River Oak through the Years
1966 Founded as an organization of group homes. 1979 Incorporated originally as Re-Ed West. 1989 Changed its name to River Oak Center for Children. Mid 1980s Developed its Day Treatment and foster family programs in response to the need for more community-based programs. 1989 Selected to provide Outpatient Services to high-risk families. 1990 Opened the Residential Campus on Laurel Hills Drive to provide all residential, educational and therapeutic services at one site.
1996-1999 Experienced significant growth in its mental health programs, and added five new sites throughout the Sacramento area. The new programs provided services necessary to keep a child and his or her family safely together in the community. 1997 Selected by the California State University, Sacramento Division of Social Work as the Outstanding Community Agency of the Year. 1999 Selected to provide Wraparound services which help prevent out-of-home placements. Late 1990s Added Early Intervention and Prevention programs. The therapeutic preschool and after- school programs were added at the Mace school campus and an infant/toddler mental health program was developed. The agency entered into a collaborative arrangement with the Sacramento Children’s Home and Sutter Hospital to provide long-term home visiting services to parents at risk for child abuse. 1999 Selected to be one of nine providers of home visiting services in Sacramento through the Birth & Beyond Program; secured funding through grants and private donations and developed the River Oak Family Resource Center in Oak Park, which operates the Birth & Beyond program and provides a wide array of services to help strengthen and heal families. 1999 The Building Blocks program was awarded the Services Innovation Award by the California Mental Health Advocates for Children and Youth.
2000-20082003 Accredited by the Joint Commission—a recognition of River Oak’s commitment to quality of care. 2005 Received funding from the Sacramento County Department of Health and Human Services to provide interventions jointly with Child Protective Services to families with children from birth to 18 where there is no safety risk for the child to remain at home. Through home-visitation and other family support services, the Differential Response program aims at improving parenting skills and strengthening the family. 2006 Re-accredited by the Joint Commission. 2006 Received funding from the Sacramento County Department of Probation to provide the highly successful and nationally acclaimed Multi-Systemic Therapy program to Probation youth. 2007 Introduced 2 new evidence-based interventions – Teaching Pro-Social Skills and Functional Family Therapy – working to equip youth with emotional competencies and strengthen families, respectively. River Oak became the only local non-profit organization providing as many as five evidence-based practices. May 2007 Received the Inspirations Community Service Provider Award by the Child Abuse Pre vention Council for its leadership and commitment to the prevention of child abuse and neglect and for implementing innovative and creative solutions to better serve children and families. May 2008 Received the Exemplary Program of the Year 2008 Award by the California Mental Health Advocates for Children and Youth (CMHACY) for the agency’s commitment to delivering the most effective, state-of-the-art services to children, youth and families, and honors River Oak’s statewide leadership in the successful implementation of evidence-based practices that dramatically improve the lives of children and families in the greater Sacramento community. June 2008 As a result of a policy shift, recommending the placement of severely emotionally and behaviorally challenged children with foster families rather than at residential and group home settings, and a decreased funding for residential programs statewide, River Oak closed its Residential Treatment program and Special Education School.
5030 El Camino Avenue, Carmichael, CA 95608, (916) 609-5100, fax (916) 609-5160
info@riveroak.org
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