The purpose of this project was to design an emergency intake and assessment center for San Luis Obispo County Child Welfare Services, identify a potential funding source, and write a grant to fund a program to serve the children coming into care.

Children involved with child welfare services being placed in out-of-home care require a thorough initial assessment to identify resources to address each child's needs. The children coming into care have been exposed to a variety of risk factors that have negative effects on development. This proposed center will provide better outcomes for children in out-of-home care in the county by ensuring an assessment at the onset of care to identify all medical and emotional needs, improving placement stability, and improving efforts to keep siblings together.

Submission and funding of this grant proposal was not a requirement for this thesis project.