Capital Region Cares Capital Region Cares 2017-2018 | Page 113

high-quality childcare with emphasis on
helping to mitigate any trauma the child
may have suffered.
“With the three licenses and integrat-
ed programs, the nursery not only keeps
kids safe and families together, it pro-
motes resiliency and readiness to learn,”
Adams says.
According to recent statistics of UC
Berkeley’s California Child Welfare Indi-
cators Project, children from birth to age
5 made up more than 46.5 percent of all
substantiated cases of child abuse and
neglect in Yolo County from 2008 to 2014
— exceeding the state’s percentages each
year (except 2013 when it matched),
which ranged from 42.7 to 46.5 percent.
Executive Director Heather Sleuter,
who has worked with the nursery for 10
years, says that while these rates are still
too high, the number of substantiated
child abuse and neglect cases in this age
group dropped in Yolo County during
this time period by over 25 percent. She
believes the nursery is an effective solu-
tion to continuing this downward trend.
“In short, the Yolo Crisis Nursery is a
proven program that saves families and
saves lives,” says Sleuter.
During fiscal year 2015-16, children
at the nursery received care 2,285 times,
up 31 percent from the previous year,
which Adams says indicates that both
the need is there and that the Nursery’s
outreach brought more families to their
doorstep. “That’s great, because we want
to be able to serve every family that
needs help,” Adams says. Ninety-eight
percent of families served were low-in-
come and Medi-Cal eligible, with the
Counselor and childcare worker Connie Cordero has been with the Yolo Crisis Nursery since it opened.
majority coming from Woodland (43 per-
cent), West Sacramento (32 percent) and
Davis (10 percent).
For local families — like Michelle
and her children — in crisis situations,
the safe home and services provided by
Yolo Crisis Nursery are nothing short of
life-changing, and lifesaving. “With sol-
id support from our community,” Adams
says, “we’ll hopefully move ever closer to
our vision that every child in Yolo C