The Center for Restorative Practice was originally called the Coordinated Youth Services Council.
Under this title as the Coordinated Youth Services Council (CYSC): CYSC was formed as a private, non-profit partnership composed of five public agencies (Social Services, Mental Health, Juvenile Probation, Education and Public Health) and seventeen private agencies. The agency was established in 1990 to serve children and families in Marin County to help improve services for high-risk children and their families by creating and operating a coordinated service delivery system of centralized intake, assessment and case management that was multi-disciplinary, non-jurisdictional and “client/family-centered.”
The Center for Restorative Practice (CFRP) is a private non-profit organization in Marin County that is dedicated to restorative, team-based and collaborative responses to family problems. We are well-known locally for “Family Network,®” our model of family group decision-making that has been the centerpiece of Marin County’s “Youth Pilot Project” since its inception. Systemically, our goals have been to1. Reduce Marin County’s overall out-of-home placement rates and 2. Help families succeed in reducing the “risk factors” that brought the minor or family to the attention of child welfare, juvenile justice, mental health and special education systems.
The Youth Pilot Project is a State Program in which funds that are set aside to place children/youth in group and foster care homes may be used to serve qualifying minors and their families to keep children/youth in their own home. The idea is to keep these minors safely in the home when possible by using the Youth Pilot Project funds to pay for services when the services needed cannot be obtained for 1. Free, 2.The cost of the service exceeds the family’s ability to pay, or 3. When a specialized service is needed. Marin County’s Health and Human Services contracts with CFRP to facilitate teams by using our Family Network Model.
