Center for Collaborative Solutions

The CECHCR ProjectCCS formed this initiative, in partnership with all major management and labor associations and unions in California, representing all 1,166 school/community college district and county offices of education and the 1.1 million employees who serve the 6.2 million students in the public schools of California. The purpose of the CECHCR Project is to address the health care crisis by helping to reduce health insurance costs and provide quality, affordable health care for public school employees and their families.CECHCR accomplishes its mission through a major education program recently being updated and expanded into a combination web-based training program that includes training videos, resource print materials and live coaching sessions. The development of this online training program was made possible by a grant from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS). It is now sustained by licensing the program to school districts and their unions. CECHCRs other program provides in-depth services and support for a single district and their unions on lowering health care costs and improving quality of care. Originally funded with an FMCS grant, our CECHCR initiative was then funded for several years by the California HealthCare Foundation and The California Endowment. At the present time, the major sources of CECHCR funding come from our fee for service Health Benefits Consulting program and our CECHCR Educational Program for public education labor-management health benefits committees.

Healthy Behaviors InitiativeCCS has designed and spearheaded a multi-year initiative that supports local and statewide efforts by transforming expanded learning programs into places that embed healthy eating, physical activity and food security in their policies, practices and behaviors changing the lives of the students, staff and families. With the obesity rates of California's children and young people skyrocketing, it is critical to teach children and their families lifelong healthy behaviors. Beginning in 2004, this initiative was first funded by the Network for a Healthy California (a division of the California Department of Public Health), and through the years has also been funded by The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, The California Endowment, Partnership for Children and Youth, Los Angeles and Stanislaus County Offices of Education, Kaiser Permanente and fees for service paid by several school districts. This initiative aims to improve the health and well-being of low-income children and families in underserved populations.As a part of this groundbreaking initiative, CCS has developed and published a Guide to Developing Exemplary Practices in Nutrition, Physical Activity and Food Security in Afterschool Programs, which was updated in early 2015 with funding from The Public Health Institute. Currently there are 30 multi-site programs and 38 Learning Centers statewide that are implementing the HBI practices at an exemplary level; impacting the policies, practices and behaviors of close to 1,000 expanded learning sites throughout California serving over 200,000 youth each year. CCS Healthy Behaviors Exemplary Practices have now been designated as a statewide model via legislation in California, and by the US Department of Agriculture for use nationwide. In 2017, the CCS Healthy Behaviors Initiative was recognized by the National Afterschool Association as Most Influential in Health and Wellness.Most recently, CCS recently received two years of funding support from Kaiser Permanente to establish a Healthy Behaviors Learning Community in San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties, including the creation of new Healthy Behaviors Learning Centers. We also concluded a three-year contract from the California Department of Public Health to expand our Healthy Behaviors work in several Northern California counties. At this time, we are working with the California Afterschool Network to combine the work of our Healthy Behaviors Initiative with the Networks Whole Child initiative.