Janay Eustace became president and chief executive officer of the Child Abuse Prevention Center, an organization that aims to reduce child abuse and neglect. Photo by Anne Stokes

SACRAMENTO COUNTY, CA (MPG) - When the Child Abuse Prevention Center chose a new leader, it found someone with a deep understanding of its mission: someone who was in foster care mainly because her family was impoverished.

In November, Janay Eustace became president and chief executive officer of the Child Abuse Prevention Center, an organization that aims to reduce child abuse and neglect.

“It’s an amazing opportunity to give back to my own community,” Eustace said.

The Child Abuse Prevention (CAP) Center, based in Sacramento, has grown since its founding in 1977 from a local resource into a multiple-agency organization that offers training, education and research locally and statewide. 

A core initiative that the Child Abuse Prevention Center oversees, with backing from the Sacramento County Department of Child, Family and Adult Services (DCFAS) and First 5 Sacramento, are the Birth & Beyond Centers located within family resource centers to support those in need in nine neighborhoods. 

Whether Child Protective Services (CPS) refers families or they decide to come in on their own, families can connect for free with Birth & Beyond services such as workshops on positive parenting, help with household utilities and safe sleep practices to prevent crib deaths. Parents can learn proper car seat use, join support groups, set up play times for their children and learn self-defense skills. Trained professionals can do home instruction to teach coping skills and offer other skill training. The family resource centers, some of which have playgrounds and activity rooms, are located in communities.

One targeted campaign reduced infant deaths by addressing how to safely put infants to sleep, such as avoiding adult beds. 

Birth & Beyond centers demonstrate Sacramento County’s dedication and investment in prevention efforts and the effort is paying off. Working with parents for as little as eight hours can keep parents and their children out of Child Protective Services, the agency has reported. 

In 2014, there were 2,073 children in foster care. By 2024, the number dropped to 1,188, a decrease of 57 percent, Eustace said.

Prevention is key, Eustace said. If her family had received help from a program such as Birth & Beyond because of the poverty that her mother faced, “things would have been different,” Eustace said.

“We would have done better,” Eustace said.

Eustace said that the poverty overcoming her mother was how she ended up in foster care but her grandmother waded through a mountainous bureaucracy to make sure she was her foster parent.

“She did whatever she had to do,” Eustace said.

Eustace was able to keep herself on track, volunteering as early as age 14 to help others and even partnering with Child Protective Services while in the system. Eustace grew to understand how she could help others avoid what broke up her family. She went on to college and earned a master’s degree.

Eustace worked for Child Protective Services in Sacramento and then as the executive director of California Youth Connection, advocating for positive transformation to the foster care system. All of this prepared Eustace for her work at the Child Abuse Prevention Center, empowering communities to prevent families from experiencing foster care.

And on a personal note, Eustace’s mother also survived her circumstances to become what Eustace calls “an amazing grandmother.” 

For more information, visit the Child Abuse Prevention Center website at www.thecapcenter.org/. For more information about other resources, visit the Sacramento County Department of Child, Family and Adult Services website at dcfas.saccounty.net​.​