2-1-1 Orange County is proud to partner with the Raise Foundation and the Child Abuse Prevention Center to help prevent and break the generational cycle of child abuse. Each month, 2-1-1 receives calls from parents struggling with stress due to financial burdens as well as questions about dealing with difficult children. We are fortunate to have these two wonderful agencies in the region, both of whom serve as a valuable resource to families in need. This month, we are joining forces with our partners to generate awareness about child abuse in Orange County.

Did you know:

• In 2010, more than 38,000 child abuse cases were reported to Orange County authorities.

• More than 90% of abusers are people children know, love, or trust.

• Abused children are 58% more likely to commit crime; 38% are more likely to be violent themselves.

• Hundreds of millions of tax dollars are spent on response and intervention AFTER a child has been abused.

• Intensive prevention services can cost as little as $2,500 per year per family.

• Each case of child sexual abuse costs the victim and society nearly $100,000.

• Foster care for the children can cost more than $45,000/year.

• Placing a convicted youth offender in custody costs more than $50,000/year.

• Parenting classes designed to give parents tools to raise children without abusing them are often free or only a nominal fee.

2-1-1 Orange County just recently joined a growing number of 2-1-1's across the nation in moving contact center technology to the cloud. What exactly is “the Cloud?” In our case, it's a third party, service-based phone system provided by inContact, the leading provider of hosted telephony systems . This new service will reduce our operational overhead costs, increase our system reliability and provide better reporting options. It will also enable our organization to achieve higher levels of caller satisfaction through capabilities such as:  remote at-home agents, and "capacity on demand," which now allows us to instantly mobilize large numbers of call center volunteers to handle disaster situations. 

Moving to cloud technology is only one of the few steps 2-1-1 Orange County has taken to position ourselves to better serve the community. With this new technology, we can stay focused on what we do best - getting people connected to the help they need.

Howard Ko joined the 2-1-1 Board of Directors in May of 2009. He is the I.S. Relationship Manager for Corporate Finance at Allergan, Inc. and currently serves as the Chair of the Technology Committee.

We are proud to honor two outstanding volunteers, Mahboob Akhter and Marc Machlin. Since joining the Board of Directors in April, 2007, Mahboob has helped grow 2-1-1’s value to the community through his tireless efforts to bring additional resources to our agency, as well as through his expertise in the area of government relations.

Marc Machlin is a dedicated and reliable Intake & Resource Specialist who has volunteered over 500 hours to help over 2,000 community members find the resources they need. His commitment to our agency is a huge asset to the community.

These special volunteers will be honored on April 14th at the OneOC Spirit of Volunteerism Celebration.  http://www.oneoc.org/get-involved/sov/