The County of Orange (County) Health Care Agency (HCA) is seeking proposals from qualified organizations to provide School Readiness Program Services to families with children, ages 0-eight (8). The primary goal of this program is to provide services to ensure children’s mental health wellness and to prepare them for academic success.
The focus of the services will be to assess and serve children in this age range and provide services to families whose children are exhibiting maladaptive behaviors, putting the child at increased risk of developing an emotional disturbance and school failure. Services will promote the development of healthy coping skills and help to strengthen the family’s ability to meet the emotional needs of the children in order to ensure their successful entrance into schools and continued early academic success.
These services will be funded by the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA). The MHSA represents a comprehensive approach to the development of community based mental health services and supports. The MHSA allocates 20% of the funding for Prevention and Early Intervention (PEI) services as a key strategy to prevent mental illness from becoming severe and disabling, to prevent negative outcomes resulting from untreated mental illness and to identify individuals at risk of or indicating early signs of mental illness or emotional disturbance and linking them to treatment and other resources. Prevention and Early Intervention services involve reducing risk factors or stressors, building protective factors and skills, and increasing resiliency. The Health Care Agency, Behavioral Health Services has developed a PEI plan that make resources available for preventing and addressing the earliest signs of mental health problems, and a service system that is accessible to a diverse population. The most recent MHSA Plan Update including descriptions of current PEI programs services can be viewed at http://ochealthinfo.com/civicax/filebank/blobdload.aspx?BlobID=57758.
If your organization is interested in, and capable of providing the requested School Readiness Program Services by contract with the County, please carefully review the Request for Proposals and submit your proposal as directed in Section III, “Proposal Preparation Instructions.”
To be eligible to submit a proposal for these services, the bidder must be able to serve the target population, county-wide. Bidders must be able to demonstrate an ability to especially serve children and families who are underserved and who might be culturally or linguistically isolated, or hard to reach, such as individuals with limited English proficiency.