History

Rebekah Children’s Services’ mission to promote the social, emotional and physical well being of children and families began in 1897, when the California Rebekah and Odd Fellow organization founded The Odd Fellow-Rebekah Children’s Home of California orphanage in Gilroy. Since 1897, the agency has cared for the most vulnerable members of our communities while adapting to changing needs. Today, RCS is a nonprofit, 501(3)(c) corporation that offers a full continuum of family-centered care, education and training that promotes the healing, healthy development and future success of those we serve. Gilroy based, with offices in Campbell, our focus is Santa Clara County with a South County emphasis.

Rebekah Children’s Services received accreditation from the Council on Accreditation (COA) in November 2006 which certifies that RCS has met rigorous national standards for child and family behavioral services.

RCS provides therapeutic residential treatment for abused children with severe emotional and behavioral problems and their families. It also offers community outreach services that include job readiness and job training, outpatient therapy for at-risk kids, and a comprehensive Prevention/Education component to help troubled kids before problems escalate. The agency has 134 fulltime staff, provides mental health services to 2300 youth a year and has service partnerships with 13 surrounding counties.

Youth referred to RCS’ residential program by the courts are from families with multi-generational histories of poverty, dysfunction, violence, child abuse and neglect. Still, nine out of 10 kids entrusted to us for help return to a more natural family, community and school environment. RCS’ foster placement and foster family retention rates of 82 and 87 percent, respectively, underscore our commitment to need-responsive, effective services.

Our residential program serves victims of severe emotional, physical, or sexual abuse, neglect, malnutrition or abandonment. Their therapeutic, medicinal, nutritional, safety, socialization and educational needs are met in RCS’ Level 14 Residential Treatment program, one-step down from psychiatric hospitalization. The K-12 Phoenix non-public school opened in 1998. It provides RCS kids a quality education in a therapeutic setting. Phoenix is state certified, staffed by credentialed teachers and offers the same core curriculum taught in public schools.

RCS also offers Level 14 Foster Care placement/follow up, no-cost adoptions, and Link 2 Permanency, which connects foster kids with permanent adult support. In 1997, RCS became one of the state’s first agencies to provide family-centered SB-163 Wraparound services, which tailors RCS’ array of services to the specific needs of the child/family.

RCS’ has offered community outreach programs with the Gilroy Unified School District since 1992. Our Prevention/Education Department serves more than 2,300 at-risk kids/families in 11 schools and includes the following programs: Teen Moms, Young Moms, Family Workshops, REACH Mentoring, Lifeskills Training (LST), Step Up Small Group Services, Binge Drinking Prevention, and Outpatient Therapy to children.

Through its community Health Center, RCS also offers outpatient therapy options for youth and families. They include School-Based Preventive Mental Health Services, Outpatient Intensive Mental Health Services, First 5 Therapeutic Services, and Youth Empowerment for Success (YES) Support and Enhancement Services. YES works with South County youth in the juvenile justice system and offers an array of workshops and classes, including a 10-week job readiness course, Success in the Workplace.

In 2008, RCS recognized a void in the community for job training services designed specifically for victims of childhood abuse and resulting severe mental health problems. In January 2009, RCS, in collaboration with the Gilroy United School District, the City of Gilroy and business leaders, launched “Rebekah’s Culinary Experience,” aka the Vocational Culinary Academy. RCE is a work-training program geared to current and past recipients of our mental health services who want to enter the food services/hospitality industry. RCS has a full range of services and, with the addition and continuation of this vocational component, can now expand aftercare opportunities for Transitional Age Youth (TAY), those who age-out of the mental health care system at 18 and face uncertain futures without the support system that has helped them for years.