{"id":127732,"date":"2026-01-10T05:49:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T05:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/127732\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T05:49:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T05:49:09","slug":"kern-county-dhs-hosts-community-forums-for-child-welfare-services-feedback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/127732\/","title":{"rendered":"Kern County DHS hosts community forums for child welfare services feedback"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>BAKERSFIELD, Calif.(KBAK\/KBFX) \u2014 The Kern County Department of Human Services, in collaboration with the <a href=\"https:\/\/bakersfieldnow.com\/news\/local\/kern-county-board-of-supervisors-approve-choice-for-review-of-child-welfare-services\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Social Policy Institute<\/a>, is organizing a series of &#8220;community cafes&#8221; to gather public feedback on child welfare services. <\/p>\n<p>The initiative seeks input from individuals who have interacted with Kern&#8217;s Child Protective Services. <\/p>\n<p>The first forum is scheduled for Monday, Jan. 12,  at 6:15 p.m., at the Boys &amp; Girls Club on Niles Street, with a second session at the same location on Tuesday morning, 9:30 a.m. to noon.<\/p>\n<p>Later on Tuesday, Jan. 13, a Spanish-language session will be held at the Central Church of Christ, located at 804 Jefferson Street in Delano, from 4:30 to 7 p.m.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A preliminary hearing for Ray Mata Jr. and Graciela Bustamonte, the couple accused of torturing and killing 8-year-old Genesis Mata, has been postponed until October. PHOTO: GoFundMe, KBAK\/KBFX\" class=\"ImageEmbed_image__qZBo_\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1765583889_589_bcbe0329-b1ad-4e92-8a63-03d48f0c1690-Untitled1.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>A preliminary hearing for Ray Mata Jr. and Graciela Bustamonte, the couple accused of torturing and killing 8-year-old Genesis Mata, has been postponed until October. PHOTO: GoFundMe, KBAK\/KBFX<\/p>\n<p>Comment with Bubbles<\/p>\n<p>BE THE FIRST TO COMMENT<\/p>\n<p>The Social Policy Institute was engaged to review child welfare services following protests this summer after the death of <a href=\"https:\/\/bakersfieldnow.com\/search?find=Genesis+Mata\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">8-year-old Genesis Mata<\/a>, who was <a href=\"https:\/\/bakersfieldnow.com\/news\/local\/trial-for-genesis-matas-father-and-stepmother-delayed-to-march-2026\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">allegedly tortured and killed by her father and stepmother<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAKERSFIELD, Calif.(KBAK\/KBFX) \u2014 The Kern County Department of Human Services, in collaboration with the Social Policy Institute, is&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":127733,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":{"0":"post-127732","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bakersfield","8":"tag-bakersfield","9":"tag-bakersfield-headlines","10":"tag-bakersfield-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}