In 1980, the California Child Care Program was implemented with funding through the State of California.  This was later expanded to include funding from four different program types, in turn enabling the program to serve its current enrollment of more than 700 children.

With the addition of the Early Head Start Project in 1996, CFCS was able to assist expectant parents and families with younger children.  The CFCS Early Head Start program currently serves 125 infants and toddlers.

Added in 2005, the CFCS Oakland CAL SAFE program serves expectant and parenting teens and supports them in completing their high school education and becoming self-sufficient.   The program’s overall goals are to enable motivated students to complete their high school education, to learn to provide a safe and caring environment for their young children, to secure gainful employment and ultimately to become fully self-reliant.  Currently, this program serves can serve up to 36 teens at two sites in Oakland.

The mission of CFCS is to enhance families’ self-sufficiency and to provide children with a foundation to be successful.  As our programs and services have expanded, so has our ability to make this mission a reality for thousands of families and children. 

CFCS Today

Today, CFCS provide services to more than 3,000 families each year in southern Alameda County.  We continue to develop and add new programs and services to meet the growing needs of the community.  We listen to our clients to ensure that what we have to offer will meet their needs.

Since beginning our operations with just one site, CFCS Head Start has grown to include 15 sites today, and we continue to grown and add new sites. Early Head Start, CCCAPP and CAL SAFE have each added additional sites to our scope of operations.

CFCS has always provided excellent immersion of children with special needs into our programs.  Our special needs children are not placed in separate classes but instead share classrooms with the rest of our students.  In addition to any special services they may require, they receive the same opportunities and services as all children enrolled in our programs.  We believe this best serves all of our students in keeping with our vision of inclusion and diversity.

Our community partnerships are a key component of our success.  By collaborating with schools, colleges and universities, health programs, community service agencies and others, we continue to expand our reach and our ability to provide a wide range of programs and services to help prepare children and families for success.  With our broad network of alliances, we can better assist our clients in finding exactly what they need.

CFCS is working to become a multi-functioning agency, to expand our scope of services and to be the premier provider of each service we offer.  In moving toward this goal, we have adopted a more business-oriented structure but we are proud that in doing so, we have not lost the warmth and heart that comes from a caring, involved and motivated staff.

As new needs arise, we work to find ways to meet them.  Where problems exist, we develop solutions.  CFCS is committed to our children and families and to ensuring that the programs we offer to them are of the highest quality.   Our goal is to provide excellent programs and services which enable children and families not only to succeed but to thrive.