisted with CalWORKs case
  • 525 families given information and referral to GAIN supportive services