ABOVE: Supervisor Knabe leads local children from a YMCA Summer Camp in a cheer during the kick-off of a Capital Campaign to fund the renovation and expansion of YMCAs throughout the Greater Long Beach area.

Don Knabe. Working for you.

Improving Lives

2008

Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a $4.75 million demonstration project that will test innovative approaches to preventing child abuse and neglect. The 12-month “Prevention Initiative Demonstration Project” is the result of a joint motion by Supervisors Don Knabe and Zev Yaroslavsky. The goal of the project is to test a broad spectrum of services, resources and activities across diverse communities within the County and evaluate their impact on preventing child abuse and maltreatment.
 

Providing Homeless Families in Whittier with Housing and Services

The Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a $1 million grant to the Whittier First Day Coalition, for a new transitional housing program in the City of Whittier. The Families Together Transitional Housing Project, which will be run by Whittier First Day, will provide transitional housing and intensive services to homeless families for up to two years. The funding for the project comes from the Fourth District’s allocation of County homeless funds, along with support and funding from the City of Whittier, foundations and the local business community.

Capturing Child Support Evaders
A man who owed over $100,000 in child support payments and was also one of the “10 Most Wanted” child support payment evaders wanted by Los Angeles County was located and arrested through a pilot program introduced by Supervisor Knabe. Knabe’s motion sought to crackdown on hundreds of the County’s most heinous child support payment evaders by establishing a partnership between the Los Angeles County Child Support Services Department and the Office of the District Attorney.

2007

Expanding the San Pedro Service Center
Supervisor Knabe allocated $2.5 million to fund the renovation and expansion of the San Pedro facility. With the Supervisor’s funding commitment for the project now in place, the County will begin to study how to best expand the heavily-used facility. The top priorities for the remodel and expansion include: additional rooms for senior programs, more childcare classrooms, and meeting space for local community groups.
 

Improving Child Care throughout the County

The County of Los Angeles launched the Steps to Excellence Program (STEP), an innovative new child care rating system to help parents make informed child care choices for their children. STEP will be the first program of its kind in California. In much the same way as the County’s successful restaurant grading system has empowered consumers with information, the goal of rating child care centers is to educate parents and improve the quality and services of the centers.

Reforming Child Welfare System
The Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), the largest child welfare agency in the country, has begun a historic child welfare reform plan that will focus on preventative services to help families and keep children out of the foster care system. The plan will also broaden the search for more permanent homes for children already in the system and build on the Department’s core mandate of ensuring all children can grow up in safe, loving and permanent families.

Modernizing Public Housing Developments in Long Beach
The Board of Supervisors, which acts as the CDC’s Board of Commissioners, approved contracts with M.L. Construction to replace gas lines at the Carmelitos family housing development and with Continental Flooring Company to replace flooring at the 155-unit Carmelitos senior housing complex. The Carmelitos housing community is comprised of 700 units of family and senior housing, an award-winning nursery and community garden, and on-site educational enrichment and family resource centers.
 

Improving Mental Health Programs for the Homeless
The County approved a $500,000 grant to the City of Long Beach to improve and enhance specialized services for homeless veterans in the Long Beach area. The grant includes a specific provision of $140,000 for the establishment of a County-funded mental health coordinator position within the City’s health department to ensure that residents, especially those who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, have a greater awareness of mental health resources.

Providing Funding for Mental Health Facility for Homeless Veterans

Supervisor Knabe worked to secure a grant of $400,000 to fund mental health specialty services at the Century Villages at Cabrillo in the City of Long Beach. This funding will pay for the establishment of a program that will serve up to 60 homeless veterans suffering from severe mental illness.
 

Developing Job Opportunities for Veterans
The County of Los Angeles plans to assist local military veterans with employment opportunities under a plan developed by Supervisors Don Knabe and Michael D. Antonovich. The program, approved by the Board of Supervisors, directs County departments to begin internship programs for Veterans including employment outreach, new hiring protocols and education opportunities

Free Assistance Center at Torrance Courthouse
A new Self-Help Legal Access Center was funded by the Board of Supervisors for the Torrance Courthouse. The facility is free to any County resident with business at the Courthouse. Staff members can assist the public in completing legal forms, offer legal options and provide information that helps the public understand court rules and procedures.

Legal Services expanded at Long Beach Courthouse
Funding for additional staff and operating hours was provided to the high-successful Self-Help Legal Access Center at the Long Beach Courthouse just eight months after the center opened. The Center’s staff can assist the public in completing legal forms, offer legal options and provide information that helps the public understand court rules and procedures.

Offering Toy Loan Program in Hacienda Heights
A free toy loan program is the newest community service to be offered by the County of Los Angeles at Manzanita Park in Hacienda Heights. By participating in the program, children can choose to borrow one of over 100 available toys, then return the toy and check out others. The program is a collaborative effort by the County of Los Angeles Board of Supervisors and the Department of Public Social Services.

Tracking Down Child Support Payment Evaders
Seeking to crackdown on the County’s most heinous child support payment evaders, Supervisor Knabe worked to create a partnership between the Los Angeles County Child Support Services Department and the Office of the District Attorney. The primary goal of this program would be to increase enforcement against parents who are the most delinquent in their child support payments.

Keeping Social Security Services in San Pedro

With the future of the San Pedro Social Security Administration (SSA) Office in jeopardy due to a scheduled closure, Supervisor Knabe offered a solution to use County facilities to keep the office open for business.

Protecting Senior Citizens from Fraud
Supervisor Knabe and the Department of Consumer Affairs presented the free "Smarter Seniors Forum" to assist seniors and their families learn how to protect themselves against elder financial frauds.

Providing Toy Program to Children of Teen Parents
The County of Los Angeles is now offering its successful, free Toy Loan Program found throughout the County at Tracy High School in Cerritos. By participating in the program, students in the Teen Parent Program will receive high school credits and their children can borrow one of over 100 available toys, then return the toy and check out others.

Creating Permanent Housing Opportunities for Homeless
Supervisor Knabe introduced a pilot program that will create permanent housing opportunities for dozens of homeless individuals and families. The primary goal of the Access to Housing for Health Pilot Project is to dramatically improve housing options for homeless men and women who seek care at County hospitals by connecting them with permanent housing opportunities once they leave the hospital.

Offering Free Access to County Facilities for Veterans
In honor of veterans, the Board of Supervisors voted to waive parking fees for veterans at County-operated parking lots, beaches and parks. The vote exempts vehicles with valid veterans special license plates from the payment of parking fees at all County-owned and operated public parking lots, including vehicle entry fees at County parks, beaches and County-enforced parking meters.

Providing New Kitchen for Veterans in Long Beach
The United States Veterans Initiative in Long Beach, located at the Villages at Cabrillo, will receive $800,000 in County funds to construct a new commercial kitchen, which will serve as a location for homeless veterans to receive meals.

2006

Safe Surrender Milestone

2006 marked the 5th Anniversary of the Safe Surrender Program. There have been a total of 11 Safe Surrenders throughout Los Angeles County in 2006 and 47 Safe Surrenders since the program began. The program was initiated by Supervisor Knabe and approved unanimously by the Board of Supervisors in 2001. It allows someone to surrender an infant that is no more than three days old, as long as the infant shows no signs of abuse.

Assisting the Homeless

Supervisor Knabe played a critical role in three major homeless projects this year. He led in the implementation of the Long Beach Emergency Homeless Shelter, which operates 58 beds in separate men’s and women’s dormitories. He also provided funds for the construction of the Bethune School in Long Beach which gives homeless children access to a stable learning environment and provides them with the same educational opportunities as other children. He led the effort to provide additional funding to expand the shelter for homeless families at the Villages at Cabrillo in Long Beach.

Improving the Care of Foster Children

A partnership was created between the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) and many group home providers in Los Angeles County to address critical funding, monitoring, and service delivery issues. As part of the partnership, Supervisor Knabe sought to enhance the County’s oversight of State-licensed Foster Family Homes. In addition, he directed DCFS to work with the Sheriff's Department on a plan to enhance access to services and resources for incarcerated parents with children in foster care, wherever appropriate, and he is closely overseeing efforts by DCFS and the Department of Mental Health to improve mental health services for children in foster care.
 

Establishing a Child Care Quality Review System

Under the directive of Supervisor Knabe, County leaders are establishing a Child Care Quality Review System in Los Angeles County. This groundbreaking effort provides information on the quality of child care sites throughout the County for the benefit of parents who want to make informed decisions. Similar to the County’s restaurant grading, this system will not only allow parents to choose the very best location to take their kids, but it will also ensure that child care providers seek to maintain a high score.
 

Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect

Supervisor Knabe directed the Department of Children and Family Services, along with key stakeholders in the community, to develop a new and groundbreaking Primary Prevention Initiative, which will provide the County’s most vulnerable and low-income families with the support they need to help alleviate the basic socio-economic pressures they encounter. The concept of "Prevention" has gained significant positive attention as an effective means of reducing child abuse and neglect by proactively helping at-risk families minimize the factors that lead to child abuse and neglect.
 

Supporting After-School Programs

Supervisor Knabe led the effort to ensure that over 10,000 low-income children continued to receive high quality after-school enrichment programs, after state funding sources were exhausted, by providing bridge funding to enable the school districts to identify funding that would preserve these slots on a more permanent basis.
 

Access to Health and Housing

Supervisor Knabe directed the Department of Health Services, in coordination with the Community Development Commission, to develop a pilot program designed to create permanent housing opportunities for up to 100 homeless individuals. This new “Access to Health and Housing” pilot program utilizes $1.5 million of the $80 million in funding for Countywide homeless prevention initiatives that was approved by the Board of Supervisors earlier this year.

2005

Supervisor Knabe served as Chair of the First 5 LA Commission and oversaw the implementation of the Universal Preschool program. Supervisor Knabe’s governance insured that preschool funding was allocated in an equitable manner.

Supervisor Knabe led efforts to secure a national declaration celebrating January as National Mentoring Month. At the same time, Supervisor Knabe set a Countywide goal of providing a mentor for every foster child by the year 2010.  

2004

Supervisor Knabe directed the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) to work with local community groups to help develop the Title IV waiver request from the federal government. The waiver would allow the County greater flexibility in the use of funding, thereby enabling increased community collaboration and better services to children in the County’s foster care system. This waiver was successful approved at the federal level in early 2006.

2003

Supervisor Knabe played a key role in securing outstanding new leadership for the beleaguered Department of Children and Family Services. As such, he worked to identify an exceptional candidate to assume the director position for DCFS – Dr. David Sanders, who was appointed in March 2003.

Supervisor Knabe led the effort to co-locate offices of the Department of Children and Family Services and law enforcement agencies under one roof throughout Los Angeles County in order to ensure child safety during ongoing investigations. This multi-agency response team is the first of its kind in the nation. This program has received national acclaim and has become the training model for federal personnel from Homeland Security, FBI, DEA, Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), IRS and other agencies who address child welfare in the course of their respective investigations.