County: New department will focus in county youth
Sarah Duffy will lead the Office of Children and Families Policy
By Staff Reports
Sarah Duffy
Santa Clara County’s new Office of Children and Families Policy has a mission to make the quality of life better for children ages 0 to 18, as well as individuals up to age 24, including foster youth.
Launched in spring, the goal of the new department is to support and manage a diverse set of priorities that focus on children, youth and family programs. These priorities will monitor the effectiveness of various programs through data and reporting.
Another goal is to team with a network of local, state and community-based organizations to evaluate the effectiveness of funding resources. The county spent $1.05 billion on youth in the past fiscal year. The new office is funded by the general fund.
To lead the office, the county hired as the Chief Children’s Officer Sarah Duffy, who previously led analytic and strategic teams in charge of programs serving children in San Francisco and Palo Alto.
“The county of Santa Clara has long been a force in providing youth-oriented programs and services, and those needs were exacerbated by more than two years of a pandemic,” said County Executive Jeffrey V. Smith. “This new position will oversee some of the county’s most important goals — keeping every child safe, every child healthy, every child successful in learning, and every child successful in life.”
The position was created last year by a unanimous vote of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors. The goal is to better coordinate the county’s more than 180 programs dedicated to serving the 440,000 residents who are younger than 18, looking for gaps in services as well as potential redundancies.
“Investing in the children and families of Santa Clara County demands an ongoing commitment and strong leadership,” Supervisor Susan Ellenberg said. “The Chief Children’s Officer will work with our community partners to be a direct advocate for children, explore new funding opportunities, and build connections and coordination among county programs.”
The county budgeted about $1 billion for children’s services in 2021-2022, the bulk of which comes from federal, state, and other sources. It amounts to about 11 percent of the county’s total budget.
“I’m very excited to lead this unique office,” she said. “The leaders of Santa Clara County really have a finger on the pulse of what young people and their families need.”
Duffy has a bachelor’s degree in English from Stanford University and a master’s in public policy from University of California, Berkeley.
Supervisor Cindy Chavez said this position will play a leadership role countywide.
“This will change the way we are thinking, long-term, with an eye on equity and an eye on prevention,” she said. “To give it the wings needed to shift culture, it needs to be considered a body of work. I look forward to seeing our new chief children’s officer take our thoughts and do great things.”