Four-year-old Oscar has faced a lot of diffi culties in his short life. His father was incarcerated, and before being taken in by an aunt, Oscar spent time living on the street with his homeless mother. Given his tumultuous history, it was no surprise when Oscar started acting out in child care. He was referred to the Comprehensive Therapeutic Nursery, where therapists from the Early Childhood Mental Health Program could provide for his special needs. With technology resources from TechSoup Global, therapists can spend more time with children like Oscar.

A History of Mental Health

Executive Director Arlette Merritt has been with the Early Childhood Mental Health Program (ECMHP) for 25 years. The program started in 1974 as the fi rst mental health agency for small children in California’s Contra Costa County. Teachers, parents, social workers, and community activists had found that children were entering kindergarten too emotionally disturbed to benefi t from school. Today, the program offers an extensive range of mental health services to children from birth to six years old along, with their families, and consultation to day care providers and other child-serving professionals. ECMHP remains the only agency in the county that exclusively provides mental health services for this age group.

Promoting a Healthier Child, Family, and Community

ECMHP offers numerous services. For parents and caregivers,the program provides infant-parent therapy and counseling for mothers, fathers, and other primary caregivers. “Wraparound Support” helps families coordinate services through different systems for their infants or young children. The “Time for Dad” program is a weekly group session led by child/ parent therapists to help fathers, grandfathers, and father fi gures who want to learn more about parenting and build better relationships with their children. Additionally, they provide home-visiting services to Spanish-speaking families and offer several parenting groups for monolingual Spanishspeaking mothers and fathers.

Financial Health

ECMHP serves people who meet federal poverty guidelines. Merritt explains that the diffi culty of being funded through Medi-Cal is the heavy burden of documentation and paperwork.

ECMHP pursues additional revenue sources. They receive some grants, such as those from Soroptimist, an international organization for business and professional women, as well as from foundations such as the Kaiser Family Foundation and the San Francisco Foundation. Additionally, ECMHP’s Board Members are fi rm believers in on-the-ground, personal solicitation. They hold letter campaigns; go into the community armed with fi rst-hand knowledge of the organization’s services and status, and hold phone-a-thons. Merritt says that they raise more money from these methods than most organizations get from fundraising events, adding, “They raise quite a bit of money for such a small board.”

A Healthy State of Mind, with Help from TechSoup Global

When Merritt fi rst started with ECMHP, they didn’t have computers. But the demands of their funding activities highlighted how important it was to find a way to do documentation quickly, effi ciently, and accurately. The fi rst step was to create a network of computers.

Merritt hired a “wonderful” IT person to help them put in a server and network. She also sought out donations and bargains. Hearing about TechSoup Global through a previous job, she decided to give it a try.

ECMHP acquired new software and hardware through TechSoup Global. Microsoft Offi ce has made processing and delivering documentation much more efficient. The Adobe resources they’ve received have allowed them to graphically enhance their event invites, newsletters, lecture presentations, and fl yers. They’ve also been able to receive Symantec, Cisco, GrantStation and Mailshell products through TechSoup Global.

“I can’t tell you how we would have managed without [help from TechSoup Global].” She explains that their funding is for direct services only—which means no money exists for upgrades or any type of supplement technology systems.

Most recently, ECMHP has obtained refurbished computers through TechSoup Global’s Refurbished Computer Initiative (RCI) Program, which provides high-quality refurbished computer systems at very competitive prices. They have received both desktops and laptops, using the laptops to make presentations in the community.

Explains Merritt, “Our volunteers and therapists want to spend their time helping children and families; not working on paperwork that is particularly diffi cult and time-consuming. Now we can see many more children and families and keep the waiting list small. And that’s what we’re about. TechSoup Global has been magical for us and we could not possibly afford the technology we need without them.”

To Future Health

By the end of his year in ECMHP’s Comprehensive Therapeutic Nursery Program, Oscar was doing much better and able to attend public school. According to Merritt, “Thousands of children have moved on from our services to succeed in school and life. If every EMCHP clinician gets a computer, they will be able to spend more time with children like Oscar.”