Olive Crest

Olive Crest is dedicated to preventing child abuse by strengthening, equipping, and restoring children and families in crisis… "One Life at a Time."®

Founded in 1973, Olive Crest is dedicated to strengthening families and keeping kids safe, providing child abuse/neglect prevention services to an average of over 600 Coachella Valley children and families annually. Since 2001, our organization has been focused on providing Coachella Valley children with loving homes, tools for success, and family for life. Even after graduation from our programs, our team maintains a lifelong commitment to the young people we serve. Through our holistic approach to wellness and growth, Olive Crest is able to meet children and families at any point in their journey to help recover from trauma, create stability, and offer opportunities for growth.

Olive Crest programs support youth and families with 24/7 services that include counseling, crisis intervention, trauma prevention and hostings, foster care, basic needs, and referrals to shelters and other local agencies to ensure safety for the children in care.

Altogether, Olive Crest strives to build a better community "One Life at a Time."

Testimonials

Jaden was two years old when he entered the system. His parents had a history of domestic violence and a history of drug use. Jaden also had two older sisters that were 6 and 8 years old.

The reason for the removal was that mom and dad were getting into physical fights in front of the kids and the grandma called CPS. The kids were not thriving at home or at school, so they were moved into an aunt's home. At the aunt's home, Jaden was showing signs of trauma by being aggressive, kicking, punching, and throwing things. He was not communicating verbally but rather showing his anger and frustration by being defiant, screaming, and yelling instead of using words. Jaden and his sisters were placed in different homes, the sisters went together to a foster home and Jaden went to his aunt's home. Unfortunately, Jaden was put on CPS transfer 14-day notice soon after his arrival at his aunt's because she could not get Jaden to adapt to her house rules or to control his anger. He would hit her, and her kids, and she had to make the decision to place her own kid's well-being first. At the second foster home, the courts gave mom and grandma unsupervised visits, because mom was doing anger management since she used to fight not only with her ex-husband but also with CPS staff, school staff, or anyone she did not agree with. Mom also was sobering up through an NA (narcotics anonymous) outpatient program. After attending the unsupervised visits, Jaden would come back more physically aggressive, would not communicate verbally besides screaming or grunting, and would tantrum continuously. Due to Jaden's lack of coping and communication skills, he was once again put on 14-day notice.

Jaden at two years old was now on his 3rd placement since April 2021 and it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. The new caregiver was asked if she would be willing to work with an Olive Crest Wrap-around team and the caregiver said yes and that she was familiar with the process and would welcome a team in her home. As soon as the Olive Crest Wrap team started their visits, and working with the caregiver, Jaden, and his mom, they started seeing positive results. Jaden was more cheerful and less anxious. Our BHS was able to have fun with Jaden and teach him some very useful coping skills, like fun breathing exercises, creating a reward system, learning how to use your words, and enjoying age-appropriate activities. The rest of the team helped the caregiver, mom and grandma learn how to implement what Jaden was learning, so that when he was reunited with his mom, they could follow the same steps. It took some time since Jaden will be graduating from Olive Crest Wrap in the middle of August 2022, however, all three kids are now reunited with mom and grandma. Mom is now completely separated herself from her ex-husband and is living with grandma. She has a full-time job and is very proud to say she is no longer on public assistance, is drug-free, and is going to family therapy with all the kids. As soon as the family was reunified, mom took full responsibility and on her own went to sign her children up for school and afterschool daycare, so she can continue working.

This outcome was achievable without the mother or child being put on medication. The key element to success in this story is that the Olive Crest team provided the mother hope that she could rise above her circumstances and abusive relationship for the sake of her children. She felt empowered to act decisively because of the community of support from Olive Crest to herself and her family. She felt unjudged, secure, accepted, and equipped to be the mother that Jared needs.