SF-Tech Collab History & Timeline

The Youth Justice & Family Well-Being Technology Collaborative was founded in 2020 in San Francisco, California by Judge Monica F. Wiley of the San Francisco Unified Family Court and Dr. Marina Tolou-Shams, Kilroy Realty Professor in the UCSF Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Director of the UCSF Juvenile inJustice Behavioral Health lab.

  • Beginning & Initial Goals

    January 2020

    The Youth Justice and Family Well-Being Technology Collaborative (SF Tech Collab) launched with the goal of bringing relevant system (e.g., juvenile legal, child welfare, public health) champions together to brainstorm how technology could be leveraged to improve system-involved youths’ access to behavioral health services.

  • Imminent Need During COVID-19 Shelter In Place Mandate

    March 2020

    A lack of service access was exacerbated in the wake of COVID-19 shelter-in-place mandates. In response, champions requested more frequent meetings and a focus on rapid planning to deploy telehealth interventions for systems-impacted youth and families.

  • First Big Win of The Collaborative

    August 2020

    The first big collaborative accomplishment was when champions worked across legal and school systems to ensure that San Francisco Unified School District laptops and WiFi hotspots could additionally be used to attend virtual court, probation, and behavioral health treatment appointments.

  • First Public Endorsement

    August 2021

    UCSF received funding from Tipping Point Community to replicate the Tech Collab model in other California counties.

  • Collaboration with the Community - Creation of the Digital Health Toolkit (DHT)

    October 2021

    The SF Tech Collab began to develop the Digital Health Toolkit as a guide for other California counties who might want to build their own county technology collaboratives.

  • Future of Tech Collab

    November 2023

    The SF Tech Collab supports cross-system collaboration on over six different projects and initiatives that leverage technology to increase access to youth behavioral healthcare.

    Contra Costa County is collaborating with SF Tech Collab on reviewing the Digital Health Toolkit as they develop their technology collaborative.