Grow Up Great: A Community Partner Update
February 28, 2010

From Children and Families Commission of Orange County

Grow Up Great: A Community Partner Update – Director’s Message

For 10 years, the Children & Families Commission of Orange County has used Proposition 10 tobacco tax revenue to help our youngest members of society get a solid start in life. But providing funds is just one part of the story. Helping Orange County’s children to be healthy and to thrive requires compassionate, talented, selfless individuals-dedicated to serving children and their families. These people are agents of change. And this month the Commission is launching a campaign to honor them.

The campaign’s singular focus is people, the heart of everything the Commission and our partners have accomplished over the past decade. So from February through November 2010, we will highlight 10 individuals who serve so tirelessly on behalf of Orange County’s children. We hope that by recognizing these few, the campaign will raise awareness of the many individuals and programs that are helping our children to Grow Up Great.

To kick off the campaign, Agents of Change – 10 People Making a Difference in the Lives of Young Children, we honor Dr. Joseph Donnelly and the program he leads. For OC Kids Neurodevelopmental Center, a program that helps children who have developmental disorders.

Dr. Joe Donnelly was recruited from Baystate Medical Center Children’s Hospital in Springfield, Massachusetts to UC Irvine in 2002, and now heads the Neurodevelopmental Center in Orange County. What makes him so uniquely qualified-aside from the specialty degrees in Pediatrics and Neurology and extensive experience-is his commitment to the earliest identification, treatment, and support for children with developmental, behavioral or learning disorders like autism and ADHD. For OC Kids is the only center of its kind in Orange County, providing comprehensive services for children birth through age five years.

Using a team approach, For OC Kids gives these children the range of support they need in one place-including Pediatric Neurology, Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics, a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, and a Social Worker. Family-centered care is the focus of the For OC Kids team. Through the Family Support and Education Program, families receive training, individual consultations, and connection to community resources.

From the outset, the Commission supported For OC Kids Neurodevelopmental Center, bringing the partners of CHOC and UC Irvine together, and funding this important program that fills such a critical need.

On behalf of the Commission and all the children and families whose lives are touched, I congratulate Dr. Donnelly, and For OC Kids, and all of Orange County’s Agents of Change!

Michael Ruane
Executive Director