Children’s Planning Council Coordinates Help for Families : County Agency’s Goal Is to Keep Them Together by Promoting Collaboration Among Agencies for Children

This year, the Los Angeles County Children’s Planning Council will send out half a dozen workers, maybe more, to determine how they can help various support agencies save families.

Although admittedly a small number for a huge task, the workers will be a significant step for the council, whose 30-odd board members include representatives from the health, child welfare, business, education, philanthropic and community services fields.

The council, formed in 1991 by the Board of Supervisors, remains largely unknown by grass-roots workers countywide. It was designed as a mechanism for gauging the effectiveness of children’s programs spending about $12 billion annually in public and private money.

So far, the council has spent most of its time collecting data on the living conditions of children and forming ties to agencies, policy-makers and funding sources. Its basic goal is to keep families together by promoting collaboration among public and private agencies that serve children.

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“There are all kinds of things going on,” said Sharon G. Watson, the council’s executive director. “The point is (different agencies) don’t know about each other. People aren’t looking at comprehensive solutions.”

The council’s latest effort will be helped by funding from various public and private sources. About $250,000 came from the Department of Children and Family Services, formerly the Department of Children’s Services.

Several child advocates said the severity and the variety of child-related problems are exacerbated by tough economic times.

And authorities and activists pointed to the breakdown of the traditional family unit where both parents live together as part of the reason many youths grow up undisciplined. There are many successful single-parent households, but split homes can create serious problems, they said.

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Of the nearly 3 million households in Los Angeles County tabulated by the 1990 census, fewer than half were families consisting of married couples. There were more than 390,000 headed by women with at least one child and no spouse, while nearly 170,000 households consisted of a man with at least one child and no spouse.

As the council works to become better known, the well-being of numerous families will continue to depend on agencies primarily as they exist today.

Peter Digre, director of the Department of Children and Family Services and a council member, said he expects the council to help groups prevent family crises and confront such issues as gangs, drugs and teen parenting.

“I think it’s the right direction,” he said. “I’m hopeful.”

The council has made a point to include African American, Asian, Latino and Native American community representatives.

Sam Chan, the council’s Asian community adviser, said he hopes the group will hear more from members of families that may be close to breaking apart.

“That dialogue happens, but not in an organized way,” said Chan, director of the Professional Services Center at the California School of Professional Psychology. “I can’t legitimize my input unless I have access to someone I’m supposed to represent.”