The Child Abuse Prevention Council of Sacramento, Inc.'s (CAPC) philosophy is well described by this quote from the Board of Directors:

"Our community will be judged by whether we give our children a chance to grow up in a safe and healthy family environment. Once we unlock the full and incredibly positive capabilities of a child, we enable that child, its family, and the community to grow socially, emotionally, and spiritually."

Over the past 20 years, CAPC has been expanding the range of programming and collaborative activities it has customarily been involved in. The Board of Directors has also expanded, bringing to CAPC a range of varying experience, expertise and interests in the area of prevention of child abuse and neglect. Throughout this growth and development the mission statement has also evolved to reflect the purpose of the organization.

CAPC's sole purpose is to coordinate and develop systems designed to prevent or effectively respond to situations of abuse, neglect, or abandonment through the following means:

Prevention
Prevention Services include the preventive support services for families with young children, prenatally to six, and for high risk school aged children and their families.

Coordination
CAPC coordinates the efforts of over 160 agencies and organizations, administering a variety of multi-disciplinary teams addressing child protective system issues and providing leadership to other collaborative bodies in order to maximize the effectiveness of the response to child abuse and neglect.

Training
CAPC provides child abuse and neglect training to mandated reporters and other professionals in the detection, appropriate response, and the law. Training is also provided to elementary school aged children through a curriculum addressing child abuse and abduction prevention.

Education
Community Education and Outreach is provided through publications, a print, video and audio library, public service announcements, presentations, community fairs, and media communication.

Values
Our values uphold our organizational beliefs - we believe in being Proactive and Effective, serving as a community Catalyst, being Responsive and working Collaboratively.

We believe that being Proactive means to initiate prevention recommendations to policy makers based on current data, research and trends; and that if we are unburdened by the dictates of bureaucracy, we can move boldly and assertively to advocate on behalf of all Sacramento's Children.

We believe to be Effective we must actively and rigorously evaluate our programs in order to provide quality assurance at all levels of our programs.

We believe in order to be a Catalyst for change and action that we must advocate and initiate researched based quality programs, such as the Sacramento Crisis Nursery, Sacramento Child Advocates, the Multi-Disciplinary Interview Center and the Family Support Collaborative.

We believe in being Responsive to our funders, colleagues, policy makers and the general public by having high standards of administrative, program and fiscal practices, promptly responding to informational needs and data; and by providing technical assistance as needed.

We believe that by working Collaboratively, we may serve as a vehicle for other agencies, policy makers, service providers, and citizens so they may come together on issues associated with child abuse and neglect.

Competencies
CAPC is the only agency charged by legislation and designated by the County Board of Supervisors with creating systems and coordinating services designed to reduce the incidence and impact of child abuse in Sacramento County.

CAPC is the only organization providing prevention, coordination, and education to reduce the incidence and impact of abuse, neglect and abandonment in Sacramento County. As a result , CAPC:

• ...is able to leverage limited resources to create cost effective systems.
• ...developed and operates the nationally recognized Family Cooperative Project, providing prevention services to elementary aged students and their families.
• ...designed and administers the most comprehensive Child Death Review Team in California.
• ...founded the Family Support Collaborative which is charged with the development of preventive strategies including early home visitation.
• ...is the only organization responsible for evaluating and monitoring the effectiveness of the child protective systems.
• ...as a community service, houses an extensive print, audio and video resource center.