CCF: Director's Reports

Coordination of Services

· Staff attended meetings of the Foothills Child Advocacy Center, Health Department MAPP planning group, Children’s Advocacy Centers of Virginia Board, Smart Beginnings Leadership Team, Health Department/UVA Prenatal Care Planning Group, Court Users Group, and attended a focus group for ACDSS, the Adult Mental Health Task Force, meetings of City and County DSS providers interested in developing Family Group Decision Making as a planning tool for CPS cases, UVa’s Academic Engagement Course review committee, and Creciendo Juntos.

· Director made a presentation on Outcome Measurement for the Center for Non-profit Excellence.

· Director met with two residents interested in learning more about CCF and community opportunities.

· CCF will convene community partners to conduct a needs assessment and develop a proposal for the Promoting Safe and Stable Families.

· CCF agreed to convene stakeholders for a meeting with the Board of the Piedmont Supervised Visitation Center .

· The Intervention Team Leader met with the Director of Region Ten CSB and their grant writer to discuss collaborations.

· The Intervention Team Leader made a presentation on Attachment Informed Interventions at the CHIP day retreat.

· The Intervention Team Leader made a presentation on systems of care to the MACAA Head Start Advisory Committee.

· The Intervention Team Leader had conversations with 9 more community agency stakeholders about systems of care.

· CCF hosted a day of systems-of-care information and training sessions with Michael Terkeltaub. This was attended by more than 100 community agency stakeholders, public and private service providers, and families. Evaluations of the event were overwhelmingly positive.

· The Intervention Team Leader sat in on the City and County delinquency court dockets to observe and hear concerns from the Judge.

· The Intervention Team Leader and the Director participated in the interview teams for two positions at Region Ten CSB designed to serve children receiving CSA funding.

· The CASASTART Truancy Prevention Program held the second CASASTART dinner on May 22^ndat Westhaven Community Center for families in the program.

· The Prevention Team Leader attended the 2008 Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Conference in Hampton Roads on June 19^th – 20^th and the tenth anniversary of the Just Children Program on May 28^th.

· The CASASTART Case Manager attended the CASASTART Truancy Prevention Conference in Philadelphia on June 12^th.

Raising Awareness of Children and Family Issues

· Logged just over 2,807 page views on www.ccfinfo.org in May and over 2,447 page views in June. There were over 22,850 documents downloaded from the CCF website from May 5^th through June 24^th, 2008. Low-Cost or Free Summer Opportunities for Young People – Summer 2008 was the top download with 335 downloads, followed by A Guide to Youth Service Opportunities and the RFP on Services for Pregnant and Parenting Teens Application and Instructions with 307 and 245 downloads respectively.

· CCF received one media hit about the CCF Director speaking about applying for funding from the City of Charlottesville on May 21, 2008 at the Center for Nonprofit Excellence.

· Six messages were posted to the CCF Listserv since May 5 and two new members have joined the list.

Administration/Research

· CSA Committee continues to recruit up to four parent representatives to serve on the Family Assessment and Planning Team (FAPT) and Truancy Planning Team.

· CCF staff reorganization is complete. Maryfrances Porter is the Intervention Team Leader and is responsible for leading CCF’s effort to improve the quality and efficiency of intervention services, including implementation of a comprehensive system of care. Rory Carpenter is the Prevention Team leader and is responsible for leading CCF’s work to enhance and coordinate community prevention activities

· Kim Johnson has been hired as the Family Assessment and Planning Team Coordinator/Administrative Assistant. She started at CCF on June 3.

· Linda Rahman has assumed new responsibilities as CCF’s Information/Outreach-Volunteer Coordinator. She is in charge of CCF’s website, graphic design, press releases, etc.

· Ann Emery and Rebecca Sayre, former CCF interns and recent UVA graduates, have been hired to job-share coordination of the Youth Development Network through the summer.

· Interviews for the CSA Utilization Review Manager, a Region Ten position housed at CCF, were conducted on June 18.

· The CSA evaluation of processes, structures, and operations in underway (with the assistance of UVa collaborators). The CHINS evaluation has been folded into this work.

· Staff met with Albemarle County Budget Office staff to reconcile financials.

· CCF welcomes a student volunteer from the Virginia Institute for Autism, who will be helping with custodial and clerical tasks.

· CCF welcomes David Szwedo and Jennifer O’Neil, graduate students in psychology, as summer interns.

Work Groups

· Agency Budget Review Team – CCF issued a Request for Proposals on behalf of the City, County, and United Way for a program for pregnant and parenting teens. Three proposals were received, and CCF convened a team to review the applications. CCF also convened a team to review contingency reports received from 3 agencies.

· Youth Development Network – The Action Plan group met and drafted an initial action plan to address the youth development service-oriented priority area. The YDN Steering Committee met on May 5^th and June 2^nd.

· Comprehensive Services Act Committee – (1) Staff prepared and submitted a report comparing the local spectrum of services to the Hampton array for the City Manager’s Office and obtained benchmarking information for the County Executive ’s Office. (2) The CSA Committee identified a child to pilot through systems-of-care-informed care coordination and innovative service planning. A care coordinator has been identified, and a “facilitation team” of CSA members has been convened to facilitate this work. (3) As noted above, the CSA Process Improvement Team continues to facilitate the evaluation of the CSA processes, structures, and operations. They are in the very final stages of data collection and are beginning data analysis. (4) A group continues to meet to problem solve the processes, structures, and service capacity needed to support the new Assessment and Diagnostic Services being developed at Region Ten CSB.

· Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee – The JJAC met on May 8^th to update the Juvenile Justice Comprehensive Plan Objectives.

· Partnership for Children– The Partnership for Children heard an update from the Infant Development Project (IDP) of the Arc of the Piedmont . Thanks to funds from the Smart Beginnings Grant, IDP is partnering with Pediatrics Associates, UVa Primary Care Pediatricians, and Child Care Centers (who are involved in the Seal of Quality Child Care) to work on universal access to developmental assessments. As a result of this partnership, 16-17% of children screened are being referred to intervention or special education services, which is consistent with national statistical expectations. Additionally, Partners approved the first level three Seal of Quality Child Care Awards for Congregation Beth Israel and First Baptist Child Development Center . In the first year of the Smart Beginnings Grant, we were able to provide incentive mini-grants to Child Care Centers who are involved in the Seal of Quality Child Care; more than 1,000 children were served by these efforts! In June, Partners voted for this year’s new Executive Committee members and the new officers will begin their term in July. And finally, the Partnership for Children used the services of a local consultant to get feedback on how the collaborative could improve its effectiveness.

· Human Services Strategic Plan- As noted above, action plan work groups were convened, and the Steering Committee awaits draft action plans addressing the two service-oriented priority areas of youth services and early child care and education.

· Funding Application Advisory Team – A final proposal for revisions will be submitted to the City Manager’s and County Executive ’s Offices in June.

· Community University Research and Service Partnership - CCF and UVa’s Office of University Community Partnerships held an end of the year planning lunch. A small group will meet over the summer to develop a work plan and structure for moving forward and completing their report. CCF and the UCP office have had a paper accepted to a nation conference on university-community partnerships in October 2008.

· Substance Abuse Prevention- The Prevention Team Leader coordinated the ABC Community Coalition grant application for $10,000 to conduct a Be There Campaign focused on parent-child communication to prevent underage drinking.

· Systems of Care Leadership Team – Developed two subgroups: (1) to support the development of a local chapter of the Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health, and (2) to develop a survey of family customers in our system to informed system changes. Both groups have met. An application has been made for a Federation chapter, and a draft survey has been developed (and is expected to be administered this summer and in early fall).

Status of CCF Grants:

1. Current grants

· Functional Family Therapy- $100,000 awarded for second year; renewable for three additional years, up to 75% of the initial award in the third year, up to 50% of the initial award in the fourth year, and up to 25% of the initial award in the fifth year. Provides training and purchase of services for evidence-based treatment for high risk youth and families. The third year renewal grant application was submitted to DCJS in February.

· Foothills Child Advocacy Center- A renewal proposal for $80,000 was submitted to the Virginia Department of Health and Human Services . Foothills received funding from the United Way and a Women United in Philanthropy request is pending.

· Governor’s Gang Prevention Grant- One year grants totaling $23,334 ($11,667 – City, $11,667 – County) to prevent gang involvement by engaging at-risk youth in the Teens Give service-learning program. Community Attention in partnership with CCF received a second year of funding in January 2008.

· Smart Beginnings: Smart Beginnings Grant proposal was awarded to the Partnership for Children with the United Way as fiscal agent- $400,000 grant to be distributed over 2 years for the purpose of expanding and improving service provision to the local early childhood system with a focus on early childhood and school readiness. The Partnership for Children was the only partnership in the state to receive Infant and Toddler funds in the amount of $59,000 from the Virginia Early Childhood Foundation (VECF). The funds have been used to enhance quality child care through the Seal of Quality Child Care, increase early developmental screenings, and to increase family engagement, outreach and education.

· DCJS Truancy Case Manager- Formal notification that CCF was awarded $65,000 for a Truancy Case Manager submitted to be piloted in two or more elementary schools as decided by the School Superintendents. The position has been advertised and hired. Kim Stanton began work on October 22^nd. A two-day CASASTART Case Management Training was held on November 7^th and 8^th. The Truancy Case Manager has begun working with 10 families from Burnley-Moran Elementary School in Charlottesville and Greer Elementary School in Albemarle County . The second year renewal grant application was submitted to DCJS in February.

2. Pending grants

· Safe Schools/Healthy Students Notification has been postponed until early July.

· Virginia ABC Community Coalition Grant. The Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition submitted a proposal to implement the “Be There” parental involvement campaign.

· Promoting Safe and Stable Families. CCF is convening a group to conduct a needs assessment and plan for submission in September.