July 2012 Staff Newsletter

July 2012

The L.I.N.K. A Letter from Leslie...

This has been a great few weeks for Children & Families First. We are seeing tremendous growth in so many areas!!

We were selected by the Division of Prevention and Behavioral Health for two new contracts:

• Expansion of our day treatment program in Seaford House. We will be able

to accept up to four new youth, taking our capacity from a total of 18 for day

treatment and residential to 22.

• Initiation of Intensive Outpatient services, known as IOP, in Kent and Sussex

Counties. We will use a model that includes a Functional Family Therapist

whose client will be the family, an individual therapist who will treat the youth

individually and in group, and a therapist assistant who will provide case man

agement, transportation and social/recreation experiences for the youth. Each county will have a team

that will be supported by psychiatric services. The program seeks to decrease higher level placements

such as hospitalization or residential care. This service will build our continuum of services for youth

with a mental health diagnosis.

CFF was also selected by the Division of Public Health to provide Healthy Families America to pregnant women that have a health problem, either mental health or physical health, in all three counties. We will have two teams that include a nurse supervisor, two nurses, two social workers (one MSW and one bilingual) and a part time administrative assistant. These teams will be part of the Smart Start program, associated with DPH. This will further build our continuum of evidence-based home visiting programs. We will continue to implement the Nurse-Family Partnership program for first-time, low income women who are no more than 28 weeks pregnant. In fact, we are adding two nurses, a part-time administrative assistant and a Kent/Sussex nurse supervisor who will also see clients. Finally, our Resource Mothers program is now transitioning to the Healthy Families America program, except they will focus on women who present with psychosocial issues rather than health.

CFF received a grant from the Laffey McHugh Foundation to implement the Family Finding program which helps connect youth who are in the foster care system with family members or adults with whom they have had a meaningful relationship. The goal is increased permanency at best, or at least connections that will enhance the lives of youth.

We are working with the Division of Family Services to plan program implementation.

Further good news involves two of our traditional funding sources. We had budgeted a 15% decrease in United Way funds; however, our allocation was only a 1% decrease. This means we will be able to provide more Strengthening Families Program, ARC medical service, Functional Family Therapy and Resource Mothers/Healthy Families America than we originally planned for. And our Grant in Aid actually increased by about 2%!!! Again, we had budgeted a decrease, but the increase means increased services in FFT, ARC education, Resource Mothers/HFA, Adoption Support, case management, Strengthening Families Program and child care information and referral. All of this is great news and reflects the high quality of services provided by our staff! With all these funding increases we are adding more than 16 new positions. That will certainly help the DE economy!!!

We have been watching a variety of bills in the Delaware Legislature. The update can be found on the following page...

Legislative Update • • • • • • • • •

•

HB 289 PASSED limiting the number of payday loans and mandating a tracking system SB 234 PASSED refining definition of abuse and neglect HB241, mandating 150 minutes of physical exercise each week, did not get out of committee JHR 18 PASSED committing the Kid’s Dept. to study expanding foster care to age 21 HB268 PASSED requiring districts to report all incidents of bullying SB 193 PASSED mandating development of policy on cyber-bullying HB 317 PASSED establishing statewide kindergarten readiness tool SB 135, allowing school-based health centers to bill insurance companies, did not get out of committee HB 224, clarifying role of Office of Child Care Licensing to eliminate moral and educational, did not get out of committee HB225, changing nutritional standards in child care licensing for food brought from homes, did not get out of committee

How Are We Doing?

We want our consumers to let us know “How are we doing?”

Following a short pilot at 2005, we are now preparing to roll out a “point of service” consumer survey on a statewide basis. Service staff will be asked to give a large postcard to consumers at every contact - in the office, home visits, ARC clinics.

The card will ask consumers to rate staff friendliness, helpfulness and professionalism as well as the overall encounter.

Results will be tabulated and shared on a regular basis. The only programs not participating at this time are ARC Education, Seaford House, and East Side Community Schools.

A sample “How Are We Doing?” card. Site specific cards will roll out to each location.

A Few Words from Finance and IT...

To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.

Winston Churchill Maybe we are not perfect, but we have been changing. Over the last few months we have restructured both the Finance and IT departments.

In the Finance department, we sang “It’s a Small World for Rose” as we wished her bon voyage into retirement. If you would like a copy of the lyrics or to have a private performance, please contact Donna Moller. In addition to Rose retiring, Charles Aruviereh graduated and found full-time employment as a bookkeeper/payroll specialist with the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. While having to say our goodbyes was difficult, positive changes are happening in the Finance department. Jean Forlano was hired as the Finance Coordinator, and we are thrilled to have her experience and knowledge added to the team. In addition, Donna Moller has been promoted to Finance Director. Her new role will include the added responsibilities of the daily management of the Finance Department. There is a lot of excitement in the department and we believe that we will operate more efficiently than ever.

In the IT department, we welcomed Rick Dougherty and the new skills he brings to the department. Rick has quickly assumed many of the high-level network/server tasks previously provided by outside consultants. By having these skills in-house, CFF will significantly reduce our reliance on costly outside consultants. Additionally, Rhonda Adcox is in the process of assuming more responsibility for the organization’s website and other collaboration technologies such as SharePoint.

In addition to staff changes, the IT department will also be upgrading existing technologies and implementing new technologies to ensure you have the tools you need to help our clients. In the coming months, CFF will be upgrading servers, reviewing and expanding the information backed-up to the cloud, implementing a new email service that will save thousands of dollars, and rolling out a new user-friendly client management software called Efforts to Outcomes to replace Evolv.

If you have any suggestions on how we can improve either IT or Financial support, please let me know. We are striving to be perfect and ready to change.

Thanks, Kevin

It’s hard to “face” life at CFF without Rose!

Program Spotlight Your responses to the LINK survey indicated that you were interested in receiving updates on CFF programs.

In this issue, we will focus on the Strengthening Families Program.

Strengthening Families The Strengthening Families Program (SFP) provides parents and their children, ages birth to 16, with family skills. All children are at risk for one reason or the other, but children growing up in middle class and poor families are at greater risk for juvenile delinquency, truancy, dropping out of school, early sexual experimentation, teen pregnancy, drug and alcohol abuse, domestic violence, and mental illness. Learning and using family skills provides families with protection against risk factors mentioned above. Wadine Toliaferro, Program Manager for SFP says, “I think of family skills in the same way I think of an inoculation to prevent measles or small pox.”

SFP targets ALL families because all families can use help, even parents that might be considered “well off.” These parents still need to learn things like setting boundaries with their children and rewarding their children for positive behavior, instead of rewarding just because they can. To refer to the program simply call our Resource Helpline at 800-734-2388. Callers will be asked questions about the family and what their needs are.

“Watching families grow, heal and function better is just the greatest thing since sliced bread,” says Wadine, “Recently, we began working with a young woman that has had difficulty getting her child back into her care. There are such hard feelings between this mother and her child’s grandmothers, paternal and maternal. The child lives with one of the grandmothers. The mom is young and angry that both grandmothers seem to want to take her child from her. The state would not even allow the child to attend Strengthening Families sessions. Not only did we provide family skills to this young mother, we provided support around moving into a residential program for parents with young children.

We provided observation and coaching around her attitude. This mother went to court last week and won the right to have weekly visits in addition to attend the SFP with her child.”

Not only does Wadine like to brag about her program, she loves to brag about her outcomes! “In 2010, Delaware’s Strengthening Families Program surpassed outcomes for all states. An effect size measures the effectiveness of programs. A large effect size is .99, we had some effect sizes that were as high as 4.78.”

Talk about the greatest thing since sliced bread!

CFF’s Strengthening Families Program provides parents and children with family skills.

Join us on October 19th, 2012 for our third annual

A Taste for Art of Southern Delaware at the beautiful Clubhouse at Baywood Greens in Long Neck, Delaware Our signature event offers a unique creative arts & culinary experience! Guests will mingle among the featured works of area artisans, available for purchase, while sampling creative dishes prepared by top gourmet restaurants from southern Delaware.

25% of sales benefit Children & Families First Get a jump on your Holiday shopping!

ArTiSTS* Pam Bounds-Seemans Kevin Fleming | Laura Jednorski James Kinnett | Bert Long Heidi Lowe | Brian Marshall Libby Zando

reSTAurAnTS* Baywoods | Bethany Blues Cake Break | The Cultured Pearl Fish On! | Luca 1776 Steakhouse | Striper Bites * Participating artists and restaurants as of 6/11/2012

Open bar; Live music; i-Pad raffle; $55 per person, $100 per couple Contact Marcie urgo for more information: 302-604-6277, marcie.urgo@cffde.org | www.cffde.org