About Us

History & Purpose

The Alliance of Child Caring Service Providers (“Alliance”) was formed in 1973 as an association of agencies and organizations serving the children and families of Cuyahoga County. The Alliance collectively represents private agencies that provide child out-of-home care, family and other services designed to address the treatment, educational and welfare needs of children and families. Relying on the unique expertise and experience of the professionals representing its member agencies, the Alliance advocates, promotes and supports public policy and system reform in order to further enhance available behavioral health services and improve child and family welfare.

Mission

The mission of the Alliance is to utilize the collective expertise and experience of its members to impact public policy and achieve the system reform necessary to provide the highest quality of service to children and families, and act as an advocate for improvements in the child welfare and behavioral health care systems.

Who Our Members Serve & What We Do

Alliance member agencies serve the most vulnerable and at-risk children and families in Cuyahoga County — children at-risk of or suffering from: abuse and neglect, mental illness, substance addiction, and others. Alliance member agencies employ more than 5,000 staff and provide support to more than 100,000 children, youth and families each year. Our members value family involvement and are committed to engaging families in order to ensure the best outcomes for children.

Member agencies are licensed/certified by at least one of the following public agencies: Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, Ohio Department of Mental Health, Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services and the Ohio Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities. Most member agencies are also accredited by JCAHO (Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations), COA (Council on Accreditation) and CARF (Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities).

Major programs/services provided by Alliance members include:

• Foster care
• Residential treatment
• Partial Hospitalization
• Outpatient mental health services
• School and community-based mental health services
• Day care and after-school care
• Adoption services
• Special Education services
• Shelter Care

In addition to the above services, Alliance agencies provide no fewer than 30 specialized programs and services that respond to the individual needs of particular groups of children in the care of the County’s public child-serving systems. These include: in-home supported living services, family preservation services, aftercare, juvenile court diversion programs, mentoring, independent living, wraparound services, medically fragile foster care, sex offender treatment, crisis stabilization, autism services, and numerous other services.

Commitment to Public-Private Partnerships and Child Advocacy & Public Policy

The public-private partnership in Cuyahoga County’s child-serving arena is unique in Ohio. The size and complexity of our county’s child-serving system presents us with challenges not faced elsewhere in the state. Our collective ability to respond to these challenges and to improve our service delivery system for children is fundamental to our purpose. Through these efforts Alliance agencies have engaged collaboratively in developing new service models; enhancing work relationships with the County’s public systems; improving day-to-day operations for various services ; advocating for appropriate public funding of child-serving initiatives and advancing best practices among the child-serving community. Given the success of our partnership efforts, the Alliance remains committed to the preservation of this strong, creative, collaborative model.

The Alliance collaborates with a number of public and private entities in its efforts to provide the county’s children and families with the most effective services possible. Among these are:

• Board of Cuyahoga County Commissioners
• Cuyahoga County Department of Children & Family Services
• Cuyahoga County Community Mental Health Board
• Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court
• Cuyahoga County Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services Board
• Cuyahoga County Board of Mental Retardation & Development Disabilities
• Council of Agency Directors
• Cuyahoga County Neighborhood Collaboratives
• Voices for Ohio’s Children
• Center for Community Solutions
• Mental Health Advocacy Coalition