| Minutes
Butler Collaborative for Families
May 13, 2010
- Meeting called to order by Susan Murray at 9:35am.
- Mission of BCF read by Bill Halle
- Motion to approve April minutes made by Erin Schmidhamer, seconded by Leslie Johnson. Approved
- Presentation by Charlie Johns, CYS Assistant Director. Charlie focused on recent changes made to Children and Youth Services, especially focusing on behavior and truancy issues.
- In the past CYS had a Behavior Unit where a case could have been opened for any number of reasons, including truancy, not doing chores, breaking behavior contract, etc. Most of these cases were never referred to any other agencies, CYS was the sole provider. This system was not family centered and very child punitive. The typical cycle was to place the child, return the child home, family goes through a honeymoon period, then child placed again. Sometimes this cycle would occur until the child’s 18th birthday. At this time they opened about 12 cases per month.
- In 2009, the Behavior Department was eliminated as a result of many changes that have occurred on the State and County level.
- State mandates now that Counties do a Safety Assessment. Without a safety factor, the belief is that a child does not need to be placed. State has threatened to cut funding to counties for placing when no safety risk.
- State mandate also to reduce placements by 20%. Butler County has come close by prioritizing who is getting placed. A lot of the teens have fallen out of this category.
- It is important to remember that CYS is a serious government intervention and it is very intrusive so they must prioritize the cases they open.
- Butler County is focusing heavily on permanency initiatives.
- Butler County has far fewer case workers than other counties of similar size. Forces them to triage more than they might even like to. Director, Joyce Ainsworth, is trying to address this issue, but it will not be an overnight change. Due to staff size they are forced to stream line.
- There is still a fear of future funding cuts
- Charlie explained that they were not as effective as they would have liked to be in communicating this change to the community. During summer of 2009, he did send letters to each school district. The intention was to eliminate the department but continue to provide the services. It seems that this was miscommunicated, even within their own agency and this was not happening. The issue was reported to Charlie in February 2010 so they have begun to look at this more closely. Changes were made to intake unit in last month. Charlie now supervises directly. He will also have more effective communication with them now. They will be able to pinpoint and correct issues more quickly. Will not have a deadline for truancy reports as there was in the past.
- The agency has gone through additional reorganization- prior there were 5 units addressing different areas of service. Continual transfer of cases was a problem for the case workers and especially for the families. There were also huge differences in case loads about caseworkers.
- The current structure was implemented in April 2009- 2 intake and assessment units, 3 ongoing units. This has resulted in many benefits- Time from detention to permanency has greatly improved and families no longer get multiple case workers. The primary cost of these changes is the learning curve. Also, intake workers are taking behavior and truancy cases, which they are not used to
- Charlie then focused on addressing some of the myths he has heard regarding CYS.
- Myth: Child has to be truant X number of days before CYS will get involved. The fact is that each situation is evaluated on a case by case basis. They look at days missed, child’s age, and safety factors when determining if a case should be opened.
- Myth: CYS has to report all events of the case to the school or reporting source. The fact is they are only required to allow reporting source know the results of an abuse case. They do typically go beyond this but can only do so much.
- Myth: CYS no longer opens cases with behavior issues. The fact is they can not open the case if the situation/behavior is causing minor issues within family. They do when they are putting themselves and/or family at risk and CYS is the provider of last resort.
- There is a committee to create a countywide truancy policy under the direction of the President Judge. Continue to work on expanding the existing truancy intervention program and will look into other effective interventions. The suggestion was made to include parenting component to truancy programs.
- Collaboration with CCR has been extremely effective. Very pleased with the working relationship. Been effective in diverting families from the CYS system. Also, Student Assistance Programs have helped intervene in many cases. CCR is currently working with CYS to expand Family Group Decision Making which should also help.
- Charlie asked that agencies please continue to provide him with feedback about their services by calling or emailing cjohns@co.butler.pa.us or Charlie.johns@zoominternet.net
- The comment was made that the major is issue is that community alternatives to address behavior issues not currently addressed by CYS do not exist at this time.
- The comment was made that it seems that teens are not really served by CYS anymore, it is just for younger children. Charlie explained that the primary mandate is abuse and neglect and this affects younger children at a higher rate than teens.
- Shared case responsibility mandate from Department of Public Welfare among JPO and CYS. The comment was made that JPO and CYS do have a very good relationship which is very beneficial to the families and the community
- The comment was made that we need to ask the kids what they think would have helped them. The Youth Committee often brings up the need for mentors.
- The comment was made that it is still important to contact CYS with information because it might be a family who others have already reported on and more information might be what CYS needs.
- Jean Garrett, Legislative Aide for Representative Brian Ellis, spoke about the 5th Annual Community Night that will be held on August 19 from 4pm to 8pm at Butler Farm Show Grounds. Agencies are encouraged to participate to do outreach to the community.
- Mini-grants- 5 mini-grant applications were received. BCF Executive committee will vote on these at their next meeting.
- Subcommittee changes
- Strategic Planning Committee eliminated and duties will be assumed by Executive Committee.
- Communications Committee eliminated and duties will be assumed by the Coordinator.
- Family Advisory Committee has been added.
- Youth Advisory Committee has been added.
- Substance Abuse Community Task Force has been added.
- Family Development Credentialing Trainers has been added.
- Opened for discussion. No discussion. We will have vote at the next meeting.
- Foundation Center website
- Sally Beatty uses this site to find resources.
- Brought to the attention of the BCF that there are several other ways to access at no cost.
- Question was asked if anybody has been using this. Nobody responded. The question was posed to the group whether or not we should get rid of our membership in order to save money. This was opened for discussion. No comments. Motion to eliminate subscription was made by Amanda Feltenberger. All in favor.
- Committee reports
- Budget and Finance- Account balance at the end of March was $13,475. A training request form has been developed to be used when somebody is requesting the BCF to sponsor a training.
- Community Wellness- Will be attending a lot of upcoming events. They will be ordering brochures and a banner. They would like to order t-shirts but need to find a sponsor- the cost would be about $250. Next month Chris Taylor will be presenting the updated website.
- Resource and Development- Two trainings being planned- Domestic Violence will be held on June 29 done by VOICe, June 24 Cathy Clover will be presenting on Sexual Offenders. The Intro to Human Services Training will be held on May 18. Looking at doing an Ethics Training sometime in June then there will be a break in trainings for the summer. Leslie asked that people please only RSVP by completing the form and faxing it back. She asked that people do not call because she does not have the time to return all the calls. If you don’t hear from her when you a fax a form, you are in.
- Family Advisory Committee- Met April 26 and reviewed the Network of Care website.
- Youth Advisory Committee- The Youth Advisory Committee participated in the Adolescent Ad-hoc Committee which went very well. The next meeting of the Ad-hoc Committee will be held on May 27 from 12pm to 2pm at Grace Youth and Family Foundation. Lunch will be provided so we are asking that people please RSVP by Tuesday, May 25.
- Integrated Children’s Services- The subcommittee has been focusing on getting ready for the Intro to Human Services Training that will be held on May 18.
- Substance Abuse- Have the 10 partners they needed to get started with Butler First Step. The site should be ready to use mid-summer.
- Agency Updates
- Housing Authority distributed invitations to the 16th Annual Scholarship Luncheon to be held on June 10 from 12pm to 2pm. The cost is $25 per person and the proceeds benefit the BCHA Scholarship Fund.
- Pullman Park is hiring for part-time positions during the baseball season. Applicants must be 16 years old.
- CCIS waiting list is very short so this is a good time to apply.
- Sign-ups for Butler Lil Tornadoes will be held on May 22.
- Student Assistance Program collaborates with Kids Count to provide programs at the local parks, including Broad St., Center Ave, Institute Hill, and Christie Ave., during the summer. They were able to distribute flyers at Broad St and Center Ave Elem Schools.
- Training for Family Group Decision Making facilitators will be held at the end of June. More information will be distributed shortly.
- Updating the BCF website will begin in June.
- Kudos
- Kudos were given to Susan Murray for doing a great job as our Facilitator!
- Thank you from Julie Thumma to those who participated in the Week of the Young Child events.
- Resource and Development Committee thanked Caroline Liptak for setting up the training with Cathy Clover.
- Rick Eagle thanked the group for developing the Adolescent Ad Hoc Committee. Erin added that the amount of people and level of involvement in the committee was impressive.
- For the Good of the Order
- Celebration of Collaboration will be held in July. More information will be distributed shortly.
- Our next meeting will be held on June 10 at 9:30am at Monarch Place.
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