Larry Pickard, Valley of the Moon Children's Services

Sonoma County, a diverse county of over one million acres is famed for its agriculture industry and recreation boasting a booming economy and a unique lifestyle for its citizens described by the theme Luther Burbank as the chosen spot of all the earth. Sonoma County is the place

to live, work and play as we move into the 21st century. Led by the forward looking philosophy of its governing bodies. Sonoma County's 340,000 residents are a harmonious, successful blend of ethnic and economic backgrounds. We invite you to take a closer look at Sonoma County in

the nineties with your host Rich McGlinchey, How you doing everybody? Welcome to another edition of Sonoma County in the 90s on this program. I'm gonna be talking about a very important institution in Sonoma County. We're going to be talking about the Valley of the Moon Children's

Center. Now maybe if you've been here for many years, you might remember that as a child Children's dependent unit out at Los. But it is now the Valley of the Moon Children's Center and our guest is larry card and he's the director of the value of

the city center and you have been with us for a couple of years or so. That's right. There were a lot of catching up to do here right now. How's it going? Good pleasure to be here with you today. Okay, I guess the best way to

start would be right at the beginning. Why don't you describe the purpose of the Valley of the Moon Children's Center. Well, the Children's home. You know, rich is out at Los Arcos and the purposes is to provide safety and protection and care for kids who are

um for whatever reason being abused or neglected in their home situation. Once upon a time I heard the remark made. These are youngsters who through no fault of their own or temporarily in need of shelter in a home. Is that that's still true. That's absolutely correct.

Absolutely. These kids are, you know the victims really of very unfortunate circumstances. Where exactly is the facility And how many youngsters are there now? Okay, well we're located at La Silla kose, which is out on highway 12 on the way from santa rosa to Sonoma, about

half the way out across from Oakmont, the retirement community out there. And um the facility itself has 44 beds And at any one time depending on um our our population fluctuates a great deal as you can imagine. We average around 25 kids in the facility at

any one time, but it can go as high as 44, has you know over the over a period of time larry. How do the youngsters get to the Valley of the Children's Center? Well, for the most part, Children are brought to us by the law enforcement

agencies, the police departments, the sheriff's office. Um and they can also be brought to us by social workers if they're already involvement by the child welfare division of the social service department and they can bring kids to us. Also, Is there any given age, what are

the ages of youngsters at the center? We take all kids up to the age of 18 from really from infancy through age 18. Usually babies. Um, the smaller kids say under age five may go to uh, what we call a satellite foster home. And um, with

the idea being that it is a, it is a smaller setting with the family and that it's better for kids who are very, very young, especially babies, but we on occasion have babies and younger kids. Um, for example, we might have a family of three or

four Children that need to be in protective custody and rather than to break up the brothers and sisters will keep them all together with us. So we really have all ages of kids and we're prepared to take all ages of kids. We have cribs and um,

um, cradles all the way up, you know, to to two teenage size, uh, sleeping accommodations. Larry digresses for a moment. What are some of the reasons why these youngsters are brought to you or come to you? What's happened to families or two. I know some cases

an accident will bring this about what are other things that contribute to your recipient receiving the Gangsters there? Well the kids come to us primarily because they have been abused or neglected and um, usually if they have been neglected, it's a severe kind of neglect in

terms of abuse, it's usually physical abuse that brings them to us. There are any number of problems that we see in society today that caused this to happen or um or at least related to the problem. Um, of course we hear and have read and have

seen a number of places that there's really a cycle of child abuse that people that have experienced that as kids themselves are prone to maybe treat their Children in the same way, Maybe they know no other way parental education. Um, but they're also contributing factors drug

alcohol, people, certain individuals have mental conditions that may contribute to the problem. Uh, they are incapable are really um unable to care for kids, so that results in them being neglected and or abused. So these are all factors that relate to the problem and result in

kids needing to be taken into what is called protective custody and they're brought to us when the situation at home is severe enough that official agencies get involved and bring them to us larry what sort of problems either obvious or hidden do the youngsters have when

they come to the home? Well there's the, I think the obvious one is that they're being removed from their home environment. And so they're they're really, um not in a state of shock, but they're certainly traumatized by the whole thing um, to suddenly be one place

and now be another place, an institution for Children um home for kids then uh it's sort of a shock to their system. So they're emotionally upset. They can be they can be tearful. Um Some kids are very inquisitive um are curious about what's going to happen

to them. So they come to us usually with some apprehension. So it's a tough job you know for us um But a rewarding one to be able to take that kid at the time that they come to us and help them make help make them feel

at ease and comfortable with being in our home. Um And we do all kinds of things to try to try to make them more at ease. I was just gonna ask you what are the, well I guess you say the types of services that you offer

to these youngsters that come to the home right? Um From the time they arrive someone's involved with them attempting to assess their situation to determine whether or not they're going to stay with us for a period of time or whether they be able to go home.

So um our staff at the facility interview the child try to find out as much as they can about the circumstances they're in. Um Almost immediately they get a medical examination um they're assessed for any kind of developmental delays, find out whether they got any immunization

problems that sort of thing. So we have a pediatric nurse practitioner that's on staff, we have a psychologist who might see them if they were having some sort of depression or we're upset or maybe aggressive, whatever their problem might be to assess that sort of thing.

We also have educational services to find out where they're at in school, whether there any difficulties or problems that they need help with whether with us. Um, educationally, I would just say that that should be very important because if they are there for a short while,

their education shouldn't be interrupted anymore. So that necessary. So, uh, do you have any sort of educational programs for the kids and what does it consist of? Right, well, the Sonoma County Office of Education has an on ground school at our facility. And so the kid

is like a one room schoolhouse essentially because we don't have a large enough population to have a variety of classrooms. So they go to the one room school and that we have an on ground school teacher. She assesses any problems that they have. And we, I

like to see the kids when they're with us is a period when they can really have remediation. You know, when we can identify any difficulties, reading difficulties, difficulties with math or whatever and we can concentrate on those problems, focus on them and help bring them back

to grade level. So that when, if they do go home to a parent or they go into foster home, they'll be prepared to enter public school and be up to speed with their classmates where they're supposed to be grade wise. Um kids have to play, you

know, their, their kids. Do you have any recreational activities for the youngsters while we're there? We do, we have a variety that of course if you have your own kids, you realize how important it is for them to get out. And so we have a full

array of actually facilities that are available to us and we try to offer all kinds of recreation starting with basketball, baseball, swimming, gymnasium, um, all of those kinds of things which are actually on ground. Of course we have playgrounds for the little ones and so forth

so they can get out and then also recreationally were um because of groups in the community who care about these kids that are involved with what we're doing, we're able to take them on um different outings. Um just finishing up the summer here we were able

to go on to camping trips just because there were people in the community, uh finer high school for example, their Justice Club donated money to the facility so that they could go on a camping trip. Uh local Episcopal Church and ken would did the same and

these kids then we're able to go up to the eel river up in the redwoods and other locations and go on camping. Some of these kids have never been on a camping trip. They have no idea, you know what it's like as well as you know

we will take them to the local attractions like marine world or will go to um Windsor waterworks or we'll take them to some of the attractions in the city that kids are interested in. So they they really look forward to that. They consider it to be

very special. And actually when they're in the facility they we have a little in house program where they earn points and they purchase these sort of outings and it's an incentive. It's a way in which you know the kids can feel like they really earn being

able to go on it and it's a great opportunity for them also. Well how about therapeutic programs? Do you have anything in the way of therapeutic programs for the kids? Mhm. Yeah. We have as I mentioned we have a psychologist on board. We also have psychologists

from the community that come in and see the kids there and they offer various kinds of therapy for the kids dealing with their emotional problems. We also will go out and for example if the kid has a speech impediment, we would go out and find a

speech therapist for them and offer them through the facility. We also have over them the last couple of years developed um a program whereby um kids attend a group once a week in in our facility. Um These groups are called attitudinal healing groups and there are

designed to provide once a week time when the Children can get together and discuss their feelings about their current situation. Those have been very therapeutic, very very helpful for the kids because they are really able to express themselves and deal with what they're feeling about being

in our home away from their own families. Um And those are just a few of the different kinds of therapeutic services we offer. You know, you bring a youngster in and they are disrupted there in trauma as you say. Uh You may offer some therapeutic assistance.

Do you provide any kind of evaluation for the Children before or after? We're currently in the process now of of developing a project within our facility that will thoroughly assess the kids um evaluate the Children so that when they leave the facility we know as much

as we possibly can. So if they're going to a foster home or in some instances they have to go to residential treatment um that we can provide as much information to the people where they're gonna be staying so that they'll do well there and be successful

where they're going to to live. So we've been looking at different ways of um really assessing or evaluating a kid's behavior which is primary, you know in consideration because kids who have been abused or neglected are not free of problems as you can imagine. And uh

so we we try to thoroughly evaluate their behavior. Um They're eating preferences, their sleeping habits. Um the way in which they interact with other kids and find ways that are successful in helping that kid cope on an everyday basis. And then in turn passed that information

on when they go into foster care About. Um I would guess it's about 25% of the kids who stay with us go into foster homes of various sorts or adoptive homes or in some instances if they have severe problems, they'll go into a residential treatment kind

of program. Um many of the others, I think it's around 50% actually are with us for a brief period and they may go back with their parents because there's and there have been some sort of services provided to the parents so it's safe for them to

return to their parents. Which is really the best place for a child to be. If if it's at all possible, if you can send them home, it's great. Uh what percentage go back home do you think? Well, yeah, it's around 50 55%. Actually that many return

home. Alright. We're gonna pause right here and we'll come back. Ladies and gentlemen, we're talking to Larry Picard, the director of the Valley of the Moon Children's Center. We're gonna come back and talk more about the Valley of the Moon Center and what they do for

youngsters who are temporarily in need of a home first. This pause, the animals in the forest, they could talk, what would they say? They might say be careful with fire in the forest, just like Smokey says only you can prevent forest fires every year. Thousands of

babies die from choking, suffocating or other breathing emergencies. Just imagine how many of them could be saved. If only they came with instructions. Please learn american red Cross, infant and child cpr american red cross. We help you help others. Welcome back to this edition of Sonoma

county in the nineties. We've been talking with Larry Picard, the director of the Valley of the Moon Children's Center and we've been talking about the programs at that center carries out and they are really marvelous and they do help an awful lot of youngsters, especially those

who are temporary in need of a home. One of the things I wanted to ask you, Larry is is the community really concerned or help you at the Valley of the Moon Center? You bet they are. In fact we have an example right here of a

project that's been underway for about a year, year and a half. The Berkeley quilt project which is in the East Bay. Heard about what we're doing. The Children's home and the need for quilts for the kids and so every child that comes into the facility now

receives a quilt if they're gonna be with us for a while. And that quilt goes on their bed and they're able to take that quilt with them when they, when they leave the facility and it's been a wonderful, wonderful project. Indeed, Another way in which the

community has supported us is that the, the Qantas Club at Oakmont, you know, I mentioned there right across the street from us and Qantas has been very supportive of the Children's home. And one of the things that concerned me when I first came is that a

lot of the lot of the Children who come to the facility and leave really don't have any um, luggage or anything to put their personal belongings. They were leaving in garbage bags. So we were able to get these donated by the Quantas. They give us several

hundreds of these a year. We see over 600 kids a year at the, at the Children's home. And so the kids leave with these. It's been, it's been tremendous support and the community really does take an interest in. Listen, how is this program funded? Okay, well,

we are a county agency where a part of the Sonoma County Social Service Department and as a result of that, we receive county funds as well as funds from the state of California that come to the county to operate programs for Children. We also, um following

up again on the, on the support of the community. There are any number of groups in the community that offer donations to the Children. So there are a lot of private groups as well that support us in any number of different ways. You know, one thought

comes to mind. Do the, do the Children get a chance to visit with their parents while they're at the Valley of the Moon center? Visitation with families is extremely important for kids who come to us because um, we don't want them to lose contact with their

families and many of them want to see their families even though they realize that they need the protection of the Children's home. So we have, we have visitation right at the Children's Center. The families come there and it's in many instances we offer supervision of those

visits also so that the kids feel like that the, that they are safe and um, that there's someone there watching after their well being. Um, also many of the visits are unsupervised depending on the situation. But yeah, indeed visitation goes on with family larry. How long

do the kids stay with you as a rule, I'm not sure we touched on this earlier or not. But, but then what happens when they're released? Okay, well on an average the Children stay with us for um, around 60 days and you know, there's a wide

range, we have kids that come in for just a couple of days and then go back and then to the kids that will be with us for a longer really than 60 days, but on an average it is around 60 days. Um, they, they stay with

us and um, are involved with us. Uh, and, and following, uh, the services that we provide there, then they either go back to home or they go to a foster home. Um, you mentioned earlier that you do admit babies. Let's go back over there just briefly.

Um, how long did the babies stay with you babies? I mentioned just briefly are probably with us the shortest period of time because it's our goal for them to be in satellite foster homes. But we have babies that are part of families, larger families as I

mentioned, that will stay with us as long as their siblings are with us. And we also have babies that unfortunately have a variety of, of complicated medical situations and it may not be possible for them to be in uh, in a regular foster family home. Um,

our foster parents are extremely capable and do a wonderful job in caring with some of these kids, but some of them present especially difficult challenges medically. And so those kinds of kids may be with us longer. You mentioned earlier purchased to nature cribs. Well, since we're

talking about babies, it's really appropriate. Um, the nature crib is a device that maybe some of your viewers would be interested in if they have infants that are not sleeping all night. We're particularly interested in it because kids who are born addicted to drugs frequently have

very restless nights and they need to be swaddled and they need to be rocked many times, you know, all night long, some in some instances or off and on at least a natural cradle was designed in Silicon Valley by an engineer and an electronics man. And

what he did was is developed a cradle that will, uh, is motorized silent motor and it will rock all night long. You can set the age of the child on there and gradually reduce the amount of rocking so that you really wean them from this constant

motion. They also are equipped to have, um, in them the sounds of a mother's womb. And also, um, there is a slight heartbeat that is detected in these cradles. It's a marvelous um, tool really for those of us in child welfare to be able to do

a better job caring for these kids. So we have two of those. We have one at the facility and we have one that we lend to our foster parents and they can use those. They're, they're great. I imagine your agency, like so many other county agencies

has volunteers. Um, how would people contact you about becoming a volunteer? Well, the best way to become a volunteer at the Children's home is to contact the volunteer coordinator at the Sonoma County Social Service department. But in terms of a phone number, I'd be glad to

give the facilities phone number, which is 5395800. And they could contact us originally and we could tell them how it's done. But we work with the volunteer coordinator at the social service department. Our volunteers do all kinds of things. You can imagine if you have 20

or 30 Children, the kinds of needs, they have all the way from simply sitting with them, reading him a story to take him out on the playground and uh, you know, watching them supervising them while they're playing on a trike or bike or whatever the case

may be to helping with outings, uh, helping with schoolwork. Individualized schoolwork. You know, it's tremendous need there when they have homework hour after they return from school. So volunteers help us with all of that. Listen, something very touching just came to mind recently came to my

attention recently. And that is that you recently opened a new baseball diamond. Now, how did your particular field of dreams come about? Well, that is um, that's a real special story. I think almost two years ago there was uh, breakfast and held in santa rosa in

which um, some local officials challenged a group of local men to do something in the community for abuse kids because they had indicated that they were interested in doing that. This group is now known as pro Sonoma. And um, out of that challenge, if you will,

they decided that they wanted to complete a part of our operation, which was always on the drawing board and planned. It wasn't realized for whatever reason. And so they decided that they were going to help us build a ball diamond. Well of course. Um, I I

suppose most of our viewers have seen field of Dreams, which was a ball diamond that sprung up in a, an Iowa cornfield right? In our case we had a cow pasture and uh, which uh, certain times during the year have have cattle running in it. And

so anyway, out of that cow pasture, we carved out a baseball diamond. And this group of men volunteered their services, architectural services to design the ball diamond landscaping services and also went out and solicited donations, won a major donor to the project was the Police activities

League, which gave us the impetus really to complete it, paid for the hydro seeding and the fence. So we now have a ball diamond and it's beautiful. You know, it's an ideal location for it. We're down to very little time left. And one other question I

want to ask you, what are some of your future plans for the facility? Um, we have a number of things underway in terms of projects all the way from finding ways in which the private sector can be more involved with what we're doing. We're hopeful we're

looking at the possibility of formulating some sort of a foundation where the community can be uh, provide ongoing to support to the facility. That's one project We're currently being considered as a location for an assessment center for Children who are sexually abused, where kids can be

brought and interviewed one time instead of taken to a variety of different locations and interviewed well now as maybe as many as 17 times. So we're hopeful that perhaps the program will be here uh at our facility and there would be a small addition to the

building and so forth for us to uh accommodate that. So we're looking at that. Also, we've also tried to understand a group into building a a picnic area for a new ballpark. A lot of good plans ahead. Times out. We want to thank you and invite

you back again sometime soon. More about it, marvelous facility. Ladies and gentlemen, we've been talking to Larry Picard, the director of the Valley of the Moon Children's Center about that magnificent facility out there and what they do to help youngsters who are temporarily in need of

a home. My name is Richmond Programs, Sonoma County in the nineties. We'll be back with you next week, another member of the county government family or a related agency until then. Good night, good luck and good health to each and every one of you. Mhm.