LINK -- 12/2013

Learning, Information, News, Knowledge December 18, 2013 | Agency edition

It’s not just our name,

IT’S OUR PROMISE

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A Letter from Leslie

T

he first week in December I held town meetings in Dover, Wilmington, Georgetown and Seaford.

For those of you unable to attend, we reviewed the results of the staff survey which was completed earlier in the fall. The full results are attached to this newsletter. While results were generally quite positive, there were some important points or conversations: 1. Respondents were unhappy with health/dental benefits. Clearly, we heard you and changed the benefit back to Blue Cross/Blue Shield.

2. There are still concerns about knowing the grievance policy and confidentiality around that. Please

note that the policy (how to make a complaint/grievance) can be found on Paychex under Human Resources. It is contained in the Personnel Manual. The Table of Contents can take you directly to whatever you are looking for. Please look at it if you are not familiar. Also, please know that at the end of the day, the process winds up with me. It is important to go through the steps (supervisor to their supervisor, etc.), but know that I count on you to let us know if something is wrong. You can also feel free to go to one of our HR staff with issues.

3. Issues with leave benefits may be due to the fact that there were 2 extra declared holidays given the calendar this year. For example, we are closed Dec. 23 since it is a Monday and we are off Dec. 24 and 25. The same was true for July 5 because the 4th fell on a Thursday.

Most years we have 4 personal days. This year we had the two additional holiday dates and only 2 personal days. Please remember that vacation and sick time can be taken hourly, but personal days can only be taken in full day increments, unless you are part time and then are taken according to your schedule.

If you have any questions about the survey or thoughts to share, please let me know.

At the town meetings I also mentioned that we are beginning our strategic planning process again. Some work was done over the summer that refocused our work around the following statement: “CFF helps children who face adversity on their journey to adulthood. We work

with their families using proven methods to help them flourish.� We also identified 3 goals: tracking long term outcomes, looking at continuums of service that are done by CFF and partners, and increasing resources. The process will continue throughout 2014.

Finally, I mentioned that we are looking at our facilities and considering 2 projects: 1. consolidation of our three Wilmington buildings into one new site and/or 2. rebuilding our Georgetown office on the same land.

The Wilmington project would mean selling the buildings and finding a suitable new site, hopefully with great timing. The Georgetown building is not well constructed and is almost 20 years old. It is not efficient and will need new systems in the near future.

Both Wilmington and Georgetown have parking issues. No decisions have been made about either. We are exploring all options at this time. I will keep you posted.

This is the time of year where I look back at the past year and begin to think about resolutions for the new year. My hope is for good health and good things for all in 2014.

Leslie

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHT

FAIR – Family Assessment Intervention and Response

F

AIR is collaboration between DFS and CFF to help keep teens out of foster care. When DFS receives a report for abuse and or neglect that is low to moderate risk they assign it to the FAIR program. The FAIR program manager assigns the case to one of five social workers. The workers assess the families’ needs, risk and safety. The workers use evidencebased models and tools to determine what level of services the family will receive.

There are two levels of services in FAIR: > The First is Family Keys which is level I–Level one provides family with short term crisis intervention, individual counseling and referrals to community resources > Level II is Family Functional Therapy–These services are provided for families that need more intensive clinical support for conflict resolution and relationship repair.

Referrals are only accepted through the DFS hotline.

A family we recently served stated that the Family Keys worker “was like a breath of fresh air!”

The parent and child said that the worker was non-judgmental and transferred skills to them to help them communicate better.

For more info, contact Rita Fisher (302) 674-8384 x110

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PROGRAM HIGHLIGHT

Community Schools – Warner Elementary READesign

October 24th, Warner Elementary READesign: Capital One in partnership with The Heart of America Foundation collaborated with CFF’s Community School program to redesign Warner Elementary School’s library. The redesign was extensive–floors, walls and furniture were updated as well as technology.

In addition books were supplied not just to the library, but also to every student in the school. To read more about this READesign, visit: http://issuu.com/cffde/docs/winter2013_issuu

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Event Snapshots DOWNSTATE October 11th, A Taste for Art of Southern Delaware: Our annual A Taste for Art of Southern Delaware was a great success–raising over $21,000 for the agency! Held at The Clubhouse at Baywood Greens in Long Neck, Delaware, guests mixed and mingled while shopping items from over twelve local artists and tasted delicious creations from nine area restaurants. We had a blast!

December 7th, Delaware Day: Delaware Day was held for the second year in a row at 16 Mile Brewing Company in Georgetown. This day, which benefits multiple area non-profits including Children & Families First is free, open to the public and kid friendly. Local restaurants, radio stations and businesses come out for the festivites. This year, we raffled off a tractor coutesty of Baker’s Hardware.

Event Snapshots UPSTATE November 19th, J. Thompson Brown Awards: Our annual J. Thompson Brown awards honored Lieutenant Governor Matt Denn for his commitment to strengthening family life and the Delaware Youth Advisory Council for their advocacy efforts on behalf of youth in foster care. The event took place at

J. Thompson Brown Award Presented to

Lieutenant Governor Matt Denn for his strong leadership on behalf of Delaware's children

honoring dedicated service that contributes to strengthening family life in delaware

november 19

two-thousand and thirteen

It’s not just our name, it’s our promise Children & Families First strengthens Delaware families by delivering an innovative and effective continuum of community-based social services.

In existence for more than 125 years, CFF builds the foundation for strong communities with child-centered and family-focused programs.

December 5th, Guest Bartender Fundraising Event: We held our first ever guest bartender event at BBC Tavern and Grill in Greenville. Friends, staff, board members and supporters came out to tip their favorite bartenders–and 100% of all tips were donated to Children & Families First. Many thanks to everyone who participated–it was a wonderful night! Photos by Ben Fournier

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DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT UPDATES Hi, Everyone! Joy here to update you on a little (but actually really big) something we’ve been working on in 2013!

An official CFF Style Guide!

So what is a Style Guide, you ask? It’s a document that describes how we brand ourselves as an agency. It allows us to maintain and develop our CFF ‘look’ so we can become an easily recognizable brand. The full style guide helps the Development Department consistently use our logo, colors, fonts, etc. We developed a handy guide for staff to reference with basic info about media releases, email signatures and more!

We developed this document in conjuction with our PR & Marketing Committee this year and it was recently presented to the Board of Directors.

This guide will help us continue to market ourselves in a consistent way and increasingly gain brand recognition.

Please review the Staff Guide, included in the last few pages of this newsletter!

To see the full document, follow this link: http://issuu.com/cffde/docs/styleguide2013

MORE NEWS

We were recently awarded $2,500 from Jack and Jill of America. Members will partner with us as volunteers in 2014!

As part of the Christina School District, Stubbs Elementary School held a Day of Kindness which gave students the opportunity to learn about social responsibility and how they can make a positive change in their communities.

This year, the students at Stubbs held a canned goods drive for the Food Bank of Delaware. They collected over 2235 pounds of food to donate!

CFF’s Marcie Urgo presents Jeanette Partilla, co-founder of GOSH, with a certificate of appreciation at their Beef & Beer event, held Oct. 26th. GOSH, (Group of Seniors Helping), donated the proceeds from this event to Seaford House.

Earlier this year, WAWA held a coin collection for Children & Families First which brought in over $23,000!

In addition, they have agreed to partner again with us for 2014!

MORE NEWS

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Tis the season of Giving!

Thanks to all of our volunteers for donating their time as well as much needed items to our clients.

Leslie Newman participates in a panel on non-profit funding in Delaware at Philanthropy Day! Governor Markell and Lieutenant Governor Matt Denn at a press conference announcing new grant funds for youth programs. CFF will be doing after school and summer programing at Seaford Middle School and Central Middle School.

Have news you’d like to submit to the Internal L.I.N.K.?

Send your stories and photos to Joy Smoker at joy.smoker@cffde.org

It’s not just our name,

IT’S OUR PROMISE

WWW.CFFDE.ORG | (800) 220-3092 Children & Families First strengthens Delaware families by delivering an innovative and effective continuum of community-based social services.

In existence for more than 125 years, CFF builds the foundation for strong communities with child-centered and family-focused programs.

Children & Families First

Visual identity GUIDELINES Staff Edition

1 Introduction

1.1 The guidelines

The Children & Families First identity is one of simplicity and friendliness. It is the embodiment of our organization - always growing, always moving forward.

This visual identity guide has been developed to provide a comprehensive understanding of the Children & Families First’s branding.

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Visual identity guidelines | Introduction

1.1.1 Employee Guidelines Children & Families First maintains strict control over its branding image. Rules regarding logos and their use as well as color choices, design and all content must be in line with CFF’s branding guidelines. Therefore, all materials that reference Children & Families First, a CFF program, or that make use of a CFF or CFF program logo must be approved by the development department before being distributed to the public.

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All designs or requests for designs must be made through the ticketing system and sent to the attention of the Development Department two weeks prior to its needed date.

In order to maintain the integrity of our logo, the Development Department will not release the logo to any of the programs for use. All use of CFF’s logo must be approved by the Development Department.

We do this to ensure our logo isn’t misrepresented in any way; to avoid the possibility of the below examples from happening.

Logo must not be distorted in any way.

Visual identity guidelines | Introduction

Logo must not be represented in any color other than approved palette and must not be outlined

Children & Families First The ‘and’ in Children & Families First should always be an ampersand.

There is no exception to this rule.

Below is the correct title of the organization as well as a few incorrect examples.

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Correct title

Children & Families First Incorrect titles

Children + Families First Children and Families First

Visual identity guidelines | Children & Families First

Imagery Children & Families First has a strict policy regarding imagery.

Images that are to be used in any materials that promote CFF or include it’s logo must adhere to the following rules:

PURCHASING:

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All images must be purchased from a stock photography supplier with the appropriate rights of use for each project.

Images MAY NOT be taken from the internet (ie: google search for images). CFF must pay for the rights and own each image that is used. To not do so is a violation of copyright laws, and CFF may be penalized accordingly.

We may also hire a photographer to take photos for us which we will be able to use without limit.

MEDIA RELEASES: Any photos that are taken of clients or models that are to be used to publicize Children & Families First must be accompanied by a media release that is signed by said model or client. If the model/client is under the age of 18, a parent or guardian must sign for the child.

RESOLUTION: Ideally image resolution must be 300dpi at 100% image size for print, and 72ppi at 100% for web usage. However, some exceptions may be made at the approval of the Development Department.

Visual identity guidelines | Imagery

Email Signatures All outgoing emails from Children & Families First should include an email signature that must include the following elements: • • • • • • •

Name Title Organization name Mailing address Phone number(s) Fax number Web address

Please DO NOT include:

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• Personal quotes. CFF prefers to have a unified outgoing message.

There is a CFF-related tagline globally added to all outgoing emails. Please do not include additional quotes from your email signature. If there is specific CFF program-related information that you would like to add to your signature, this must be approved by the Development Department before adding.

• Unusual fonts or colors. These typefaces don’t always translate from computer to computer.

Therefore, email signatures must only be set in on of the following typefaces: Calibri, Arial, or Times New Roman. Text must be black

Visual identity guidelines | Email Signature

Correct use Joy Smoker Special Events & Design Coordinator Children & Families First 2005 Baynard Blvd.

Wilmington, DE 19802 302.777.9768 (phone) 302.658.5302 (fax) www.cffde.org

Incorrect use Joy Smoker Special Events & Design Coordinator Children & Families First 2005 Baynard Blvd.

Wilmington, DE 19802 302.777.9768 (phone) 302.658.5302 (fax) www.cffde.org

Live, Laugh, Love!

2012 - 2013 CLIMATE SURVEY Total for Satisfactory - Very good - Excellent My understanding of the agency mission/vision/values is My understanding of the agency mission is My understanding of the agency vision is My understanding of the agency values is My understanding of the purpose of my program is How do you rate the agency on: Respect Open communications Promoting quality Implementing quality Intranet content Paychex content (new in 2013) Helpfulness of the helpdesk/ticket system Career opportunities Safe workplace My morale is I think staff morale is: Yes I feel more committed to working for the agency this year than I did a year ago (dropped last year) Yes I am proud to work for the agency Yes I am optimistic about the future of the agency Responsiveness How do you rate responsiveness to your concerns by the following:

2013 2012 Diff

2011 2010 2009 99%

99% 99% 98% 99%

99% 98% 98% 99%

99% 100%

1% 99% 100% 100%

98% 96% 91% 80% 98% 98% 98% 100% 94% 96% 91% 96% 97% 92% 90% 95% 91% 94% 91% 94% 87%

2% 92% 11% 80% 94% 2% 93% 2% 95%

99% 100% 92% 95%

96% 89% 96% 93% 99%

93% 80% 95% 93% 99%

89% 88% 95%

95% 89% 97%

93% 87% 92%

92% 68%

87% 76%

85% 66%

1% 97% 3% 94%

97% 93%

99% 85%

1% 2% 4% 3% 7%

98% 96% 97% 96% 100% 99% 98%

94% 93% 96% 94% 99% 98% 98%

4% 3% 1% 2% 1% 1%

93% 91% 93% 91% 98% 99% 96%

93% 91% 96% 92% 98%

94% 89% 99% 90% 94%

97%

88%

The level of my pay is The level of my pay compared to similar organizations (other nonprofits) is The level of consistency in how policies are administered/followed is

84% 82%

83% 80%

1% 84% 2% 76%

78% 78%

79% 83%

91%

87%

4% 82%

91%

89%

Leave benefits are Health/dental benefits are The 401(k) is I have the flexibility I need to balance my work and personal life

93% 75% 93% 94%

98% 89% 97% 93%

95% 84% 94%

92%

Agency management Program management Finance staff Human resources staff IT staff Development Staff Facilities staff

5% 14% 4% 1%

94% 85% 94% 94%

2012 - 2013 CLIMATE SURVEY Total for Satisfactory - Very good - Excellent Equal Opportunity I believe that I work in an unbiased workplace concerning race, religion, age, sexual orientation, national origin, gender identify and disability I believe staff members are treated equally at CFF I believe coworkers respect individual and cultural differences

2013 2012 Diff

2011 2010 2009

97%

95%

2% 92%

90%

93%

93% 97%

88% 93%

5% 86% 4% 93%

84% 90%

79% 94%

Yes I am aware of the process for filing a formal complaint/grievance

84%

85%

1% 92%

88%

88%

Yes If I were to file a complaint/grievance, I believe it would be handled confidentially

84%

86%

2% 75%

78%

73%

Yes If I were to file a complaint/grievance, I believe I would not be subject to retaliation Your Job My ability to make a difference for our clients is Opportunities for growing and developng professionally are The tools provided to do my job are The training I receive to do my job is The supervision I receive to do my job is The manner in which my performance is evaluated is The level of recognition I receive for my work is I have meaningful input into how my program/department achieves excellence (new in 2013) My understanding of my workload expectations is My workload is: Off the scale Heavy Reasonable Light Yes I would recommend CFF as a place to work

84%

87%

3% 76%

75%

81%

2% 98% 100% 3% 90% 90% 2% 96% 93% 87% 92% 3% 94% 92% 3% 90% 92% 7% 85% 89%

97% 91% 94% 90% 91% 91% 84%

Demographics Work Full time Part time Hourly Ethnicity Caucasian African American Hispanic Asian Bi/multi racial Other Gender Female Male Number responding 5% is

98% 100% 95% 92% 96% 94% 93% 93% 94% 91% 95% 92% 93% 86% 92% 98%

98%

96%

98%

99%

8% 37% 53% 2% 98%

3% 38% 58% 2% 97%

5% 7% 1% 34% 5% 56% 3% 1% 95%

6% 27% 67% 1% 94%

6% 33% 61% 1% 92%

79% 16% 5%

77% 17% 7%

2% 69% 1% 18% 2% 13%

78% 12% 10%

86% 10% 5%

51% 39% 2% 1% 4% 3%

60% 34% 2% 0% 1% 3%

9% 56% 5% 35% 3% 1% 0% 3% 1% 6%

53% 36% 6% 0% 1% 4%

62% 28% 5% 1% 1% 3%

90% 10%

93% 8%

3% 93% 2% 7%

92% 8%

91% 10%

162 8

111 6

128 6

108 5

50%

123 6

2012 - 2013 CLIMATE SURVEY Total for Satisfactory - Very good - Excellent green = up red = down

2013 2012 Diff

2011 2010 2009