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Achievements

Promoter of Healthy Children and Families

Over her nearly 29 years at JFCS, Ms. Rassen oversaw JFCS' outpatient mental health services for children and families. She also founded and was the initial director of Parents Place in San Francisco, one of the first family resource centers in the country. She was ahead of the curve in developing innovative, responsive programs for the community. This includes the award-winning Early Childhood Mental Health Project (ECMH), a place-based approach to mental health that meets the needs of childcare providers, children and families. An external evaluation of ECMH confirmed that this model improves the quality of childcare for low-income children by increasing childcare provider knowledge and skills, identifying challenged children early, and virtually eliminating expulsions from centers.

While striving to make a difference "one person at a time", Ms. Rassen also has worked on effecting changes in public policy to support families. To that end, she advocated for the federal Department of Health and Human Services to develop state networks of family resource and support programs, and for the component of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 that required states to develop family support centers to promote the well-being of children and families. She also participated in drafting 1993 landmark legislation in California, the Federal Family Preservation and Family Support Program, that also established funding for family support and resource centers. Her advocacy efforts to effect positive policy changes and preserve the entitlement programs for the poor have been part of her daily life.

Ms. Rassen stewarded the family support movement through her steadfast participation as a director, treasurer and chairperson of Family Support America (FSA), the national organization that was the catalyst and clearinghouse in family support through advocacy, publications, technical assistance, training and public education. Concurrent with her work at FSA, she founded and served as president of Family Support California.

Currently Ms. Rassen is initiating an effort to link family support networks to one another, through a national association or coordinating body, to ensure use of best practices in family resource centers and programs as well as resource sharing among providers.