HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES - 05221990 - 1.78 0 78
To: BOARD OF SUPERVISORS Contra
L
FROM: Phil Batchelor Costa
DATE: .........May 22, 1990 SrA `
SUBJECT: Advisory Board Summary Minutes
SPECIFIC REQUEST(S)OR RECOMMENDATION(S)&BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION
RECOMMENDATION
Accept summary minutes of advisory boards and commissions for the
period January 1 , 1990 through April 31 , 1990.
BACKGROUND
In order to be more informed of the needs of the community and to
be more aware of the activities of its advisory boards and
commissions, the Board of Supervisors on January 23 , 1990 requested
that the Board be provided with a synopsis of minutes every four
months. The attached summaries cover the period January 1 , 1990
through April 31 , 1990.
i
CONTINUED ON ATTACHMENT: x YES SIGNATURE:
RECOMMENDATION OF COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD COMMITTEE
APPROVE OTHER
SIGNATURES):
ACTION OF BOARD ON May 22, 1990 APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED X OTHER
VOTE OF SUPERVISORS
I HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THIS IS A TRUE
X UNANIMOUS(ABSENT AND CORRECT COPY OF AN ACTION TAKEN
AYES: NOES: AND ENTERED ON THE MINUTES OF THE BOARD
ABSENT: ABSTAIN: OF SUPERVISORS ON THE DATE SHOWN.
CC: County Administrator ATTESTED 9), ave /990
PHIL BATCHEL R,CLERK OF THE BOARD OF
SUPERVISORS AND COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR
M382 (10/88) BY �`� ,DEPUTY
l 7 ?
s L CONTRA COSTA COUNTY
DRUG ABUSE ADVISORY BOARD RECEIVED
• __ 595 CENTER AVENUE,SUITE 200
_ - MARTINEZ, CALIFORNIA 94553 MAY 16 1990
O� riilli4�$ �;z I Phone(415)646-4910
4 PHIL BATCHELOR
CLERK BOARD OF SLiPc'RVISORS
Co s ............. . ...... Deputy
TA CO.
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To: Jeanne Maglio Date: May 14 , 1990
Clerk of the Board
From: Chuck Deutschman Subject: Summary of Minutes
Drug Program Chief For the Drug Abuse
Advisory Board
■ The Board of Supervisors has requested that Assemblyman
Baker pursue legislation to merge the Alcoholism and Drug
Abuse Advisory Boards . The Drug Abuse Advisory Board has
been supportive of efforts to merge services and
administration when appropriate. The Drug Abuse Advisory
Board has taken an official position of support regarding
the merging of the two boards .
■ The debate surrounding the pros and cons for the
legalization of drugs remains a controversial topic . The
DAAB has discussed this item and has officially voted
against legalization primarily because it sends the wrong
message to society regarding the use of dangerous
substances such as crack cocaine.
■ On alternate months, the DRAB devotes a large portion of
its meeting time to educating board members about
particular topics germane to the prevention,
intervention, and treatment of drug abuse problems . The
topics addressed over the past year have been adolescent
treatment, AIDS/ARC, perinatal substance abuse, and Crack
Cocaine.
■ The chair of the DAAB has continued to work with various
private funding sources to gain commitments for better
public/private partnerships . At this time, it appears
likely that Bedford Properties may contribute up to
$100,000 for drug abuse prevention programs .
■ Discussion has consistently revolved around the status
of the alcohol tax initiative. DRAB members have been
very supportive in insuring that this initiative passes .
The DAAB has also reviewed RCA 38 and the serious
limitations should this pass with all funds being
directed to the State coffers .
A352 (6/88)
Drug Abuse Advisory Board Minutes Summary
May 14, 1990
page 2
■ The DAAB has added "alternates" to the board. It was the
opinion of the Board that with the tremendous groundswell
of interest in drug abuse issues and the DAAB, that it
was important to open the board up to greater
participation.
■ Considerable discussion has occurred regarding the crush
of legislative bills which address the drug crisis . Mr.
Van Marter has been most helpful in forwarding this
information to the chair and to me.
■ The DAAB has taken a particular interest in the role that
media can play in preventing the use/abuse of drugs . The
Board plans on developing strategies to better utilize
this powerful resource.
■ The DAAB developed and finalized a mission statement and
goals . These goals will be reviewed and updated on an
annual basis .
Numerous other business items were reviewed and discussed by the
DAAB. Some of these items were :
■ Drug-free school zones,
■ SB' 2599 planning process,
■ AB 1983--OCJP review process ,
■ Countywide Action Plan process,
■ Policy regarding the serving of alcohol at fundraisers
by drug/alcohol providers,
■ Review of various federal and state competitive grant
applications,
■ Review of the County budgeting process and how the DRAB
can be involved in this process,
■ HSAC requests for input.
Should you have further questions regarding this information,
please contact me at 646-1087 .
cc: Mark Finucane
Stuart` McCullough
Bill Kolin
CONTRA COSTA COUNTY
OFFICE ON AGING
T0: Scott Tandy, Chief DATE: May 7, 1990
County Administrator
FROM: Jack Bartlett, Staff Assistant cC:
Office on Aging
SUBJECT: Adult Day Health Care Council Quarterly. Report
Attached to this memo is a synopsis of Adult Day Health Care
Council monthly meeting activities that has been revised to
include the ,four-month period, January-April, 1990.
Should you haye' any questions about this report, please contact
me at 646-5233 .
JB/kg
Enclosure
IBM1 A7 ADHCQR.doc
GEN 8b -.(Rev. 1/77)
ADULT DAY HEALTH CARE (ADHC) COUNCIL
SYNOPSIS OF MINUTES
January- March 1990
January
- Appealed (unsuccessfully) rejection of AIDS Day Care
proposal from Mt. Diablo Rehabilitation Center by
California Department of Aging
- Proposed Area Agency on Aging .purchase membership in
California Association of Adult Day Services (CAADS)
- Reviewed but did not act on proposed state legislative
bills on ADHC.
February
- Reviewed and reinforced stand on three state legislative
bills on Adult Day Care
- Welcomed two new members (Beverly O'Halloran and Louis
Edmunds) of ADHC Council and one prospective new member.
- Made plans for joint meeting with members of Adult Day
Care Consortium in March.
March
Welcomed Frances Greene of Pittsburg Preschool
Coordinating Council as a new member.
Approved letter supporting and suggesting changes in
AB910.
Encouraged members to attend Long Term Care workshop at
John Muir Medical Center on May 2 .
Discussed needs of Adult Day Care programs with Adult Day
Care directors.
Sent letter to Antioch Daily Ledger extolling its
excellent feature article on the burdens of caregivers of
the elderly.
April
- Welcomed Linda Blake, Exec. Director of Independent
Living Resource, as new member in category of functionally
impaired adult between ages 17 and 55.
- Reviewed but took no action on four legislative bills
concerned with ADHC/ADC.
- Made preliminary plans for joint meeting in May with
Adult Day Care Consortium.
IBM1 A7 ADHCSYN.doc
s� cCONTRA COSTA COUNTY ^�3 -�-� ,
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.;-- -- ALCOHOLISM ADVISORY BOARD `
595 CENTER AVENUE,SUITE 200 MAY J 1990
_ - MARTINEZ, CALIFORNIA 94553
� Phone(415)646-4910 OP
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To: Jeanne Maglio Date: May 9, 1990
Clerk of the Board
From: Je a, Chief Subject: Alcoholism
Alc 1 P ograms Advisory Board
Summary
Over the past year, the Contra Costa County Alcoholism Advisory
Board has:
-- taken the lead role in organizing community volunteers to
gather signatures for the Alcohol Tax Initiative. This
was very time consuming over many months and was highly
successful as,we surpassed all the neighboring counties.
-- organized, planned, and staffed a booth at the Walnut
Festival to provide alcohol education and information.
This is an ongoing annual event.
-- worked with administration in developing funds for seed
. money for a youth residential facility.
-- worked with administration to obtain Community Block
Grant to purchase the Rectory (West County Women' s
Program) .
-- supported administration in establishing a women' s
program at East County Detox.
-- participated in planning, organizing and implementing the
highly successful Alcohol Summit I.
-- participated in the regional mini-summits.
-- participated in Alcohol and Drug Summit II .
-- participated in the development of the countywide Alcohol
and Drug Action Plan.
-- participated in the development of the Alcohol Program
Plan and Budget.
-- participated in certifications of various Alcohol
Programs.
-- recruited and recommended new advisory board members.
-- requested Senator Boatwright to author SB 485 which
provides low-interest loans for purchasing property,
buildings, etc. , for substance abuse programs.
-- reviewed and gave input on treatment for first offenders
DUI programs, expanded by SB 1344.
-- opposed ACA 38.
-- studied AB 3383 (Baker) and did not take a position of
support.
-- given numerous presentations to community groups
regarding alcohol issues.
cc: Stuart McCullough
A353 (6/88)
Contra Costa County
RECEIVED
MAY 151990 CONTRA COSTA COUNTY
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT
Offic- of
County Administrator
TO: Scott Tandy, Chief DATE: May 14, 1990
County Administrator
FROM: Mary Fleming
Chief of Land Development
SUBJECT: Agricultural Resources Advisory Committee
There have been no meetings of the Agricultural Resources Advisory Committee in
recent months. The purpose of the Committee is to respond to requests for
recommendations from the Board of Supervisors and to advise them on issues
relating to agricultural concerns. No such requests have been made by the Board
recently.
MF/df
Ll:agric.mem
ADVISORY C&dMITTEE ON THE EMPL ENT
C
AND ENOMIC STATUS OF WOMEN
2425 Bisso Lane, Suite 100
Concord. CA 94520
(415) 646-5391
TO women's Advisory Committee DATE January 29, 1990
and Interested Parties
FROM Barbara Al Jensen, Staff
ACEESW
SUBJECT SUMMARY MINUTES - JANUARY 16, 1990 MEETING
CHAIR'S REPORT:
Lee Finney reported that she had accepted a job with Industrial Employers Distributors
Association (IEDA), a labor relations and management consultant firm, located in Emeryville.
As the out-going Chair, Lee reviewed some of the projects/agenda items she and the
ACEESW had worked on during the past three years of her chairmanship i.e. developed
more credibility with the-Board and public, worked on the GAIN Program, held a public
hearing on women, family and the workplace, helped to initiate an annual Women's Day
Program for Contra Costa County, obtained permanent status, developed a women's agenda,
initiated the Women's Agenda Coalition, worked on VDT safety. She expressed appreciation
to the ACEESW for its support over the past three years and commended the membership
for the projects and activities it has undertaken.
Lee suggested that the new ACEESW Chair may want to communicate to the CAO that the
ACEESW would like to participate in this year's Women's Day Program scheduled in March.
She suggested that, during the forthcoming year, the ACEESW. may want to review its
internal structure, how the ACEESW might improve the way it functions, and how the
membership should develop itself as it takes on various issues.
ELECTION OF OFFICERS:
Wanda Harris and Donna Dell were unanimously elected to serve as the 1990 ACEESW chair
and vice-chair respectively.
AFFIRMATIVE ACTION AD HOC COMMITTEE:
The quarterly affirmative action (AA) report was presented to the Board's Internal
Operations Committee (IOC) on 1/8/90 by the County's Affirmative Action Officer; -it was
published in the new format. The AA statistics reflect that of the 104 job categories in the
County, fewer than half of the job categories include minority or.women representation in
terms of their workforce population. The IOC requested the Chief Assistant County
Administrator, County Counsel and Director of Personnel to meet with the Ad Hoc Committee
to discuss and .review changes the ACEESW would like to see the Board make in the
County's Affirmative Action Plan. :The IOC also requested that the AA report be published
semi-annually.
VDT AD HOC COMMITTEE REPORT
The Chair appointed Diana Doughtie, as the ACEESW's representative, at all future VDT
meetings. Other members interested in VDT safety were encouraged.to contact Diana.
Co-sponsored by the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors and
the Private Industry Council of Contra Costa County
"t
p
REPORT ON WOMEN IN CONSTRUCTION PROJECT
Meetings are being set up with various organizations to obtain support for the Women in
Construction Project.
UPDATE ON CONTRA COSTA & ALAMEDA COUNTIES COALITION TO PROTECT WOMEN'S
RIGHTS TO REPRODUCTIVE CHOICE
The Winter 1990 edition of "ISSUES," the Contra Costa and Alameda Counties Coalition for
Reproductive Choice newsletter was distributed. A group of supporters will be at the
anniversary rally of Roe v. Wade, scheduled January 22, noon to 1 p.m. , on the west steps
of the Capitol Building, Sacramento.
QUARTERLY REVIEW OF MEMBERSHIP ATTENDANCE
The ACEESW reviewed the quarterly membership attendance report. Staff was requested
to send a letter to the youth representative to ascertain her continued membership on the
ACEESW.
ENDORSE REAPPOINTMENTS TO ACEESW
The reappointmentof members, whose terms expire 2128190, were endorsed by the ACEESW;
the 'IOC will review the reappointments at its 21.12/90 meeting, scheduled for 11:00 a.m.
The ACEESW discussed the interview process used for interviewing new members. In the
future, staff will to send a letter to applicants inviting and encouraging,them to attend .
ACCESW meetings and that a member of the Membership Review Committee will contact them `
to set up a face to face interview.
REVIEW AND SELECT NOMINEE FOR RECOGNITION BY THE STATE COMMISSION ON THE
STATUS OF WOMEN
Anne McLaurin was selected as the honoree for the "Cavalcade of Women" event, hosted by
the State Commission on the Status of Women, scheduled Thursday, March 1, in Sacramento.
CONSIDER LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT TRAINING
The ACEESW reviewed and approved a proposal for a weekend retreat for leadership
development training, scheduled 2/23190-2/25/90 at the Willows. Wanda Harris, Donna Dell,
Sara Tuttle and Diane Campbell will work 'on the agenda/program to conduct strategic
planning and leadership development for members attending the retreat.
OTHER BUSINESS:
Chizu
USINESS-
Chizu Iiyama encouragedmembers to see the "Strength and Diversity: Japanese American
Women" exhibit at-the Oakland Museum from 2/17/90-5/13/90, sponsored by the National
Japanese American Historical Society and the Oakland Museum. A panel discussion, "A Day
of Remembrance: Japanese American Women's Stories of Life in World War II Detention
Camps," will be held on Saturday, February 24th 2 - 4 p.m. Admission is free. Additional
information can be obtained by calling Rosalyn Tonal at 431-5007.
.NOTE: THE PRECEDING IS SUMMARY INFORMATION ONLY; THE COMPLETE MINUTES
WILL BE DISTRIBUTED AT THE 1/16/90 MEETING. THOSE DESIRING A COPY PRIOR TO
THE MEETING, PLEASE CALL BARBARA JENSEN AT 646-5391.
ADVISORY VAUMITTEE ON THE EMP YUENT
AND ECONOMIC STATUS OF WN
J U5 Disso Lane, Suite 100
Zbnoord, CA x4520
(415) 646.5391
Women's Advisory Committee VATkMarch 1, 1990
and Interested Parties
FROM Barbara A. Jensen, Staff
ACEESW
SUBJECT SUMMARY MINUTES - FEBRUARY 20, 1990 MEETING
REPORT ON WOMEN IN CONSTRUCTION PROJECT:
A meeting is being set up with the ABC Merit Shop, a group of non-union contractors, to
discuss and request endorsement of the Women in Construction Project. The Women in
Construction Project is under the umbrella of the Unemployment Resources Task Force
Subcommittee on Women.
UPDATE ON. CONTRA COSTA & ALAMEDA COUNTIES COALITION TO PROTECT WOMEN'S
RIGHT TO REPRODUCTIVE CHOICE:
A specihl Delegates' Committee meeting is scheduled for March 29th, 7:00 p.m. , at the
Contra Costa Water District Building. The agenda includes: coordination of events,
sharing information about various pro-choice activities, and developing an on-going
Coalition structure.
REVIEW OF ACEESW BUDGET:
The ACEESW reviewed a quarterly report on the ACEESW budget. . The ACEESW is 58% into
its budget year; it has expended 57% of its funds.
CONSIDER MEMBERSHIP TO NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF COMMISSIONS FOR WOMEN AND
PARTICIPATION AT REGION IX CONFERENCE:
The ACEESW agreed to join the National Association of Commissions for Women. The
Commission is a resource/referral and networking organization.
The Chair of the ACEESW was authorized to attend the National'Association of Commission's
Region IX Conference on the challenges and choices of the 1990's, scheduled March 30th and
31st in Palm Springs.
HUMAN SERVICES ADVISORY COMMISSION QUARTERLY WORKSHOPS:
The Human Services Advisory Commission (HSAC) is setting up a series of quarterly
workshops for members of human services advisory . groups; the initial workshop is
scheduled for Wednesday, February 28th, 7:00 p.m. , at 2425 Bisso Lane, Concord. The
agenda includes the County's budget process and brainstorming on ways the advisory
bodies can participate to enhance delivery of human services within the County. Barbara
Hockett and Sandra Martinez volunteered to attend the workshop...
Co-sponsored by the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors and
the Private Industry Council of Contra Costa County
DISCUSS FEBRUARY WEEKEND RETREAT - LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
TRAINING/PLANNING SESSION:
The ACEESW reviewed the logistics and program for the retreat. Lynda Kilday will serve
as the facilitator. Members were requested to identify three issues they would be
interested in working on as a goal for the ACEESW for discussion at the retreat. It was
requested that the material distributed at the retreat be made available at the March
ACEESW meeting for those members who are unable to attend the retreat.
The January ACEESW meeting included discussion of leadership development training. As
such, members are encouraged to bring training materials to the ACEESW meetings.
Staff was requested to purchase 2 inch binders for.members of the ACEESW.
CHAIR'S REPORT:
The Internal Operations Committee has recommended to the Board the reappointment of all
members whose term expires 2/28/90; the Board will consider this recommendation at its
February 27th meeting.
A letter was sent to the youth representative regarding her continued membership on the
ACEESW with a response deadline of February 9th; as no response has been received, the
Board has been asked to declare that seat vacant.
An update on the Women's Agenda Coalition was given. The Coalition has requested that
the ACFESW send a letter to unions requesting they endorse the Agenda; revise the
endorsement page of the Agenda i.e., number of members in an organization who have
endorsed the Agenda; and, draft a letter to city mayors requesting their endorsement. The
next meeting of the Coalition is scheduled for March 10th, 9:30 a.m. , at the YWCA, located
in Richmond. The Coalition is interested in holding an anniversary luncheon in May to'
coincide with Working Women's Awareness Week and is requesting the ACEESW's
endorsement; funding is not being requested for the luncheon. Staff was requested to
invite the co-chair's of the Coalition to the March ACEESW meeting to further discussion on
the Coalition.
OTHER BUSINESS:
Barbara Hockett reviewed a letter to her from Assemblywoman Gwen Moore regarding AB
1473, requesting her comments on the hospitalization guidelines for care of substance
exposed newborns. Barbara then explained how the guidelines came about She stressed
the importance of keeping the legislators informed and the need to provide legislators with
back-up information, indicating that individuals can make a difference.
Sara Tuttle reported that once a month on a Friday night, she is conducting a letter writing
campaign at her home on various issues Members interested in this letter writing campaign
are encouraged.to attend; the next session is scheduled for March.2nd.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Members were requested to contact the.ACEESW Chair or staff if they are unable to attend
ACEESW meetings. Members were also requested to contact the Chair if they have any items
that should be put on the monthly agenda.
NOTE: THE PRECEDING IS SUMMARY INFORMATION ONLY; THE COMPLETE MINUTES
WILL BE DISTRIBUTED AT THE 3/20/90 MEETING. THOSE DESIRING A COPY PRIOR TO_-!
THE MEETING, PLEASE CALL RITA HAYS AT 646-5254.
1
ADVISORY Auuff' TEE ON THE EMPAYMENT
AND ECONOMIC STATUS OF WOMEN
805 Blsso Lane, Suite 100
Concord, CA IW520
(415) "6-&W l
Women's Advisory Committee April 4, 1990
and Interested Parties DATE
FROM Rita Hays; Staff
ACEESW
SUBJECT SUMMARY MINUTES - MARCH 20, 1990 MEETING
PRESENTATION ON AARP'S WOMEN'S FINANCIAL INFORMATION PROGRAM:
The Committee heard a presentation from Ginger Marsh, a member of the Concord
Soroptimist, on this program which is designed to give mid-life and older women the skills
and assurance needed to make informed decisions about finances. The Soroptimist of
Concord are co-sponsoring this program with AARP (American Association of Retired
Persons), which is planned for this Fall, and the ACEESW agreed to be a supporting
organization. Ms. Marsh asked for people to contact her if they know of individuals who
would be willing to participate as lecturers or facilitators for the program.
OVERVIEW OF 2/28/90 HSAC WORKSHOP:
As a representative of ACEESW, Barbara Hockett attended the Human Services Advisory
Committee's first quarterly workshop for advisory committees. The focus of these
workshops is to be aware of what the various human service advisory committees.are doing
and to utilize resources better. The next workshops are schedules for 5/23/90, 9/12/90,
and 11/28/90.
CONSIDER APPOINTMENT RECOMMENDATION TO POLITICAL LIAISON CATEGORY:
Only one candidate, Gayle Bishop, had submitted an application for this category. She is
a practicing attorney and is active politically, interfacing with many public officials. The
ACEESW recommended to the Board of Supervisors that. Ms. Bishop be apponted to the
Committee in the Political Liaison Category.
OVERVIEW OF ACEESW'S GOALS AND .WORK ACTIVITIES:
The members who attended the Retreat spoke about how fruiful they felt it was, that it was
well worth the time because it focused the Committee and provided the members with a good
opportunity to get to know each other better. The members reviewed the issues that were
identified for the ACEESW to address and the membership on each of these Issue
Committees: 1) Treatment Facilities and Drug Exposed Babies, and Support.Shelters - Anne
McLaurin and Barbara Hockett are co-chairs, with Joan Leslie as a member; 2) Meaningful
Employment and Training - Sara Tuttle and Joanne Durkee are co-chairs, with Milo Smith,
Lee Finney as members, and possibly Gayle Bishop; 3) Affirmative Action - Janet Scoll
Johnson and Donna Dell are co-chairs, with Mollie Fujioka, Gloria Sandoval and Chizu Iiyama
as members.
Other items discussed at the Retreat were leadership training and a. Speaker's Bureau as
an outreach program of the ACEESW. Wanda Harris and Kate Ertz-Berger will coordinate
the development of the leadership training (at each monthly meeting and as part of the next
Retreat) and the Speaker's.Bureau
_ .__Ca-sponsored by the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors and
_ wr
_.P
CHAIR'S REPORT:
Wanda Harris stated that Lee Finney indicated to her that she will be dropping off the
ACEESW because she will be moving to Alameda County. Marietta Fogelstrom announced tht
whe would be resigning as she will be needing the time to spend on a homeless committee
that she is on. Pending receipt of letters of resignations from Lee and Marietta, the Women
Social Service and District V categories respectively will be vacant, along with the Youth
category.
Wanda reported that the Women's Agenda Coalition met on March 10, with only four persons
at the meeting. The Coalition planned to have a luncheon in early May as part of Working
Women's Awareness Week, but that plan is on hold. Susan Panek, Co',Chair of the
Coalition, will be at the ACEESW April meeting to discuss the Coalition.
OTHER BUSINESS:
Anne McLaurin thanked the members for selecting her for the recognition at the State
Commission's Women's History Month event. Anne also informed.the ACEESW that another
training program, such as the one she entered, is starting in June at Central Sanitary
District.
A letter arrived the day of the ACEESW meeting from Women, Family and Work;Coalition with
a master list of bills which have been submitted for consideration by thew Coalition for
inclusion in their 1990 Equity Legislative Package. The Committee took no action, but will
agenda the material for the April meeting in order to begin discussion on the bills.
However, in regards to the last page of this material, "1990-91 Governor's Budget - Impact
on Women," the ACEESW decided to send letters to the Governor strongly expressing the
Committee's concerns about the major cuts in and lack of adequate funds for many programs
vital to women in California. Members wrote individual letters as part of the meeting's
letter writing campaign item on the agenda.
Lynda Kilday informed the members that the Governor's budget also affects community care
licensing. Most of the funds have been eliminated for investigators of board and care homes
for the elderly and child care homes. Instead of having a site visit once every three years,
there would only be an initial licensing visit, and then no other visits unless there is a
serious complaint in writing. Lynda stated that this will have a serious impact on the
quality of care and urged people to send letters to the Governor expressing concerns about
these cuts, with copies of those letters sent to State legislators.
IN-HOUSE TRAINING:
Wanda Harris passed out material entitled, "You Can Give An Outstanding Speech Or
Presentation," which will be discussed at the next meeting.
NOTE: THE PRECEDING IS SUMMARY INFORMATION ONLY; THE COMPLETE MINUTES
WILL BE DISTRIBUTED AT THE 4/17/90.MEETING. THOSE DESIRING A COPY PRIOR TO
THE MEETING, PLEASE CALL RITA HAYS AT 646-5254.
ADVISORYMITTEE ON THE EuPkqyuEmr
AND ECONOMIC STATUS OF WEN
2425 Blsso Lane, Suite 100
Concord, CA 84520
(415) 646.5391
TO Women's Advisory Committee DATE April- 23, 1990
and q1tea4ested Parties
FRORitays, taff
ACEESW
SUBJECT
SUMMARY MINUTES - APRIL 17, 1990 MEETING
REPORT ON NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF COMMISSIONS FOR WOMEN, REGION IX,
CONFERENCE:
The Chair, Wanda Harris, provided the membership with a report on the Conference she
attended, saying it was very worthwhile. The speakers and workshops were very good,
with the speakers focusing on women as leaders and in politics in the 1990s. She was
impressed with what other commissions are doing in their communities and stated that she
would like to see a brochure, newsletter and business cards created for the ACEESW, in
order to better inform this community that the Committee exists. The members agreed
that business cards should be obtained. Wanda concluded her report by saying that she
felt that it was very worthwhile to network with other commissions and recommended that
the Committee send someone(s) to the National Conference in July.
DISCUSSION ON FUTURE DIRECTION OF WOMEN'S AGENDA COALITION:
Susan Panek, co-chair of the Coalition, informed the ACEESW that attendance at monthly
Coalition meetings had dropped off. Since the Women's Agenda Coalition was the brain-
child of this Committee and evolved from a luncheon the Committee hosted this time last
year, the future of the Coalition was discussed by the ACEESW. The Committee made it
clear that the Women's Economic Agenda is still valid. The Coalition, however, will not
be meeting. The Committee decided to.send a letter from the Coalition co-chairs asking
for endorsements of the Women's Economic Agenda from the city councils, and to hold an
event this Fall with SEIU labor union to bring women together to "celebrate ourselves."
Those organizations and individuals on the Coalition's mailing list will be notified of the
event in the Fall.
AFFIRMATIVE ACTION ISSUE COMMITTEE:
Donna Dell shared a letter that she had drafted with the members and asked them to
provide,her with their comments. The intent of the letter is to let employers know that
the ACEESW is interested in how they are doing in the implementation and monitoring of
effective affirmative action employment policies and to encourage employers to communicate
their concerns to the Committee. Steps will also be taken to receive some press on the
ACEESW's interest in the successful implementation of affirmative action plans.
A meeting with County personnel and the Ad Hoc Affirmative Action committee is scheduled
for May 3. The ACEESW would like to see: 1) the County establish trainee apprenticeship
level jobs (maintenance and repair) as other counties have done, and 2) the affirmative
action reports the way the Committee has asked for them in order to tell what is actually
happening, then the Committee can see how the affirmative action program is working.
Co-sponsored by the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors and
the Private Industry Council of Contra Costa County
MEANINGFUL EMPLOYMENIOAND TRAINING ISSUE COMMITTEE:
The members were informed that the county has its first non-traditional project through
Pittsburg Adult School that was funded recently with 6% PIC funds. In terms of non-
traditional jobs for women, members were also asked to send letters to Contra Costa
College encouraging them to start a non-traditional class to prepare women for jobs in the
new Chevron construction project that is forthcoming, and to the Mayor of Richmond
supporting his interest in insuring that local residents obtain jobs from the Chevron
construction project and seeking his support that a representative number of women are
trained for and employed in that project.
CALIFORNIA COMMISSION ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN CONFERENCE, MARCH, 1991:
The ACEESW agreed to assist with this conference by offering to take responsibility for
coordinating a non-traditional jobs workshop and by sending two representatives to serve
on a steering committee for our general area of the state.
CHAIR'S REPORT:
The ACEESW received a letter of resignation from Lee Finney who is no longer eligible
for the Committee now that she works and will soon reside in Alameda County. By
acclamation, the Committee will send a certificate and flowers to Lee in appreciation for
all that she has done. The Youth Category is still open and the Social Services Category
is now open. The Committee needs more representation from District V and some more
from District II.
OTHER BUSINESS:
The Committee took action to support the following bills which were on the agenda: AB
3284 - Caregiving Information and Referral Act, AB 3297 - Dependent Care Planning
Grant, AB 3446 - Caregiving Information for Medical Providers, AB 4163 Governor's
Office of Family, H.R. 2460 - The Older Americans.Freedom to Work Act.
A request was made to place.the Civil Rights Act of 1990 on the agenda for consideration
in May; the legislation is designed to restore civil rights laws that were erode"d by several
Supreme Court decisions last year. The Chair asked the members to read the material
containing legislation and call staff on those bills they want on the agenda for the
Committee's consideration of supporting, opposing, or not taking any action on. Mollie
Fujioka shared with the members that she and her husband are in a video that was made
on "How Bills Are Made," which used the internment compensation bill as an example, and
has been shown on the San Mateo public television station. She stated that it is good
information if someone does not.know the process.
IN-HOUSE TRAINING:
The Chair briefly reviewed the hand-out from last month, "You Can Give An Outstanding
Speech or Presentation," stating that the objective of the leadership training is to help
members to be more effective in speaking before groups.
LETTER WRITING CAMPAIGN:
The members were provided with information on Earth Day and a letter writing project to
support. the County's efforts to save greenbelt areas in the county was suggested.
Members were asked to write letters on their own and to send them to the County Planning
Commission.
NOTE: SIXTEEN DOLLASS WAS COLLECTED FOR THE "SPECIAL FUND."
41
HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE COUNTY OF CONTRA COSTA . Inter-Office Correspondence
TO: Clerk of the Board DATE: May. 1, 1990
FROM: Perfecto iiltlarreal , Executive 'Director
SUBJECT: QUARTERLY .SUMMARY:
Attached is a summary 'of activities, of the ':Advisory. Housing Commission.
of the Housing Authority of the County of Contra Costa. , This summary_
covers the months of January, February, March .and Apri1 , :1990.
PV:J .. .
Attchment
Y 7.
1,41 AY 11990
TY!! rr„cffe�oR
C:ERK 3UA,'ii Df SUVERYISJRS
I .CC)f, A
CO.
B .� Oenu
Contra Cost, County
RECEIVED
MAY 9 19907
Off, �
County Administrator
HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE COUNTY OF CONTRA COSTA
ADVISORY HOUSING COMMISSION
SUMMARY OF ACTIVITIES
JANUARY 29, 1990
1. Report on start of Modernization work at CA011002, Los Medanos, West
Pittsburg, on Monday, January 29, 1990.
2. Motion to recommend adoption of Resolution No. 3572 authorizing execution
of Amendment No. 9 to the HCD Section 8 Aftercare Annual Contributions
Contract. Motion carried.
3. Motion to recommend adoption of Resolution No. 3573 authorizing
collection loss write-off for the quarter ending 12/31/89. Motion
carried.
4 Motion to recommend adoption of Resolution No. 3574 indicating review and
approval of the 1990/91 Operating Budget. Motion carried.
5. Motion to recommend adoption of Resolutions 3575 and 3576 for additional
Section 8 vouchers to aid earthquake victims and authorize execution of
amendment to the Section 8 Annual Contributions Contract. Motion carried.
FEBRUARY 26, 1990
1. Moved to recommend approval of a joint funding proposal with the
Rodeo/Crockett Boys and Girls Club to the California Youth Authority.
Motion carried.
2. Moved to recommend approval of allocation of $7,500 for 1990 Camp Fire
Crimebusters Day Camp Program. Motion carried.
3. Moved to recommend approval of $5,000 allocation for the 1990 College
Scholarship Awards. Motion carried.
4. Moved to recommend adoption of the Revised Procurement Policy, as
required by HUD. Motion carried. ,
MARCH 19, 1990
1. Moved to recommend adoption of Resolution No. 3580 approving Collection
Loss Write-Off for the fourth quarter of Fiscal Year 1989/90, year ending
March 31, 1990. Motion carried.
2. Moved to recommend approval of the Comprehensive Plan for Modernization.
Motion carried.
3. Moved to approve Employee Appreciation Breakfast and allocation of $5,000
from Local Management Funds. Motion carried.
4. Moved to recommend forwarding letter of appreciation to the City of
Pittsburg Police Department thanking them for their cooperation in the
special drug enforcement program at E1 Pueblo. Motion carried.
5. Moved to approve a one year lease renewal for the E1 Pueblo Senior
Center. Motion carried.
6. Moved to recommend approval of the summer Child Development Program for
the children of El Pueblo and to allocate $11,733 from Local Management
Funds for use in that program. Motion carried.
7. Moved to refer existing Advisory Housing Commission policy on attendance
at NAHRO Regional and National conferences to the Policy & Strategy
Committee for possible revision. Motion carried.
Summary of Activities
Page -2-
8. Moved to authorize travel to the PSWRC/NAHRO Regional Conference in
Phoenix, Arizona, May 19 and 20, 1990 for Commissioners Brown and Latimer.
Motion carried.
APRIL 16, 1990
1. Moved to approve a one year lease renewal for Bayo Vista Tiny Tots
Nursery. Motion carried.
2. Moved to recommend approval of the 1990 CIAP Application and adoption of
Resolution No. 3579. Motion carried.
3. Moved to recommend authorizing staff to continue to work with the City of
Antioch to develop a senior housing development. Motion carried.
4. Moved to recommend approval of the eight week summer child development
program for children of Bayo Vista to be operated by Bayo Vista Tiny
Tots, and allocate $8,118 from Local Management Funds. Motion carried.
5. Discussed bid irregularities and letter of inquiry from Primecon.
Moved to recommend award of contract for CIAP CA011-911/CD8G field house
expansion work to Jim D. Odom at Base Bid No. 1 in the amount of $228,500.
Motion carried.
CONTRA COSTA COUNTY
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT
TO: Clerk of the Board DATE: April .30, 1990
FROM: Harvey E. Bragdon,
Director of Community DevelopmenAns
SUBJECT: Recent Activities of the Airportomssion
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Review of Buchanan Field Master Plan
The Commission voted 5 - 2 to find the proposed Buchanan Field Plan consistent
with the Airport Land Use Plan. At the same time, the Commission voted to
request funding support from the Board of Supervisors for an update of the ALUC
Plan for Buchanan Field.
Review of Proposed City of Pleasant Hill General Plan
In January, the Commission voted 6 - 1 to find the proposed General Plan for the
City of Pleasant Hill to be inconsistent with the Buchanan Field Airport Land
Use Plan. City staff have indicated that they intend to submit a revised
proposal for the Commission to review.
East County Airport Land Use Plan
Staff is preparing an Airport Land Use Plan proposal for the Commission to
review. When adopted, the Plan policies will need to be integrated into the
general plan policies of Contra Costa County and Alameda County.
Questions
Any questions on ALUC matters should be directed to Bob Drake of my staff at
2091.
RD/aa
ALUCVI/Activ.RD
a
CONTRA COSTA COUNTYAIRPORTS
BUCHANAN FIELD AIRPORT BYRON AIRPORT
510 SALLY RIDE DRIVE 3000 ARMSTRONG ROAD
CONCORD, CA 94520 BYRON, CA 94514
PHONE: (415) 646-5722 (415) 634-0147
FAX: (415) 646-5731
DATE: April 23, 1990
TO: Jean Maglio, Clerk of the Board of Supervisors
FROM: Harold E. Wight, Manager of Airports
SUBJECT: Summary of Minutes of Aviation Advisory Committee
As directed by the County Administrator's Office on January 25, 1990,I am submitting the following
summary of minutes from the Aviation Advisory Committee meetings for the period January
through March 1990.
Held public meeting on "low flying aircraft" - February 6
Selected screening committee to discuss possible helicopter FBO site
Recommended to the Board that concerns from the Quiet Skies Committee be
referred to MTC
Approved tiedown rate increase and method for future tiedown rate increases for
Buchanan Field Airport
If you have any questions, please contact me at extension 5722.
HEW:dg
aacsum.t4
cc: J. M. Walford, Public Works Director
V. Schaefer, AAC Chair
Health Services Department
-•„a EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES AGENCY
e., . . TED
/ 50 Glacier Drive
- Martinez,California 94553-4822
G� ++os II111N :. 9 1990 (415)646-4690 FAX(415)646-1120
a; �a
PHM.uATt4FLOR
RK GOAM OF SUPEMSCR5
- CONT?A COSTA CO c
`9 COUI`1
TO: Clerk of the Board DATE: May 4 , 1990
FROM: Art Lath op, EMS Director SUBJECT: Emergency Medical Care
Committee -
Summary of Activities,
January - March 1990
During the period January through March, 1990 , the Emergency
Medical Care Committee (EMCC) :
- held two EMCC meetings .
- received a presentation from Jim Schott on the Alcohol Tax
Initiative.
- viewed a video recently prepared by Consolidated Fire on
the "Aftermath of the Sun Valley Plane Crash" .
- received an update on the County' s trauma system from
John Muir Hospital and County EMS staff .
- viewed an educational video prepared by Alameda County on
it' s EMS system.
participated as observers in a multicasualty exercise
involving a B.A.R.T. train accident.
participated in the workshop for Human Services Advisory
Boards held February 28 , 1990 .
cc: Emergency Medical Care Committee
County Administrator
Health Services Director
Health Services Medical Director/Health Officer
AL:pb
A-344-A Contra Costa County
SOCIAL SERVICE DEPARTMENT. CONTRA COSTA COUNTY
TO: Contra Costa County DATE: April 30, 1990
Board of Supervisors
Nancy Fanden, Chair
FROM: Family & Children's Service Y
Trust Committee (FACT)
Kathi McLaughlin & $41 �7 1990
Terri Kard, Co-Chairs
NM.(I pA1CN[LC!'
SUBJECT: SUMMARY OF COMMITTEE ACTIVITIES CUERKIn.iOASirs clr.`WURVISORS
January through March, 1990 CONT. C01W,r()
------------------------------------------------------------
There have been many changes in FACT since its
reorganization in July, 1989 both in membership and staff.
In adjusting to these changes, sub-committees have been set
up to:
1. Recruit New Members - A press release has been
written.
2 . Advisory Groups who have representatives in FACT
have been contacted, where appropriate, to have
non-attending members replaced.
3 . Contract Review Process - A meeting with the State
consultant from the Office of Child Abuse Prevention (OCAP)
was contacted and will work with an ad hoc group to develop
a viable process.
4 . Emergency/One-Time Only Requests - Planning has
been going on to develop a process to use part of the Ann
Adler monies to meet emergency needs experienced by a
provider and impacting on its ability to deliver services
under contract.
TRAINING
1. A Training Session was held for contract providers
and potential providers to develop an understanding of the
R. F. P. (Request for Proposal) process, and the selection
process used by FACT in selecting and recommending proposals
for funding.
2 . Training was conducted for new FACT members to
explain funding sources, 1733 guidelines, and the Request
for Proposal process.
Systems internal to the committee have been
developed to allow it to have better fiscal information.
Gen 9c (New 3/86)
_,;
r
FACT is committed to conducting a comprehensive
assessment of community needs. pertaining to children and
families. An R. F. P. (Request for Proposal) process will
be developed from this which will meet as many of these
needs as the limited funding sources can provide,, and in a
fair and equitable manner.
KM/TK/BC:vcp
sumfact.bc
disk #2 FACT.bc
v
Family and Children's servicesContra Social Service Department
2401 Stanwell Drive,#200
.Advisory Committee
Costa P.O.Box 5488
Concord,California 94524
Barbara Chase (415)646-5202
Executive Assistant County
April 30, 1990
TO: Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors
Supervisor Nancy Fanden, Chair
FROM: Family and Children's Services
Advisory Committee ,
Gary Namie, PhD, Chair
SUBJECT: FACSAC - ACTIVITIES -
OCTOBER 1, 1989 THRU APRIL 1990
The Family and Children' s Services Advisory Committee set
its workplan for FY 89/90 at its retreat meeting at
Westminster on September 21, 1989. (Please see attached)
Following this workplan, the following developed:
1. Department of Social Service Colleague Awards
Luncheon; organized and sponsored- this luncheon on October
26, 1989. This is a peer recognition of employees who
performed in an outstanding manner in working with clients
and fellow employees. Understanding that recognition of
efforts is essential to good employee morale, FACSAC
presents this luncheon yearly.
2 . Review of Foster Care. The Committee at its
January, February and March meetings have listened to
testimony from agency staff, foster parents, foster care
experts from other counties and parents regarding the
current status of the Foster Care System. The . Committee has
also surveyed the county's foster parents and some members
have visited with foster parents.
In 1986 a Foster Care study was done which pointed
out the problems in the system at that time and offered a
variety of options and solutions. (Foster Care Study -
(Kathy L. Armstrong - December 12, 1986)
Since then there has been a dramatic increase in
the numbers of children in the system. Using the 1986 study
as a baseline, FACSAC will study the results of its fact
finding and attempt to show the current status of the
system. Has it improved? Can it be improved further? To
what degree? What are the barriers? A report will be
written and presented to the Board in May, 1990.
THE FAMILY AND CHILDREN'S SERVICES ADVISORY COMMITTEE IS APPOINTED BY THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS TO
ADVISE ON THE EFFECT OF CURRENT AND PROPOSED SOCIAL WELFARE PROGRAMS,WELFARE LEGISLATION,AND THE
PROBLEMS OF THE LOW-INCOME COMMUNITY.ANY COMMENTS OR RECOMMENDATIONS MADE BY THE COMMITTEE
OR ITS INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS DO NOT REPRESENT THE OFFICIAL POSITION OF THE COUNTY OR ANY OF ITS OFFICERS.
4
Memorandum to Board of Supervisors
April 30, 1990 - Page 2
3 . ' Legislation: The Legislature subcommittee visited
Sacramento on February 14, 1990 to become acquainted with
Contra Costa' s state legislators. The Committee has since
been active in reviewing legislation; continuing to support
Senator Rosenthal 's efforts to provide protection to abused,
frail adults.
4 . Share-A-Desk: FACSAC in educating the community;
is inviting the community of East county and its leaders to
Share-A-Desk with agency workers on April 25. This will
give the community a chance -to -learn -what -the Social Service
Department is all about; the program it offers to help meet
community problems and ,to learn something of the limits and
frustrations to implementing these programs.
Attachment
BC:af
bdsups.bc#2
Family and Children's ServicesContra Social Service Department
2401 Stanwell Drive,#200
Advisory Committee Costa Co cord,Caox lifornia 94524
• Barbara ChaseCounty
O�n�� (415)646-5202
IC
Executive Assistant
FAMILY & CHILDREN'S SERVICES ADVISORY COMMITTEE
ANNUAL WESTMINISTER RETREAT
September 21, 1989
Meeting Attendance*
Members OCT .NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APR** MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP
Carol Maloney P U E E E E
Darnell Styles U U U U U U
Margaret Thomas U U U U U
Marilynn Zito E E E E P P P E E P
Lynda Kilday P P P P P P P E P P
Jean Cunningham E U U -
Susie Heilig E P P
Laina Casillas U U U U P P U P U P
Pat Corrington E P E P E E
Eugene Wolfe P P P P E P P P P P
Nola Ashford E P P P P P P E P E
Gloria Tays P E E P E P E P P E
Gary Namie E P P P P E P P E P
Alice Ponti P P P E E P P E E P
Shawn Guinn E P P E P P P E E P
Paul Billeci P P P P P P P P P
Catherine Anderson P E P E P P P E E P
Theresa Hillaire U U U U U U U U U U
Leanne Schlegel P P P P P
Dorothy Grace P P P E
Mildred Davis P P P E
Richard Frankel P P P P
Calla Klein P
*Present = P Excused = E Unexcused = U
**Share-a-Desk, West County ,
Staff Present
James Rydingsword, Director. of Social Service
Barbara Chase, Executive Assistant
Chris Wirtz, Secretary
Guests Present
Al Baldwin, County Personnel Department
Carol Bryant, Child Abuse Prevention Council
Helene Frakes, Supervisor Fanden' s Office
. Virginia Romelli, Supervisor Schroder' s Office
Vanette Hickey, Citizen
THE FAMILY AND CHILDREN'S SERVICES ADVISORY COMMITTEE IS APPOINTED BY THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS TO
ADVISE ON THE EFFECT OF CURRENT AND PROPOSED SOCIAL WELFARE PROGRAMS,WELFARE LEGISLATION,AND THE
PROBLEMS OF THE LOW-INCOME COMMUNITY.ANY COMMENTS OR RECOMMENDATIONS MADE BY THE COMMITTEE
OR ITS INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS DO NOT REPRESENT THE OFFICIAL POSITION OF THE COUNTY OR ANY OF ITS OFFICERS.
M I N U T E S
The September 21, 1989, Westminister Retreat of the Family &
Children' s Services Advisory Committee (FACSAC) was called to
order by Barbara Chase, Executive Assistant, at 9: 15 a.m. , and
the members and guests were welcomed.
Toward a More Effective. Coimnittee
Barbara Chase introduced Al Baldwin., Chief of Employee & Organ-
izational Development, County Personnel Department, who presented
a brief question-and-answer program designed so that members and
guests present would learn something about each other.
Mr. Baldwin discussed why -does FACSAC exist and what is its pur-
pose. Answers from ,the Committee members included ( 1) ADVOCACY
to the legislature, Board of Supervisors, all agencies (not Fed-
eral level) that impact on families and children; ( 2) ADVICE to
Board of Supervisors and the Social Service Director; and (3 )
LIAISON with families and other agencies for their ideas, sugges-
tions, comments, and concerns about families and children.
The Committee then tried to identify specific ways to achieve the
purpose of FACSAC as follows:
COMMUNITY RELATIONS
1. Organize with other advisory groups.
2. Continue Department morale-boosting events, such as recogni-
tion awards and share-a-desk to a different part of the
County.
3. Work with other advisory groups .with regard to community
planning (task force effort) . to focus on family issues of
community service.
4. Identify one or more small projects, e.g. , seat belts for
infants, pregnancy ,counseling, crack babies; public service
announcements on radio, billboards, bumper stickers. Enlist
support of all community colleges.
5. Divide this function into external (public), and internal
(Department) .
6. Educate the public on lost benefits of prevention (proactive
versus reactive) ..
7. . Identify private sector day care centers which can assist
public sector in providing family and children' s services.
8. Introduce speaker' s services to schools.
9. Reprint speaker' s brochure (no County printing) .
10. Contribute to local paper on an ongoing basis - col-
umn/article FACSAC as expert on preventative family health
matters.
11. Request and schedule regular meetings with supervisors.
12. When appropriate, have fact-finding townhall meetings on
specific-relevant issues, Ii.e. , as was done with homeless
situation in Spring, 1989.
13 . Sponsor an educational forum, such as drug summit, but be
apolitical.
. 14. Keep it apolitical, impartial, and objective.
BUDGET
la. Identify areas where budget needs to be reprioritized to
benefit families and children.
b. Make year-to-year comparison of each category.
2. Prevention should be a focus for dollars.
3 . Advocate the increase of 20 percent of available dollars to
prevention/education and crisis intervention for families
and children.
4. Request that the County Administrator provide an understand-
able/readable budget with enough time to provide review and,
subsequently, provide effective feedback to the Board of
Supervisors.
5. Produce a comparison to show how when one budget area gets a
bigger piece of the piece others lose.
6. Look at and critique the methods of allocation and distribu-
tion of County funds specifically relating to cost effec.-
tiveness, i.e. , homeless and buying drugs.
OTHERS
1. Written and oral advance review of internal programs, poli-
cies, and budget allocation of Social Service Department.
2. Review. of FACSAC subcommittee structure so above can be done
and included in activities of Committee:
3. Discover what Social Service Director' s perception of FACSAC
should be'; will he concur with Item 1 above and help the
Committee to fulfill that advisory role in a constructive
manner?
4. Act as internal organization consultant to the Department
through Management Team, Director, Program Managers, and any
existing Departmental configuration (that exists today) .
5. Develop a model for prevention and education within the
community, i.e. , spanning the period prior to pregnancy
through childhood with the aim, within one generation, to
.develop self-reliant, functioning adults.
6. Strategizing with regard to short- and long-term planning
for County Board of Supervisors, taking into account the
projected 50 percent increase of children to the community
in the next 10 years.
7. Same as Item 6 above in relation to the families/children
who have severe financial/health, etc. , problems, i.e. ,
homeless, babies, etc.
8. Educate community as to cost effectiveness ofprevention.
9. Learn how to effectively communicate with Board of Direc-
tors.
10. Develop a realistic approach to problems of low income families.
11. Encourage Board of Supervisors to provide FACSAC with their
goals and expectations of FACSAC.
12. Identify and review a variety of ways .to communicate the
Committee 's concerns and recommendations to the members of
the Board of Supervisors and its Internal Operations Committee.
13 . Develop mechanism for expanding the same level of concern
demonstrated by FACSAC members to the community.
The Committee then agreed on- the following four goals for Fiscal
Year 1989-90:
1. Interaction with Social Service Department
Clarity of - expectations
Service to Department employees
Department structure and FACSAC
2. Education/Prevention
Townhall meetings, forums
Information gathering
Information dissemination
3 . Cooperation/Coordination With Other Advisory Groups
Task force effort
Committee planning
Pool support for targeted .legislative issues and testify
together
4. Interaction With Board
Inclusion in planning
Communication effectiveness
Budget
Representatives from Supervisor Fanden
and Supervisor .Schroder's Offices
Barbara Chase introduced Helen Frakes from Supervisor Fanden' s
office who expressed appreciation on behalf of the Supervisor for
the role FACSAC played in the townhall meeting and the homeless
shelter report. She said Supervisor Fanden was interested in the
Committee advocating before the cities in Contra Costa County for
the needs of children. (The Committee did not feel it would be
appropriate for FACSAC to advocate before the cities: )
The report was important and helpful in a lot of ways. It began
to define the issues and discussed what needed to be discussed
away from a planning perspective and went at it from a sociologi-
cal view.
Virginia Romelli from Supervisor Schroder' s office was introduced
and she spoke on behalf of Supervisor Schroder regarding the
budget for children' s programs--the hardest thing about the budget
when it comes to cutting.
Ms. Romelli also announced that two child care centers were re-
cently approved in the city of Danville.
Gary Namie requested that Helene and Virginia take back to Super-
visor Fanden and Supervisor Schroder a question from the Commit-
tee and that their replies be in written form. The question is
FACSAC would like to know from the two supervisors what the goals
and expectations of the Board in regard to FACSAC are.
Barbara Chase announced that she had spoken to Virginia Romelli
who said she was planning to talk to Supervisor Schroder to have
him meet with representatives of FACSAC from his district for one
hour each month to fill him in on what is going on and he can, in
turn, let the representatives what is on his mind.
Shawn Guinn stated he had been considering giving up his position
on the Committee because of not having time to involve himself.
After talking to various members of the Committee, he has changed
his mind and will stay on and will be working in some other capa-
city. He will stay with the Community Relations Subcommittee, as
he has always enjoyed that aspect, and will also work in some
other areas.
Al Baldwin summed up by saying that as an outsider to this group
and meeting the members for the first time he was quite delighted
there was a group like FACSAC working on the kind of issues they
do as he is also a parent.
Changing of the Guard
Lynda Kilday reported the Nominating Committee nominated Gary
Namie to be the new Chairperson of FACSAC.
Gary Namie nominated Lynda Kilday as Vice-Chairperson.
MOTION: To accept the nomination of Gary Namie as Chairperson
and Lynda Kilday as Vice-Chairperson for the coming
year.
Notion: Gene Wolfe
Second: Leanne Schlegel
Passed:, Unanimously
The Cominittee Asks
James Rydingsword, Director of Social Service, was present to
answer any questions the Committee might have.
JR.was asked for his perception of FACSAC and if he agreed with
the item where some members wanted to have advance review of
internal programs, policies, and budget allocations of the De-
partment and help the Committee fulfill the advisory role in a
constructive manner.
JR stated he agreed with the advisory, advocacy, and community
liaison role of FACSAC. He thinks the first role of the Commit-
tee is that of advisory to the Board of Supervisors and that is
what the Board expects also. The Committee has reviewed the
budget for Fiscal Year 1989-90, and he hopes some suggestions
will come from that review. In regard to community liaison, he
feels FACSAC has done some very good work in that area and was
particularly helpful with the issue of homelessness. He appreci-
ates the• time the Committee took to work on that.
He hopes the Committee continues to operate as an independent
advisory body to the Board and that FACSAC is getting support
from the Department in terms of getting information.
In the view of the Department, two examples of where the Commit-
tee was utilized in an effective way was ( 1 ) the Colleague Recog-
nition Awards Luncheon and ( 2) the Share-a-Desk program in Rich-
mond, which was very. well received by the staff. As the Depart-
ment and the Committee move into the future, what is needed is to
figure out how to do business differently tomorrow than _what is
done today. The challenge is how to continue to provide a high
level of quality service in innovative ways.
Gary Namie stated the group felt very strongly that it could be
involved with more than an advocacy role once information is
gathered, and it should be advocates for a higher . allocation for
family and children' s services and should be a constant advocate
of that and fulfill that role at the County-wide level. This is
a way to broaden the. Committee' s usefulness.
JR said there is a model of planning that has four quadrants,
which he had spoke to the Committee about last year. One of
those quadrants was to be a planning quadrant: people who are
looking to the future. To identify a preferred future to the
Board of Supervisors should be one of the goals of FACSAC.
Lynda Kilday, suggested that one way to interact .more with the
Department is to do more work with individual programs and units
within the Department. She asked what JR thought was the best
avenue for doing that.
JR suggested that the Committee might want . to ask ,Rose Manning,
'who will head up Children' s Services, and Bob Hofmann, who will
head up Income Maintenance, to attend a meeting and speak about
the Social Service Department moving toward a bureau concept.
V They, along with .Yvonne Bullock (Adult Services) and Don Cruze
(Administrative Services) , are now in the process of setting
goals and objectives. Also being talked about are ways in which
planning groups can be put together within those bureaus. It
seems to him to be appropriate at some point in time to sit down
with either the Committee, or some of the members, and the Exec-
utive Team to talk about appropriate ways FACSAC can be involved
in those program-planning bureaus. The Committee decided to ask
Rose Manning and Bob Hofmann together to a future FACSAC meeting
and Don Cruze and Yvonne Bullock together to the following meeting.
In regard to legislation, JR continued, Louise Aiello, Executive
Assistant, is responsible for legislative tracking. The Depart-
ment found that the tracking done by a single person in the De-
partment to be helpful. She tracks pieces of legislation through
the Legislative Committee of the County Welfare Directors Associ-
ation, which tracks all the bills coming down. Also, in the
County Administrator' s Office, Claude Van Marter tracks on a
County-wide basis. There is a lobbyist in Sacramento for the
County. Federal legislation is tracked, but not the cities be-
cause the cities would not " necessarily be doing something that
would impact the County. The focus, in terms of legislation, is
State legislation because that is where most of the decisions are .
made about the programs the County operates.
The Family Preservation Program is something the Department is
really proud of and, even if the Governor does not sign it, the
fact that it has gotten so far in the space of 'one year is quite
an accomplishment.
MOTION: To send a telegram to .Governor George Deukmejian from "
the Committee in support of AB 899, the Family Preser-
vation Bill.
Motion: Marilynn Zito
Second: Eugene Wolfe
Passed: Unanimously
Gary Namie spoke about the upcoming Colleague Recognition Awards
to be held on October 18, 1989, for the benefit of the new mem-
bers, and give an update for members who attended or helped with
last gear' s awards.
The ballots are due in by .October 12, 1989, and a meeting will be
held on October 18,- 1989, at 12: 00 Noon to count the ballots.
This meeting will take place just before the regular monthly
meeting beginning at 12: 30 p.m. All members are invited to
attend.
The Committee then broke up into four -task forces to discuss how
to implement the four goals: Interaction with the Social Service
Department," Education/Prevention, Cooperation/Coordination with
Other Advisory Groups, and Interaction with the Board of Supervi-
sors. The results are as follows:
INTERACTION WITH SOCIAL SERVICE DEPARTNENT
Gary Namie
1. Continue Community. Relations (CR) Subcommittee, Colleague
Recognition Awards, and the Speaker' s Bureau.
2. Hold Share-a-Desk in Antioch in Spring., 1990.
3. Ask Departmental Executive Team how FACSAC could, or should,
increase service to staff, or if at all.
4. Invite each of :the four newly-named Assistant Directors
(AD) , two at a time, to the October and November, 1990,
FACSAC meetings to share goals and to get acquainted.
5. Solicit volunteers from FACSAC to serve in four new posi-
tions--AD Liaison Adult Services, Children's Services, In-
come Maintenance, Budget/Administrative.
6. Define AD Liaison role and responsibilities - a suggested
start:
-To establish a positive, informal relationship with the AD
of choice.
-Schedule regular one-on-one meetings with AD either. in the
district somewhere, at the Supervisor' s .district office, or
at the Stanwell Office.
-Maintain telephone contact.
-Exchange available FACSAC resources (information, exper-
tise, support) for AD' s goals/direction/plans for his or
her bureau.
Attend AD staff meetings if requested by AD.
-Give updates on bureau activities at FACSAC meetings.
7. Have Legislative Subcommittee maintain contact with County
and Departmental legislative contact people (Van Marter and
Aiello) to establish a routine procedure for being alerted
about pending legislation involving FACSAC' s concerns.
8. Consider preparing a document outlining, for the Department
and the Board of Supervisors, FACSAC' s version of "ideal"
delivery of - services to families and . children of Contra
Costa County in the 1990 ' s. Make it proactive and vision-
ary, while including practical considerations of how re-
sources have to be better distributed and what programs must
be foreseen to counter problems which do not yet exist. it
should be innovative rather than a restatement of pallid
statistics that .enable policy-makers to ignore the critical
nature of threats to the family. This would be 3-4 months
in the making, on a part-time basis. An , interested group
would be assembled. Everyone in FACSAC (and FACSAC' s net-
work of experts) would be consulted. The product would be
delivered and presented to the Board, the Department, inter-
ested groups, and the media. Also consider that the project
might become a day-long workshop for the community and its
leaders. The scope of the project begs for collaboration
with other advisory groups with a mandate similar to FACSAC' s.
r
INTERACTION WITH BOARD
Catherine Anderson
1. There should be long-term budget . planning and prioritiza-
tion. Need to find out if there is such a` Committee; if so,
request that FACSAC be represented.
2. Get Board of Supervisors to tell the Committee what it wants
from FACSAC...
a. Ask each Supervisor for a written response; indicate
their areas on interest and areas they need/want more
information.
b. Schedule face-to-face. quarterly .meetings ?with district
representatives and supervisors in same week: Novem-
ber, February, May, August, for example.. Ask similar
questions and report back to FACSAC. Emphasize the
Committee represents some of the Supervisor' s
constituents.
C. Continue sending out FACSAC minutes, Social Service
Newsletter, and Volunteer Newsletter.
3. Promote to the Board cost effectiveness of prevention by the
following means:
a. write apposition letter to
1) . Collect statistics to prove point from Prevention
Program, Carol Bryant, Children' s Defense Fund.
2) Use paper to encourage Board to increase by a cer-
tain percentage amounts given to prevention
programs.
INTERACTION WITH OTHER ADVISORY GROUPS
Richard Frankel
Liaison
1. Break down 108 advisory groups into subsets.
2,. Identify self-selected chairpersons for a mailing list.
3. Distribute list of 108 advisory groups to FACSAC members
soliciting their attendance at one or more of the other
adivosry group meetings.
4. Continue to route the correspondence file 'containing
information from other advisory groups during'' the regularly
scheduled FACSAC meetings.
5. Sponsor an . annual meeting (September/October?) of all
advisory group chairpersons with the intended purpose to
address issues of commonality (e.g. , resources
-[budget/nonbudget] , legislative issue advocacy) ; discuss
mutual goals. Schedule additional meetings as necessary.
Legislative Action
1. Identify all County sources of digesting local, State, and
Federal legislation; attempt to pool resources so that
redundancy is eliminated.
r
2. Identify issues relevant to family and children' s services.
3 . Provide appropriate community groups with awareness of
relevant legislation for their action/follow-up.
4. Attend public speaking engagements to encourage awareness
and action of legislation relevant to family and children' s
services.
5. Promote effective letter-writing campaigns that provide a
positive impact on favored legislation.
6. Lobby elected officials in Sacramento at a scheduled "field
trip, " perhaps in lieu of a regular FACSAC meeting.
7. Identify relevent family and children' s services issues that
the Committee believes warrant legislation; suggest
appropriate legislation to elected officials.
EDUCATION/PREVENTION
Calla Klein
1. Contribute to the local papers on an on-going basis with
emphasis on family and children' s services.,
2. Introduce Speaker ' s Bureau to schools
Speeches
Hand-Outs
Graphics
Give-and-Take period between audiences and speakers
3 . Sponsor an educational forum.
4. Develop an effective letter-writing campaign.
5. Educate the community as to cost effectiveness of
prevention.
6. When appropriate, have a townhall meeting to discuss
specific relevant issues and prevention measures.
7. Identify a private sector that can assist public sector in
providing family and children' s services.
8. . Gather data from the experts.
9 Other ways to gather/disseminate information:
a. Local TV
b. Radio call-in talk, shows
C. PTA meetings
d. Youth agencies
e. Substance abuse agencies
f: Scout troops
g. Churches
h. Talk to homeless
i. Survey kitchen personnel
j . Demoninational districts
k. Teachers
1. Pediatricians/nurses and health care workers
M. Juvenile judges, probation and child welfare workers
n. Child care personnel
o. Foster parents
p. Talk to recipients if Social Services
q. Victims of abuse - adolescents and battered parents
10. Distill and deliver reports to Board of Supervisors, cities,
and private/public nonprofit agencies, churches, schools,
health agencies, and Social Service.
R
The Chairperson asked that the Committee members think about what
subcommittees they wish to be on and what other committee meet-
ings they would want to join as representatives of FACSAC.
There being no further business to discuss, the meeting was ad-
journed at 3:30 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Chris Wirtz, Secretary
BC:cw(A:FACSAC.SEP:DISC. 34)
11w
it
FOSTER CARE STUDY
BY
KATHERINE L. ARMSTRONG
DECEMBER 12, 1986
FOSTER CARE STUDY
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Subject: _ - Page - _ - -
PURPOSE - 1
METHOD 2
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS 3-11
PROBLEM STATEMENT 12
CAUSES OF THE PROBLEM 13-15
TWO-PRONG APPROACH NEEDED 16
OPTION ONE 17-23
OPTION TWO 24-25
OPTION THREE 26 ,
OPTION FOUR 27
MARKETING AND ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN 28-29
APPENDIX A: INTERVIEW FINDINGS A-'l to A-14
APPENDIX B: SAMPLE:. MISSION STATEMENT, B-1.
APPENDIX C: SAMPLE: PERFORMANCE STANDARDS C-1
APPENDIX D: SAMPLE: MANAGE BY DATA ANALYSIS
& TRENDS D-1
APPENDIX E: ROUGH ESTIMATES OF AVAILABLE E-1-to E-2
FOSTER PARENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Subject: - _ Page -
PURPOSE 1
METHOD `2
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS 3-11.
PROBLEM STATEMENT ;12
CAUSES OF THE PROBLEM 13-15
TWO-PRONG APPROACH NEEDED 16
OPTION ONE 17-23
OPTION TWO 24-25
OPTION THREE 26
OPTION FOUR 27
MARKETING AND ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN '28-29
APPENDIX A: INTERVIEW FINDINGS A-1 to A-14
APPENDIX B: SAMPLE: MISSION STATEMENT B-1
APPENDIX C: SAMPLE: PERFORMANCE STANDARDS C-1
APPENDIX D: SAMPLE: MANAGE BY DATA ANALYSIS
& TRENDS D-1
APPENDIX E: ROUGH ESTIMATES OF AVAILABLE E-1 to E-2
FOSTER PARENTS
PURPOSE•
The purpose of the foster care recruitment study is to develop a
set of options for increasing the quantity, diversity and quality
of foster parents to serve children in Contra Costa County.
In this report a two-prong strategy for increasing the number,
diversity. and .quality of foster parents is suggested. The reVort
. recommends one set of options to reduce the number of experienced
and high quality foster parents leaving the system and recommends
an extensive marketing and advertising plan for recruiting new
fostef parents.
-1-
METHOD:
The method used to develop these series of _options consisted of
interviewing foster parents, social workers, managers and policy -
makers within Social Services, and representatives from community
— agencies and private homef,inder agencies. ' The — literature
regarding foster care and foster care recruitment and unpublished
material gathered from model foster care programs across the -
country. were reviewed.
Over 103 interviews were completed.
21 community agencies and private homefinder agencies
36 foster parents
21 workers
10 senior management
15 supervisors
In addition ' to these interviews I attended a meeting of the
specialized foster home program and talked with 4 groups of
children ranging from elementary grades through high school.
After the interviews were completed a draft report was written
and a presentation of these findings and options' were presented
to the Department of Social Service's Executive Team, the
Division Supervisors, Front line Supervisors, and " an interested
group of Foster Parents.
Each group made suggestions regarding which of the options they
would like to see implemented. Their ideas were presented to the
Executive Team in December. The Social Services' final
recommendations for action are presented in a separate report to
the Youth Services Board.
Requests for copies of this final report should be directed to
Mr. Robert Jornlin, Contra Costa County Social Service
Department, P. O. Box 5488, Concord, CA 94524.
-2-
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
During the interviews thirteen common issues were discussed by
foster parents, social workers, supervisors, and - division
supervisors\managers. On . .many -of the issues, there -was
congruence, but -on a number of the issues, there were subtle
significant differences in perception,. interpretation and
experiences between foster parents and social services staff.
In this section of the report the responses to these major issues
are summarized and the range of perceptions presented. A more
detailed comparison of these issues and the range of responses is
located in Appendix-A:
Comments were included in this summary that represented at least
300 of the responses. The statements are not necessarily direct
quotes, although some statements were expressed in almost
identical words by several different respondents.
Issue 1: CHILDREN NOW IN PLACEMENT HAVE MORE SERIOUS PROBLEMS
There was remarkable agreement among all interviewees that during
the last. three years, children removed from their homes are
significantly different from the kinds of children placed 5 and
10 years ago. The children today are the most troubled children
the department sees; only children from extremely destructive
homes are removed from their parents.
It is significant that all parties, both the workers and foster
parents, have had to deal with these more troubled children
without receiving any additional formal trainingin the skills
and techniques needed to be successful with the children. In
fact, department staff and foster parents have had to serve more
troubled children with less resources. available in the community
and within the department.
Many felt it is no longer sufficient for a foster parent to be a
. "naturally good mother" to help these. children. The children
need foster parents trained and comfortable in coping with angry,
sometimes violent children, children with out of control
behavior, and be able to cope with teenagers who use drugs, are
sexually active and often suicidal.
Workers need to be expert in behavior management and resources in
the community to be helpful to the foster parent and to the
child.
It is not surprising that at the same time the children are more .
challenging, their natural parents are even more difficult to
-3-
l `
work with. and motivate. Current emphasis on parents rights means
that there are long jurisdictional- battles. Reunification is
more difficult, and the requirements of all parts of the system
are over stretched. -
_ Issue 2: SYSTEM CONTINUITY AND BUILDING AND MAINTAINING
RELATIONSHIPS
There was consistent agreement among all parties that the system
designed to help children has become a conveyor belt, a
production system. The system is organized to allow the
department to meet the demands placed by the state and the court,
but the system organization is inconsistent with recognized
standards and principles for serving troubled children.
Now, children have a minimum of four workers. Foster parents have
that many workers per child times the number of children in their
homes. Some foster parents may have as many as 16 different
workers for the four children placed in their home.
Because of the number of different workers assigned to each child.
there is decreased opportunities for building relationship, and
there is limited time to "get to know the children" or to provide
the continuity and stability needed by children who have. not
known consistency, or predictable treatment. The child must cope
with a great deal of continual uncertainty waiting for a new
worker, a new decision and a new foster parent.
Issue 3: PAY FOSTER PARENTS MORE MONEY
Social Service staff and foster parents had interesting
difference in their perception and understanding regarding the
role money -plays in recruitment and retention of foster parents.
Most of the social workers, supervisors, and managers believe
that the department cannot recruit or keep foster parents because
the money is so inadequate. They share .the belief that if foster
parents were paid more money, we could not only recruit more
foster parents but a higher quality of foster parents. Many
social workers believe the. AFDC-FC stipend is a salary for foster
parents. They were surprised to learn that foster parents are
volunteers and the money they receive is simply to pay the
child's monthly expenses and are not wages for hours spent with
the children.
The foster parents agreed it would be nice to have more money,
but all acknowledged that they did not foster children for the
money. In fact, most spend more money on the children than the
department provides.
-4-
A`
The foster parent's big concern about money- is- the inequities in
the system around Difficulty of Care (DOC) , clothing allowance,
and the poor treatment they receive when they have problems in-
-getting their monthly check.
Many foster parent could recite examples of the inconsistencies
and differences among workers in implementing DOC.
A foster parent can have two different children in the home with
the very same difficult behavior, one worker will agree that she
should receive DOC and the other worker will withhold the money.
The same child can be given DOC by one worker after the previous
worker denied the request for DOC.
Foster Parents believe that the department' s emphasis on having
the children be treated like other children is inconsistent with
the administration and implementation of the clothing allowance.
The limited and sporadic clothing allowance provided for the
children does not allow the foster parent to dress the children
like their peers at school. Often children outgrow their clothes
and must wait 6 months to a year before the next clothing
allowance.
A foster parent who has extra *money often buys clothes and toys
for children knowing that they will never be reimbursed for this
expenditure.
Issue 4: LICENSING STAFF
Most workers, supervisors and division supervisors believe
licensing should be located in Children's Services. Many people
also suggested that licensing staff be better trained to do
screening of foster parents. (Interestingly, licensing workers
recommended that more placement workers be hired and trained to
work with children and foster parents) .
Foster parents felt very positive about their licensing worker
but most agreed that the licensing worker could not protect the
foster parent' s rights nor solve their problems with placement
staff.
Issue 5: HOW FOSTER PARENTS ARE TREATED BY SOCIAL WORKERS AND
HOW THEY ARE INCLUDED IN DECISION-MAKING
Many foster, parents and some social workers admitted that they
knew of situations in which foster parents were poorly treated by
some social workers. Some workers are known to have an
aggressive personality style or a rude manner with foster
parents.
-5-
While no foster parent likes being treated disrespectfully by
social—workers, being put on hold when they call, having their ,
phone calls- ignored, or being yelled -at by an angry workers, the
most upsetting thing reported by nearly all foster parents is
that foster parents are viewed as glorified baby-sitters by
social workers. Most foster parents do not believe that their _
opinion is valued, and, instead, feel, that their advice and
information is discounted as coming from someone overly involved
with the child.
Most foster parents consider it a number one priority to have the
department treat them with respect and as valued team members,
including them in the decision-making regarding the child's
future. N
.Most of the social service staff report great respect for foster
parents and are very unhappy that some foster parents are
mistreated by some social workers. They believe that they use
most of the information provided by foster parents in their
decision-making and are surprised that foster parents do not feel
valued by the social workers.
However, most social workers feel that there are some foster
parents who do not accept the authority of the department and do
not understand the boundaries of decision-making. Most social
workers report that foster parents do not understand the
departments mandate to reunite families and follow the court' s
dictates on future disposition of -child..
The greatest difficulty seen by social workers is that foster
parents cannot accept the department' s authority and consequently
cause a lot of trouble for themselves and the workers by
questioning the workers ' judgment and authority and failing to
cooperate with the department' s requirements.
Issue 6: BLACKBALLING FOSTER PARENTS BY WORKERS
In the. discussion regarding why some foster parents are not used,
there was marked difference of opinion between social services
workers and foster parents. -
Workers agreed that there are homes that are inadequate to care
for children and if they have a choice, they never place children
in those homes. Many social workers are concerned because, due
to shortage of foster parents, they are placing children in homes
that do not meet minimal, acceptable standards.
.Most workers did not feel that they did not let simple
personality conflicts with foster parents interfere with placing
children in good homes.
Foster parents, on the other hand, report that they are "black
balled" whenever they act assertively on behalf of a child and
incur the anger and disagreement of the worker. They report
-6-
examples of children suddenly and unexpectedly removed from their
: homes following a personality conflict _with the worker.- In these
examples, the children do not wish to leave the home- but their -
wishes are ignored by social workers. , -
Foster parents believe that workers- do not like to ,use new homes
and are more willing to place too many children in a known home
than to take a chance. with new .foster parents.
Foster parents do not .have an objective grievance procedure they
can rely upon to have these problems addressed. Some call the
worker's supervisor but report that the supervisors rarely
resolve any problems on their behalf. Many asked that the
independent grievance committee that used . to operate in the
county be reinstated.
T
Issue 7: RESPITE CARE
Everypne agreed that respite care was a number one priority for
foster parents, that they needed it, deserved it and should have
it. No one within the department believes there is any money to
implement respite care nor is staff available to undertake the
development of such a program.
Foster parents say it is unfair and impossible to do the job with
the current limitations on respite. They can't afford the
baby-sitting costs to get brief respite. The rules of the
department make it impossible to work out reasonable respite
care with extended family, neighbors or° friends. Unless respite
care is made a priority, many good foster parents will become
exhausted and quit.
Issue 8: TRAINING: ,
Many workers, supervisors, and divisions supervisors felt . that
foster parents should be mandated to attend training. Some did
not believe it could be enforced due to licensing regulations.
Suggested training included: Instruction about Social Services '
mandates and operation, the relationship of the court in
decision-making as well as information on child development,
management of discipline, alternatives to discipline, handling
teenagers acting out.
Many foster parents agreed that training should be mandatory.
Other foster parents did not attend training and did not want to
make training mandatory.
Supervisors and divisional supervisors admitted that workers also
needed training in how to do good placement, how to work with
foster parents, and information and skills related to child
development and child management so that they could be more
-7-
helpful and supportive to foster parents,
Issue 9: COMMUNITY HEALTH AND MENTAL HEALTH RESOURCES _
Everyone was in complete agreement that there were -limited and
most often no resources available to help foster children cope
with their emotional . problems. Medi-Cal poses manyproblems and
limits in the amount of therapy children may receive.
While Mental. Health has been helpful to many children, and there
are examples of mutual programs between Mental Health and Social
Services, Mental Health is severely limited in . staff and
programs. They are unable to give foster parents first priority
in being served. They lack sufficient treatment programs,
residential care, and hospitalization for children suffering , rom
severe emotional problems.
Most foster parents complain that medical assessments are not
completed on children before placement in their homes. Many
reported having to spend long hours in the waiting room at county
hospital waiting for medical exams to be completed. Because the
children did not come with Medi-Cal stickers they were unable to
use their own physicians and save waiting time. ,
Many had to pay expensive baby-sitters to watch the other
children in their home while .they waited in the county hospital.
Most foster parents felt that the workers should be more helpful
in assisting them and the children find resources in the county.
Issue 10: NATURAL PARENTS VISITATION
While there was remarkable agreement among social workers and
foster parents that one of the real banes of fosterparenting is
handling natural parents visitation, they differed in subtle but
significant ways regarding the meaning this. issue had for foster
parents.
Most workers feel that foster parents do not like letting
children visit their natural parents because after these visits,
children become difficult to manage and have increased
destructive behavior and emotional side effects. But, since
social workers believe handling natural parents visitation is a
part of the foster parent's job, foster parents should be more
cooperative about these visits and be prepared to cope with the
outcomes.
Instead, social workers report that some foster parents sabotaged
parental visits and constantly struggle with the worker over the
scheduling. of these visits.
-g-
- Foster., parents on the other hand feel - they have legitimate
concerns about the department's policy of using foster parents
to supervise children's visits with- the natural parents. and
mandating that the foster parent's address and telephone number_
be given to the natural parents. Further, they have serious
concern about the mandating that natural parents visit the child
in the foster parents home. They see these parents as very
disturbed, dangerous and violent people with questionable
backgrounds. They . feel these visits put their families at risk
and their homes and neighborhoods in danger.
They also find it very hard to watch children get hurt week after
week by unfit and destructive parents. "It is like sending a
child out to get beat up each week". -They believe that the
department makes too few demands on the parents to rehabilitate
themselves and that children are returned to homes where no
changes have occurred.
Example after example showed the great pain suffered by foster
parents when they see a child making great progress, then upon
return to the natural home, these gains are lost and the child
faces a dismal future.
Issue 11: EMERGENCY FOSTER PARENTS
Everyone agreed that the scarcity of emergency foster parents is
creating burdens on the system. As a result of few homes and the
increasing number of children staying in the emergency placement
too long, the emergency foster parents are overloaded and asked
to do more than is fair.
Workers did not believe they should move children out of
emergency homes until the jurisdictional hearings were final.
They view it as a waste of time to move a child when the future
is unknown. They also do not believe they have time to deal with
placement during the court work stage.
Meantime, 'the emergency foster parent is asked to do everything
for the child with little or no assistance from the worker. They
do these tasks with no information or knowledge .of the child's
history.
Many foster parents feel children are suffering pain and agony
when they are kept hanging in limbo with no sense of when or
where they will end up. The child suffers when another child in
the emergency home is placed and he/she is left sitting for
months. Children are constantly worrying about what is going to
happen to them during emergency placement.
-9-
Issue 12: PLANNING FOR CHILDREN BY PLACEMENT WORKERS AND _
FOSTER PARENTS
Most agreed that no planning occurs between foster .parents and
social workers about the . specific tasks and objectives to be
accomplished while a child is placed with the foster parent:
Most planning done by. social workers deal with reunification or
permanent placement but does not address what the child should be
accomplishing during placement."There just is no time to -do the
kind of planning children need". -
Issue 13: INVESTIGATION OF FOSTER PARENTS BY INTAKE WORKERS
Everyone agreed that the current system of investigation of
reports of abuse and neglect by foster parents is destructive to
the the social worker-foster parent relationship. '
Workers feel it is a conflict of .interest. They have to work
closely with the same foster parents they "are asked to
investigate. Some of the foster parents under investigation have
done favors for the workers by taking "one more child" whenever
there is a desperate situation and no other placement exists.
Social Workers would like someone else to handle these
investigations. Some suggested that staff from the other
district offices do the investigations for their area or that the
department contract with an outside group to do these
investigations.
Foster parents understand that all abuse and neglect reports must
be investigated but resent the manner in which the investigations
occur. During these investigations, no one represents the foster
parents. When the investigation is over, no one comes to the
house and discusses what happened. No one deals with all the
feelings that have been created. There never is any closure.
They feel like they are treated as guilty until proven innocent.
When a person is accused of abuse or neglect ,of a foster child,
it is as if all workers forget about all the good,,that. the foster
parent has done, and now, this foster parent must prove before
the whole world that he/she is innocent without any department or
legal support.
Several foster parents told stories.. in which good foster parents
have had. their lives ruined by unfair conditions and
investigations.
_10-
SUMMARY
When completing the interviews, I- foundmyself pulled into the
great abyss- of pains anger, disappointments, - helplessness and
hopelessness expressed by foster parents and department staff.
It was very- difficult to imagine how these differences in
perceptions, the reality of limited resources, and
ingrained practices. and attitudes could be transformed into a
healthy productive Foster Care system for children.° In the. past,
many of these same complaints have been expressed to the
Department, but it. has been difficult to , tackle these issues one
by one.
They are really an array of symptoms of a more basic fundamental
problem affecting the department and foster parents. This problem
has not been sufficiently defined to allow action .,to be focused
and directed in concerted effort.
In the next section of the report, I define the problem and
recommend a series of options.
-11-
THE PROBLEM STATEMENT
Succinctly stated, there are insufficient number and diversity of
high quality foster homes to serve the increasing number of
troubled children currently being removed from their own. homes
and in need of protective care. - -The children currently, being removed from their own homes have
experienced severe neglect,. abuse or sexual _ molestation and
suffer from extreme emotional deprivation, characterized by
withdrawn and depressed behavior or extreme anger and
unmanageable behavior.
The current system of caring for children and foster parents
lacks a coherent foster care program and a sufficient number of
highly trained social workers and community programs, and
resources to cope with the difficult job of reparenting the child
and natural parents.
-12-
BRIEF SUMMARY OF CAUSES OF THIS PROBLEM ,
A complete treatise could be written on the "how". and "why" this
current problem -developed. But, my intention is simply to show
that the causes are complex and that no one reason is sufficient
to explain the current crisis in foster care.
There has been no organized, comprehensive county wide recruitment
efforts since 1980.-
More
980:More women have gone back to work, there is no longer a stream of
highly motivated successful mothers .who are referring themselves
to the department to become foster parents.
There is no management information system about . the existing
foster parents and the department's needs to guide and direct
recruitment.
No one knows how many licensed foster parents are unhappy working
with the county, or are now working for other „ counties and
private foster care agencies. No one knows how many foster
parents have stopped taking children because they „need a break.
No one knows how many foster parents will soon be retiring after
long years of service; or, how many . foster parents are leaving
because they have, ' been found to abuse and neglect foster
children; or, how many- foster parents are continuing to work with
the county because they do not want to lose the children with
whom they have invested -so much of themselves, but do not intend
to accept new
children.
There is no one monitoring the number of licensed foster parents
motivated to care for children but for a variety of reasons are
not being used. Some number of these homes seem to be unqualified
to care for children in need of custody. Other foster parents
have placed their own limitations and restrictions on whom they
are willing to foster.
But others seem to suffer from "black balling” a practice of not
using a home because of personality differences, or
incompatibility between workers and foster parents and/or due to
bias by workers. Some of these foster homes may in fact be good
placement choices for some children.
Because there are so many unhappy foster parents, the natural
recruitment of foster parents by foster parents is minimal.
Many foster parents say they do not want to ask any of their
friends or church members to work with a system that refuses to
treat them as valuable members of a team and fails to acknowledge
their many accomplishments. They are not willing to - encourage
anyone to become a foster parent and struggle with the painful
-13-
and unending -obstacles presented by policies_ that return children
to unfit and destructive home. _ -
Reduction in. licensing staff, -trends towards licensing -by
regulations, and inability of licensing to protect or represent
foster parents in the system.
The licensing staff has been reduced since 1980.,, As trained
licensing staff were promoted into _Children's Services, "new
licensing staff were recruited from. adult services.
The new licensing staff were less familiar with good clinical
practice needed to .properly screen foster parent applicants.
Simultaneously, the state lowered their expectations_ for the
licensing function and subsequently reduced the amount of money
given to counties for. licensing. r
Currently,licensing workers have large caseloads, license homes
based upon less stringent state regulations, and are visiting
homes once a year for relicense applications. The Licensing staff
no longer have the time or expertise to recruit, license, and
nurture and protect foster parents. No one in Children's
Services has assumed the responsibilities thought to be
Licensing's duty.
Budget cuts, staff reductions , increased legal requirements to
protect natural parents rights and keep families together
resulted in a shift of staff to the front end of the system and
lower priorities placed upon placement, foster parents and
licensing.
Given the state mandates on reunification and the demands of
supporting a legal process that emphasized protecting parents
rights, the department shifted resources to the family
maintenance and family reunification efforts. Now, there are
less resources and staff to supervise placement.
Placement workers have larger caseloads, see their families once
a month and spend most of their time completing paperwork
requirements.
Large caseloads, poorly trained staff, "no time" has re- focused
the department from a "child oriented" system into a production
mill. -
Due to state mandates and reimbursement rules, emphasis is now on
paperwork, legal process, and crisis management. No one has the
time to ask,"what is it that we should be doing to serve this
child"?
During these changes, there was no one with the time to explore
how technology and automation could reduce or, eliminate the
paperwork requirements. No new systems or economies of work were
-14-
developed to give workers more time to concentrate on zhee - child
and family..
Foster parents believe they are treated badly by the system- and
social workers---a great list of grievanceshave accumulated over
- the years and no one is responsible for . correcting these
problems.
Foster parents are worn out by a job that is 24 - hour a day 7
days a week, year after year, without respite, support, help and
kindness. Add to this demanding job .the unpleasant realities of
dealing with natural parents, painfully watching a child returned
again and again to a destructive home, and witnessing all of your
efforts to protect and care for the child wiped out.
The final consequences of this existing problem is that until,the
department develops a coherent foster. care program that resolves
the obstacles currently facing foster parents, there can be no
successful recruitment. To put a lot of effort into recruitment
and licensing without, making changes in the foster care program
as it currently exists would be similar to pouring money into a
leaking bucket Currently, many, new foster parents are quitting
after one placement experience with the department.
-15-
j
A TWO-PRONG APPROACH IS NEEDED:
o Develop and implement .a_comprehensive, county wide_
recruitment strategy.-
0 Implement a coherent foster care program that is child _
oriented and responsive to foster parent needs.
The current problem -of declining numbers of foster parents cannot
be solved unless both approaches are implemented. The success of
a well-managed foster care program demands an ongoing supply of
new foster parents recruited and trained to .fulfill the current
needs of children in placement. The recruitment ;of new foster
parents depends upon a foster care . program that supports foster
parents and treats them as 'valuable team members.
The report now suggests several options for developing a foster
care program and presents an outline of a marketing and
advertising campaign to recruit foster parents.
-16-
OPTION ONE: DEVELOP A COHERENT FOSTER CARE PROGRAM THAT HAS ITS
OWN MISSION STATEMENT, STANDARDS OF PERFORMANCE, - PROGRAM
RESPONSIBILITIES FOR RECRUITMENT, LICENSING, AND CARING FOR AND
DEVELOPING FOSTER PARENTS. THIS- FOSTER PARENT PROGRAM WOULD HAVE
THE ABILITY TO- MONITOR THE- QUALITY OF FOSTER PLACEMENTS MADE' AND
INSURE THAT THE NEEDS AND RIGHTS OF FOSTER PARENTS' WERE MET AND
PROTECTED. -
Basic components of a .Foster Parent Program are:
o careful recruitment and selection of- foster parents
o extensive foster parent training prior to child
placement
o purposeful matching and placement of children
with foster parent who can provide maximum benefit. . .
o planned interaction and involvement of the child,
natural parent, foster parent, social worker
in developing, implementing and reviewing a
treatment plan
o weekly meetings between foster parent and social
worker for advice, support, and review of
child's management
. o planning by the four participants to discharge
the child to the best protective setting "for
future stability and success
IMPLEMENTATION STEPS:
1. Make it the department' s number one priority to implement
a foster care program. Assign a manager solely responsible
for the foster care program and the accomplishment of the
standards of performance within a given time frame.
2. Develop a mission statement that is shared with all social
workers in the department and with all foster parents.
This mission statement is the vision and the motivating
standard by which all actions .will be guided. (see
appendix B, for sample) .
3 . Develop a set, of performance standards to be met by the
licensing staff, program staff,, recruitment staff and
all foster parents. (.see appendix C for sample) .
4. Establish a data collection system that allows monitoring
achievement of performance.standard objectives.
-17-
-5. Implement the proposal for computerizing the foster care
inventory. This computerized system should include. the
capacity to maintain the necessary profile, data on
foster parents (eg: how many foster parents, what age and
type of children they serve, how many vacancies, type of
training completed;—social workers involved with the
children in the home) as well as provide the data needed
for pinpointing recruitment needs and- setting targets
for recruitment plans.
6. The foster care program would include the licensing' staff,
program developers, recruiters and foster parents. Each
would have distinct roles and responsibilities; defined,
written and distributed to all for constant reminder.
Suggestions for each role is detailed below.
-18-
The Role of Licensing
The licensing- staff -would be responsible. for assuring that .foster
parents are in compliance with the State laws and meet- the
standards of the Department of. Social Services. The staff would
be well trained in investigations, home studies- and ';monitoring.
This staff would also—have .the responsibility for investigating
any complaints of abuse and neglect by foster parents. This
would remove the responsibility from the current district
emergency response intake workers.
Each licensing worker would use the same standard home study
forms. Each record would follow a . standard format and . be
consistent in each region of the county.
The Licensing staff should be trained in taking fingerprinting so
at the initial interview, fingerprints could be taken and
immediately submitted to the state for review. This would
shorten the amount of time to license a home.
Licensing . should make arrangements for T. B. - exams to be
scheduled for the foster parent applicant.
The entire emphasis of licensing should be to makethe home study
thorough and take sufficient time to do a good home study, but
reduce the number of time consuming logistics demanded from
applicants.
Licensing could consist of. two stages:
o License to assure that foster .parent complies
with all state regulations:
o Preplacement orientation and training after
the State license is awarded. This more ,
detailed orientation, training and"evaluation
could help the department develop a comprehensive
profile of each foster parent. This profile
would allow the foster parent to be appropriately
categorized for placement.. choices, (eg. serve
younger children,, good with children suffering
from physical disabilities, etc. ) . This" second
phase would be done by the program .development
staff
It would be advisable to use this group preplacement training and
in-depth home studies to determine how families react to the
various kinds of kids available for placement. After this
extensive training, foster parents would know 1what kinds of
children they are best suited to foster and program development
staff would know the strengths and weaknesses of foster parents.
The Role of Program Development -Staff
The program developer's .job is to develop a foster- parent program
is-
that increases the likelihood of stable and successful foster --
placement for children.- - This means creating programs -that help-
foster parents fulfill their treatment objectives with children
placed-in their .homes.
The aim of foster placement will be to help children learn to "
manage their own behavior, achieve success in school and be
prepared for reunion with natural parents.
The development staff would be responsible for:
0 overseeing the development of foster parents
o coordinating training needs with the
community college programs
o assuring that good placement practices
were followed in placing children in homes
o matching needs of child with the abilities
and interests of the foster parents
o assuring that foster parents were not overused
o limiting the number of placements in each' home '
to comply with high, standards of a' child
oriented system
o assisting foster parents with problems and
concerns related to the children in their
homes
o working with- the placement workers to assure
that the input and advice of foster parents
is heard and considered
o assuring that there are plans in place for
each child that guides the work of the foster
parent in assisting the child develop. mor,e
acceptable behavior, ,finish school and be
prepared for emancipation.
The program development staff would develop a cadre of resources
in each area of the county that is age specific and appropriate
for the presenting needs . of the children, . tutoring services,
recreational opportunities, jobs and . independent living
activities as well as mental health services ' (eg: negotiate with
Medi-Cal providers to see children a 1/2 hour a`ry week for four
weeks rather than twice a month.
-20-
Program development would also-be responsible for the orientation
and training . of newly licensed foster parents. 'Through the well
_ --designed- training, the staff would Learn about the skills, needs
and abilities of foster parents, and implement plans for- helping -
foster parents strengthen their abilities. They.: would decide
when new foster parents are ready for their first child and would
closely monitor this first placement experience.
The program developer would develop a respite care program.
The program developer is really the gate keeper of ,,�placement and
assures that foster parents have specific plans and resources for
working with children placed in their care.
-21-
The Role- of Recruitment
The recruiter would have the responsibility of implementing the -
countywide marketing and advertising campaign. It! is important
that_ the recruitment position be centralized with; a countywide
t campaign strategy. The recruitment strategy should- target the .
categories of people most _neededby the children'' being placed
(e.g. if Department needs homes for teens, the recruitment
message would show teenagers in the ads.) .
The Foster Parents Role
The role and responsibilities of foster parents would be clearly
defined and made available to everyone in the system.
EMERGENCY FOSTER PARENTS (ER)
Foster parents in the emergency home category would have unique
role responsibilities relevant to emergency care.
The ER foster parent must complete the medical assessment, give
the child an orientation to placement and learn as much as
possible about the child' s needs and assist in ,formulating an
initial treatment plan for the child while in placement.
The interface between foster parent program arid social work staff
is critical. The placement worker gains access to foster
placement through the development worker. At the ,time a child is
placed in a foster home, the Program Developer, the foster parent
and the placement worker will write a plan for "what" and . "how"
the foster parent will do with the child during placement.
While the placement worker manages the work with the natural
parent, with the court, and completes all the paper requirements,
. the program developer assists the. foster parent in accomplishing
the established work plan for the child.
In order . to facilitate the job of program development, foster
parents might be segmented into speciality areas. 1 Some examples:
The first category: emergency homes and long-`term homes
The second category by age: (0-2, 2-5, 5-10, ;10-13 , 13-18) .
Then by .specialities: disabilities, sexual molestation,
emotional problems, family reunification, etc.
Then by regions.
-22-
The program developer should work out an arrangement with the
Public- Health Department's Children's Services (br., Kathy Malloy)
to have a physician and nurse team available to�_ complete- the
medical exams for the foster parents in a conveniently scheduled
time. _
When the child leaves emergency -home placement,, the complete
information packet with immunization records] medical assessment,
psychological, and other evaluation material is presented to the
long term foster parent.
Segmentation of the foster parents into speciality area would
allow for faster placement choices and also allow the program
developers to develop unique training programs for !;smaller groups
of people.
Segmentation of foster parents into discreet groups allows program
developers to organize a network of resources for each speciality
area and facilitates natural buddy and self help groups. Foster
parents could help compile resource books for their particular:
sub-group by working with the community information and referral
agencies.
LONG TERM FOSTER PARENTS
The long term foster parent is responsible for providing the
daily care of the child in a nurturing environment and fulfills
agreed upon placement objectives for the child.- They work with
community agencies and resources to obtain services for the
child; provides information and feedback to the placement worker
on future disposition planning for the child.
The foster parent may also supervise visits with the natural
parent after an agreement is reached by all parties as to what
is expected and how It is to be accomplished.
The foster parent is given all relevant information about the
child and natural parents to allow them -to ; make informed
decisions about how they want to work with the natural parents.
Emergency placement should . be limited to 30 days. During this
time complete information is gathered reviewed with the program
developer, placement worker, and decision is madeabout the next
placement choice. Even if court jurisdiction is not completed at
this date, enough should now be known about what the child needs
and could gain from placement.
The choice for placement is determined by who is the right foster
parent to help this child accomplish what he/she needs during
placement.
The child ' is then prepared for the. placement and proper
transition planning is followed.
_23_
OPTION- 2: INCREMENTAL STOP GAP MEASURES (TINKERING WITH
THE SYSTEM)
1. Make a clear statement to all social services staff,
including eligibility-workers - that foster parents
are our most treasured resource. Instruct every
.staff person that it is the department's policy and
practice to treat foster parents with respect and.
good manners.
Institute an objective grievance process through
which any violations of this policy will be
submitted for review and correction. Act quickly
and firmly to correct any grievance. Make sure
this policy is circulated among all foster par.'ents
and is included in the orientation process for- new
foster parents.-
2. Hire an ombudsman for the county who would. do ''trouble
shooting and crisis management. This person would be
a well trained clinician who can be respected by all
department staff; and must have the authority` to
hold supervisors and staff accountable. .
. . 3. Plan recognition events acknowledging accomplishments
of foster parents. (like the Stokes Award) . , Make
sure these events occur at least four times a, year
and receive a lot of publicity. Prizes and awards
could be sought from localmerchants and companies
in exchange for publicity of their contribution.
4. Expand the specialized foster parent program to
be responsible for the 25% of the children who
fail foster placement at least five times.
5. Use the staff from the Specialized Foster Home
Program to provide orientation and training
to the District' s children' s staff on their
methods for providing support and assistance ',
to foster parents Make the resources and experience
of this program more available to staff in all
placement offices.
6. Hire one recruiter to implement marketing and
advertising campaign using the recruitment strategy
described in this report on pages
7. Train licensing staff to handle telephone inquiries
with a more positive recruitment approach.
-24-
8. In each district office, segment the children currently
in placement into age .specific categories and develop
specialists among the placement workers by children's -
ages. This will-allow workers over time to develop
a network of resources for children in that 'age'; group
and to know how to manage the -common developmental
problems of their age speciality. This would allow
more stable relationships to develop between foster
parents and social workers. Social workers and foster
parents would have common experiences-over time that
would reduce the misunderstandings that occur when
people don't know or appreciate each other's- personality
style. over time, workers would become experts and able .
to build upon a specific knowledge base before transferring
'to another age grouping.
9. Explore recruiting private home finder agencies to
serve all long term placements for the department. .
children would get excellent services. This service
would reduce the worker's time and workload and the
cost to the county is minimal 5% of the board rate.
The children placed in the homefinder agencies could
be monitored by CRPU.
10. When a case has been assigned to the court unit, team
the court worker up with a child' s case manager who
would follow the child throughout his/her placement.
If at this time, it appears that the child should be
Placed, team the worker up with a family reunification
worker and allow the family reunification worker to
begin plans for moving child out of emergency .home
within 30 days.
During this 30 days in emergency foster care, make sure
the foster parent has the resources to complete medical
exams and ,any other assessments needed to prepare child
for placement planning. Work with Public Health's
Children's staff to arrange for a physician-nurse team
to help' complete medical assessments and enroll the child
into CHDP.
-25-
OPTION THREE;—BEGIN TO DEVELOP A TOTALLY PROFESSIONAL PLACEMENT
SYSTEM - BY REPLACING THE USE OF FOSTER PARENTS FOR EMERGENCY
PLACEMENT. -
1. -Develop a- shelter program providing 24 -hour care staffed with
physician, nurse, mental health specialist, socia-1 workers, and
caretakers. Develop the -program so that it ., can expand and
contract given the variation in number of children; entering the
system.
Every child removed from h/her natural home would be' brought to
the shelter for several days. During this time the child would
be " given an orientation to placement, medical and social
assessments would be completed and immunizationand medical
records would be collected. A plan for placement needs would be
tentatively developed.
Within 10 days a child would be placed in a stable foster home
with a worker assigned to develop a enablement planfor the child
to be followed while child in placement.
2. Foster home program would be implemented using., modifications
from option 1.
3. Worker assigned child from ER worker would Work as a team
with court worker, but be the one who begins the . case management
of the treatment plan coordinating the work with natural parent,*
foster parent, court, school and community agencies.
4. All decisions regarding discharge or return to the natural
parent would be conferenced with all parties.
S. Recruit private homefinder agencies to serve the county's
children in longterm placement.
`26_
OPTION FOUR--DO-NOTHING -
. 1.
OUR--DO-NOTHING. 1. There will be no foster parents by-1995. -
2. Contra Costa County -increases the risk of facing casualties
similar to San Francisco and Alameda counties. -
3. Social -Workers will be completely - demoralized and
- emotionally exhausted.
4. Currently, county is out of compliance with #1,#4,#5,
#61#8,#11,#13 on the contract form used in placing children in
foster care. This may place the County at risk for contract
violations.
-27-
MARKETING AND ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN -TO RECRUIT FOSTER. PARENTS
_ Purpose: Increase the number of foster parents available to
Contra Costa County.-. .-. -
25 new emergency foster beds (13 foster homes)
90 foster beds able to serve mental health, probation and
social services most troubled children (45 foster homes).
60 long term foster .beds (30 .foster homes)
100 foster beds to replace lost foster beds in '1986
Total of 188 foster beds to be recruited by 1989
Focus of Campaign: The focus of all recruitment will be on the
benefits to the foster parent. Emphasis will be placed upon
"challenging work. . . opportunity to invest in the future by
fostering a child .today. . . being a part of a professional team. . .
earn recognition. . . and gain opportunities to learn new skills
and knowledge."
Audience: Women in Contra Costa County who enjoy children, want
to work at home, and who are ready for personal challenge and
growth.
Media: Rely upon Contra Costa Time, local newspapers, church
newsletters, direct mailing to PTA, Teachers Association members,
nurses association members, and target communities. Advertise at
grocery stores, shopping malls, use T.V. and radio spots to
reinforce the message read through print media.
10% of the effort should be directed towards creating public
recognition of foster parenting and its valuable contribution to
society. For three months prior to direct mail campaign, flood
the media with general interest stories about foster parents and
their accomplishments, stories about the challenge and rewards,
the stamina it requires and the skills needed to be successful.
After the first three months of "setting the stage" implement a
more direct advertising campaign, but continue monthly stories in
the local newspapers.
30% of the recruitment effort should be targeted direct mail
advertising to prospects in church groups, teachers, nurses, PTAs
shopping department mailing lists etc. his effort should begin
after the general public promotional efforts. Successful direct
mail campaigns depend upon 3. or 4 mailings a year to a good
prospect mailing list.
60% of the effort should be to develop recruitment efforts
by foster parents. Every foster parent who recruits an applicant
-28-
._should be rewarded. Perhaps another reward is given when the
_ applicant is actually licensed and then another when the first
child is placed. Other incentives-- and recognition should be
planned - to . encourage foster parents to help in recruitment
efforts. _
The Niche: -An opportunity for housewives and their families
to gain _ public recognition, a- supportive social group,
professional expansion and challenging work. (This means that- the
foster care program must be able to deliver on these promises) .
Theme: Develop a slogan or motto that implies that Foster
parents are respected members of the team fostering the growth
and development of children in need of caring homes. This slogan
will be used in all direct mail and publicity efforts.
Resources:. Get professional help in developing brochures, direct
mail campaign and media coverage. The Ad Council of New York can
probably recommend local ad agencies, perhaps Olgivy and Mather.
s
-29-
APPENDIX A: INTERVIEW FINDINGS ON 13 KEY ISSUES
AFFECTING -FOSTER PARENTS
ISSUES: -
1. Children have greater needs today, more difficult to manage,
more disturbed emotional development
WORKERS:
1. Almost all workers agreed that children require incredible
amount of patience and skill' from foster parents. No one has
been quite ready for the type of children now entering foster
homes. Many Foster Parents are not equipped to handle the
difficulties. . There are no community resources. We have no time
to assist them. We have to rely upon the Foster Parent to handle
these problems and many of them can't.
SUPERVISORS:
1. Children are so much more difficult today than ever before.
Children are born addicted, some have never received love or any
kind of nurturing. They are very angry children. Most Foster
Parents and workers are not trained to handle ,these difficult
children. Most' Social Workers are not able to take the time to
match children with Foster Parents and aren't always able to
visit Foster Parents on the. regular basis needed to properly
supervise the home and provide the kind of help needed.
Supervisors don' t have time to help Foster Parents on an on call
basis because of our. incredible workload of reviewing 30 cases
for 8-9 workers; in addition to overseeing 240 cases we have many
additional administrative assignments.
DIVISION SUPERVISORS AND POLICY:
1. Most children need the specialized foster home services. They
are the most troubled children from the most destructive homes.
There are too few staff and resources to properly manage and
assist Foster Parents in handling children. No community
resources available to rely upon. We cannot properly manage the
workload given paperwork and skills of our workers and Foster
Parents.
FOSTER PARENTS
1. The Social Worker places a child in my home with little or no
information. This child may be dangerous, beaten up another kid,
destroyed another home, sets fires, wets bed or spreads feces.
The Social Worker does not help me locate resources, therapy or
Medi-Cal for the child who almost always needs therapy. They do
not answer calls, instead of practical concrete advise we hear
platitudes and a pep talk. When I make -a mistake or get into
A-1
trouble, they are out here in a minute and -I am treated . as a
criminal. Yet, when I- ask for help in handling a child it means
to them that I am weak 'and can't do my job. If I ask for help it
is .becauseI really need it, no one bothers anyone unless it is _
real. important. _ -
2. Continuity of care/relationship
WORKERS: _
2. The system destroys continuity of care--at least 3 to 4
workers per . child, each foster parent has that many, different
workers per each child placed in her home. System allows no time
to know the kids, families, and forma relationship. How can you
know a child based upon one visit per month. The emphasis is on
paperwork, legal and administration. We couldn't survive if we
weren't so fragmented and specialized, not good for children
but more efficient for us"
SUPERVSORS:
2. No way to do casework and serve children, but this is the way
we are organized and upper administration unwilling to give more
workers and reduce caseloads so we could really work with
families, children, and Foster Parents. ,
DIVISION SUPERVISORS & POLICY:
2. This is a system that was selected so we could accomplish the
incredible burden and complexity of paperwork, legal requirements
and state mandated deadlines.
FOSTER PARENTS: .
2. I have 3 to 4 workers per child. Workers have no knowledge
of the child. I am the only continuity of relationship the child
has in this system. Yet when I make suggestions, they ignore me.
"Sometimes I forget their names, there are so many changes and
different workers" Often don' t even know who the worker is this
month.
3. Money: adequate compensation for the job
WORKERS:
3. Need to pay, Foster Parents more. If we did, we could get
more Foster Parents and higher quality Foster Parents. Have to
recognize we can' t expect foster parents to do this job anymore
without earning legitimate fee. Takes a lot of my time to deal
with problems with eligibility around AFDC-FC checks. This is a
degrading experience for Foster Parents and me to have to work
problems out with eligibility. Those workers can be pretty rude.
SUPERVISORS:
A-2
3. If we could pay Foster Parents more we .could recruit more
foster parents and a higher quality Foster Parent.
DIVISION SUPERVISORS & POLICY:
I. -Need to be able to pay Foster Parents more money then we
could expect them to participate in mandated training and could -
require .and recruit higher quality.—
.FOSTER PARENTS:
3. Sure more money wouldbe great, but I am not in this. for. the
money; it costs me money to be a foster parent. People who. don' t
have sufficient money could not afford to be foster parents.
Mostly what upsets me is the inconsistencies and inequities in
Difficulty of Care, clothing allowance. We are treated like
welfare clients when we try to get problems around Difficulty of
Care and clothing allowance handled. The money doesn't allow us
to dress children like their peers. The department has no
concern or willingness to pay for all the damages caused by the
children, broken window, furniture ruined., clothes torn, etc.
4. Existing licensing department's ability to do the job
WORKgRS:
4. Need to increase the number and the qualifications of
licensing staff. They don' t know their families very well. They
have not developed any new Foster Parent. Don't have the skills
and leadership adequate to accomplish the tasks they are given.
Licensing should be a part of Children' s Services so we could
make it function better. They are limited by state regulations,
lack the training to do adequate home studies and don' t have
skills or training to help Foster Parents with their problems in
handling children or eliminate inadequately qualified Foster
Parents.
SUPERVISORS:
4. Licensing should be. a part of Children's Services. Need
better trained children' s experts doing this job. Licensing
suffers from inadequate leadership and creativity.
DISTRICT SUPERVISORS & POLICY:
4. Licensing should be a part of Children' s Services so it can
better represent the philosophy and goals of Children's Services.
Now there is no leadership or trained staff able to do the job.
FOSTER PARENTS;
4. Licensing staff are really nice. They listen when a Foster
Parent calls. But, they have no power to influence workers. It
A-3
helps to talk about our problems with them, and they offer us
_ -advice on how to work the system and how to approach the SW, . but
we can't rely upon them to solve our problems with placement
workers. -
5. How Foster Parents are treated by Social Workers and how .they
are included in decision making. - -
WORKERS.
5. Never have the time to' give Foster Parents as much as they
need or want. Many hear what they want to hear.: Some other
workers are rude, don't return calls, but for the most part we
ask them about the children, depend upon them for information.
Have a tremendous respect for the job that they are doing. " I
couldn't do what they do day in and day out'. . Foster Parents
want to have authority over decisions to. return child to natural
parents. This isn't their area. Many don't want to cooperate
with our authority and would sabotage visits with Natural
Parents, so we have to confront them on these unpleasant areas.
Some Foster Parents don't understand that we have the authority
and responsibility to make decisions based upon best interests of
child, their job is to provide the daily care for child, but only
we have the authority to decide what should 1}appen with the
child. They don't understand that.
SUPERVISORS:
5. Some workers have a style and manner which is offensive to
Foster Parents. We work with Social Workers to help them realize
their responsibility to work with Foster Parents. Many Foster
Parents however, hear what they want to hear and see it totally
from their perspective. Some Foster Parents don' t want to
cooperate with the department and its responsibilities to reunite
families and encourage . visiting between child and Natural
Parents. I am always available to help Foster Parents resolve
any difficulties with the Social Worker, very rarely do they
call Some Foster Parents would talk all day on the phone if we
let them and nothing would get done, the work is always juggling
priorities.
DIVISION SUPERVISORS & POLICY:
5. We understand there are problems between some Foster Parents
and workers. We stress the importance of resolving those
problems and we are always available. Social Worker just don' t
have the time to spend with Foster Parents on regular basis, if
SW had smaller caseloads and more time and more choices of high
quality foster homes many of these problems wouldn't exist.
FOSTER PARENTS:
A-4
5. The high quality people that the Social Workers keep hoping to
recruit would not tolerate the -treatment we receive. We are
treated. like .children, baby-sitters, servants, workers hang up on
-us, put us - on hold, do not return our calls. They act like we
are inadequate or weak when we ask for advice. We are
blackballed when we go to the supervisor for redress. The
supervisor always sides with the workers. Never have a grievance- _
determined that the Foster Parent was. right, even when what we
said would-happen to the child did happen., We have been shouted
at- and yelled at -"that' s your job, that's what you get paid for"
Every Social Worker is an independent entity. They make
decisions based upon their own criteria and personality. They
threaten you or punish you by denying' or delaying Difficulty of
Care or not putting in for clothing allowance.
Three different workers will follow three different approaches
with the same child, one will give you Difficulty of Care,
another will not for the same child.
' We have no defense against the individual personalities of
workers.
6. Licensed Foster Parents who are not used; black balling,
grievance
process
WORKERS:
6. We don't use a Foster Parent if we have found they do not
take good care of children. Many foster parents have no toys,
keep child in front of TV insult or yell at the children. Many
of these Foster Parents don' t provide proper structure,
supervision, or limits. when we visit they are the ones who
don' t know where the child is. There are Foster Parents who
won' t cooperate with the Department and try to exercise
independent authority over child' s future. Some Foster Parents
have such exclusive limitations on kids for whom they will
provide care, we don't get the kind of children they want. Sure
if I have a choice I would rather work with a Foster Parent whom
I enjoy but we try not to make decisions for kids based upon
personality differences. we have too few homes to .do that.
SUPERVISORS:
6. There are Foster Parents who do not cooperate with the
department. If Social Worker finds out a Foster :Parent is not
very responsible with kids, they won' t place children with them.
When you know you have no time to supervise and provide the extra
help a Foster Parent needs, you don't place a child in that home,
you chose the best one. Very rarely are Foster Parents not used
anymore, because we are so short of Foster Parents, we place
children in homes we would never use in the past.
A-5
DISTRICT SUPERVISORS & POLICY:
6. Workers learn from experience which Foster Parents will not-
provide good care, if you have to rely on Foster Parents for the -
child's well being you want to use Foster- Parents you trust and
have experience in working. with. _
Can't -believe there are too many Foster Parents not being used
now because we are using anyone with beds.
FOSTER PARENTS:
6. Social Workers blackball any Foster Parents who is assertive
and tries to get the child's best interests protected. Any time
you question the SW 's authority, have a personality they don' t
like, too religious, or have family rules they don't like, they
won't use you, even if you are good with children and children
improve in your home. Some Social Workers won't try anyone new
and are unwilling to give new Foster Parents a chance.
No one ever tells you why you are not used, what you have done
wrong or what you could do to change their impression of you.
There is no grievance process. You cannot see your file and
write down your side of the story. Once something gets into your
file you cannot change it or present the facts from your
perspective.
If we are. not careful we will be blackballed, they will take the
children - out of our homes, never use us again and we won't be
able to get someone to listen who can represent us.
In past used to have an independent grievance committee who could
objectively review the situation and the Foster Parents could
expect a fair hearing. It just went away.
7. Respite Care .
WORKERS: .
7. All Foster Parents need respite care. Need to share the
resources of Specialized Foster Program for all Foster Parents
SUPERVISORS:
7. All Foster Parents need respite, but we don' t have enough
homes or money to offer respite services. Licensing should help
them work it out.
DIVISION SUPERVISORS & POLICY:
7. All Foster Parents need respite care. No capability within
department to offer or pay for respite. Need more homes and some
specially designated respite homes.
A-6
FOSTER PARENTS- -
7. We ,need respite. -'ale do 'a 24 hour, - 7 day a week job.- No one
makes any arrangement"& to help us or give us a rest. It costs a
;lot of money for baby-sitters -because the department is . very
- strict about who watches - the kids while we are out. Need to
share the resources of the Specialized Foster Program. Maybe _
loosen up the rules about who can--baby-sit.
8. Training of Foster Parents, Training of Social Workers
WORKERS:
8. Need to train Foster Parents to cope with these difficult
children. Need training in alternatives to corporeal discipline,
about the department's mandate. How the Social Service
Department functions and the role of court, child development,
communication and assertiveness skills.
Training should be mandated. Same few Foster Parents attend all
of the training. Foster Parents who really need training don't
come. Not sure can mandate training under the law.
Training needs to be designed for Foster Parents. This mixed
training is not that helpful. Others stated that they felt the
mixed training was a very good beginning for understanding, but
not sure that it changes day to day problems.
Foster Parents aren' t the type of folks comfortable going to
college courses and sitting in classes. They need training in
their homes and in small groups where the emphasis is on
practical "What should I do now That is why licensing should be
trained and able to help Foster Parents when they need it most.
SUPERVISORS:
8. We need to train Foster Parents on the obligations of the
department and how the department and court functions. They need
training on discipline, child development, communication skills.
Training should be mandated for Foster Parents.
Social Workers need training in how to work with Foster Parents,
how to supervise placement process and child development, child
. management. Some Social Workers know about managing child
discipline issues but most do not. That' s why the Social Worker
finds it difficult to answer the Foster Parents ' phone
calls--don't know what to say to them.
Mixed training is a beginning, but not well delivered. Mixed
training does not make sense and is a waste of time.
DIVISION SUPERVISORS & POLICY:
8. Foster Parents need training in understanding the law, the
department'.s mandate and the role of court as well as child
A-7
development, managing troubled children and how to work with
community resources.
Social Workers need training in decision. making, Aworking with
Foster Parents, child .development -and management techniques for
children with discipline and emotional problems.-
. Mixed training hasn't really delivered on its intentions.
FOSTER PARENTS:
8. Training should be mandated so all Foster Parents would
attend. Community college courses are very "' helpful, my
salvation,. but the same few always attend.
Need more training giving us an orientation to; the department,
the unspoken facts of life on how 'to survive as a 'Foster Parent
with the department.
Don't.,a.ttend training. I know enough and don' t need it. I
could teach the classes from my own experience.
Need more training that deals with day to day problems. How to
handle teenagers acting out and involved with drugs and alcohol.
9. : No resources for children or natural parents. Social Worker
is not able to help me get what the children need
WORKERS
9. There are no resources. Medi-Cal seriously limits what we
can get for children. Mental Health is helpfulrbut has long
waiting lists. , Nothing. we can count on. Mental Health squeezing
us on NAPA. No treatment resources in the county, no
hospitalization or residential treatment resources.;
It is the Foster Parent's job to locate resources and take the
children to them
SUPERVISORS
9. There are no resources--great scarcity of therapist. Mental
Health is helpful . but not enough therapist -.to really help our
children. The have no treatment centers, no hospitalization,
can't get our kids into NAPA. Every crisis for Mental Health
services must be pushed up ladder, Rose calls Mental Health and
screams and threatens, theri maybe we will get them`:
__9. Mental Health not available to help with treatment needs of
__ our kid.§ Scarcity of therapist -and, Medi Cal-.limitations means
kids .cannot get therapy they need.
FOSTER PARENTS:
9. Can't get any therapy for kids who -are in - serious -need. _
Workers keels putting us off when we ask for services. If I act _
without their knowledge some will - hold it against you, because
it is their authority to make - these decisions. .Medi-Cal limits
the times children can be seen and it just isn't enough.
Children come to my house sick, needing immediate medical
attention. There are no Medi-Cal stickers, I have to sit 4 to S
hours in County waiting to have the child seen. Workers say this
is our job and they .don't have time to wait in the clinic, but I
have other children and have to pay to have them watched while I
wait in the County hospital.
10. Supervised Natural Parent visitation .
WORKERS:
10 It would be ideal to supervise the visits between children
and Natural Parent but don'.t_ have time, must rely upon Foster
Parents to make arrangements for these visits and give us
feedback.
Some Foster Parents sabotage these visits because they have to
deal with the emotional side effects of the visits. The child
always comes back angry, disturbed and the Foster, Parent bears
the brunt of. the .visits.
Some Foster Parents want child with them during holidays and the
parents want the child, causes conflicts around visits and who
has priority. . .
Some Foster Parents don' t like to deal with Natural Parents or
think of children going back to these ".inadequate" homes, but
they don' t realize that children .want to be with their own
families. , The Foster Parent " can .,neve r replace the natural
parent.
Natural Parents do not like Foster Parents and feel very
intimidated that the Foster Parents will turn their child against
them so they tend to make a lot of trouble• for the Foster
Parents, tell child lies about the Foster Parent,'' report Foster
Parent for alleged and imagined complaints.
SUPERVISORS:
A-9
10. Natural Parents have trouble dealing with the effects of
Natural Parents visitations with child. They_ have.- to--start at
zero again after these visits.
They have a lot of problems with the department's mandate to
reunite families and they don't want to cooperate with us- in this
responsibility. _ They don't realize the kids still prefer their
own parents to Foster Parents despite the poor conditions of the
home.
Workers don't have time- to manage the visitations and we must
rely upon the Foster Parents, this is a. part of. their job. We
have -to allow parents to visit when they want to in order to
encourage reunification.
DIVISION SUPERVISORS & .POLICY:
10. Foster Parents and Social Workers have problems dealing with
some of the families of some of the children. Natural Parents
cause problems by reporting on Foster Parents, telling their
children not to trust Foster Parents. Child comes back from
visits put in the middle between Foster Parents and Natural
Parents and act out their pain. .
The department has no choice, - Foster Parents have., to deal with
the visitation.
The Social Worker probably identifies very closely ,with Foster
Parent's view of the Natural Parent and reunification, but they
have very little flexibility when court demands these
visitations.
FOSTER PARENTS:
10. Contra Costa County has chosen to interpret law that Natural
Parent has to have the name, address, and telephone' number of the
Foster Parent. other counties do not give this information to
the Natural Parent. These people are dangerous, violent, drug
addicts, very sick people. My own children ' and family are
constantly put in . danger by their presence in our home. Our
neighbors are very upset by many of their visits.
Social Worker require these visits at any time, at the whim of
the Natural Parent. They do not consider our inconvenience.
Natural Parents have little. responsibility to clean up their
. life, follow rules before seeing their children.
Many times we don't know anything about these people and yet we
are required to have them in our homes.
These Natural Parents cause awful pain and we see no progress in
the way they treat their kids. . .they haven't had. 'to do anything
to rehabilitate themselves, then one day they get the child back.
We tell the Social Worker what has been happening during these
-A-10
visits, but we are considered "too involved" and are just
ignored. -
11. -Scarcity of Emergency homes
WORKERS: -
11. We need more Emergency foster . parents. Many days we make .
calls all day long. . There is no place to put a child. It is a
horrible experience for children to hear us make 10 to 15 calls
trying to find a. place for them'.
We have to use any home, overcrowded, under qualified, there just
is no choice or option to consider proper matching of children
with the right foster child.
It is our job to place the child, get them. settled so we can
finish the real job of investigation and proceeding with court
work. It is up to the Foster Parent to manage the child and get
everything done, - medical care, school arrangements etc. If we
got involved in placement issues at this time we would not get
our investigation and court work done in a speedy manner. The
longer we take the longer the child sits in Emergency foster
homes.
Feel horrible about picking child up and dropping them off, but
my job is to get court work done as soon as possible and manage
the legal process.
Emergency Foster Parents are given an incredible job to do and we
are burdening them, they are required to be available 24 hour,
put up with no information, we never know very much about the
child at this point,--"I couldn' t do it"
Children are picked up one hour, within several hours they are in
a new home, with new rules and expectations, doesn't know what is
going on; feeling guilty_, lonely, worried about own parents,
facing a new school, new teachers, new kids. None of h/her own
things are around or available. H/she has no idea about how long
this will last. A new worker visits h/her within a week. The
Foster Parent has to cope with . this situation, the entire
experience seems to the child like a bad nightmare.
SUPERVISORS:
11. We don't have enough Emergency Foster Parents. . Many days a
whole day is spent trying to find a place for kids. Lions Gate
is always full, no way to know what vacancies are available.
It is immoral how we pressure Emergency Foster Parents to take
one more child, exceeding their maximum limit, put them at risk,
and walk away and not see them in weeks.
A-11
Children have to stay in- Emergency Response long because court
process is lengthy -with- parents more likely to fight, the custody.
Waste of- time to_ move --child out of Emergency Response before we
know about jurisdiction besides Social Worker doesn't have_. time ,
to handle placement issues and .do court work also.
DIVISION SUPERVISORS& POLICY:
11. We have a real shortage of emergency Foster Parents. -It
takes .too much. time to locate a vacancy, there - is . no_ system to
locate empty beds.
Emergency Foster Parents do an incredible job coping with these
children.
Can't move child out of Emergency Response until have "
jurisdiction, it makes more sense to keep child stable in
emergency foster homes than move to another home and then learn
that the child is returning home.
Lions Gate is always full, and there are no resources in Mental
Health for many of these children.
FOSTER PARENTS:
11. Children arrive at all hours of day, with no clothes, no
information, many dirty, with lice, still needing. , their medical
exam for molestation, with medical problems and no medication.
Often the very first thing we must do is take the. child out and
buy them clothes, ,toys and personal belongings...
Children stay forever.-,.often longer than 6 months. The children
we want to keep are moved right away, the ones we would chose to
move are left indefinitely.
It is very painful for children stuck in an emergency home to
watch other children go onto placement while they wait.
Children are disrupted from their- school, have to' enroll them in
school with no records, no information about grades, immunization
or where the child has been before. Children. come with no
history.
The department doesn' t help us with diapers, clothes, toys. The
kinds of things we spend a lot of money on, replacing these items
over and over.` NP gets all this stuff- free from ,the department
but we are expect, to use our own money.
12 The system and individual planning with Foster Parents about
child's care while in the Foster Parent's home
WORKERS:
A-12
12. The system is not child oriented -but .geared towards effi
ciency in legal and , paperwork-. Very fragmented; each child ill
have a minimum of 3 :to 4 workers; each of whom have no' time to
handle adequately any one child. Caseloads are too high to do _
visiting and coordination . require& when. there are over 5. to 6
people involved in each case.
No ability to change the system, no one has the- authority or
leadership to make changes -
Need more workers, smaller caseloads, opportunity to really work
with children, Foster Parents and Natural. Parents.
We should have a Children's Bureau, one central administration
who can get the job done.
There is not time to work with Foster Parents and child to do the
kind of planning desired on one visit a month.
The Foster Parents are suppose to provide all the care that a
parent would, provide information to us and we make decisions
about what is best interest of child. Foster Parents are
caretakers, we have the authority and responsibility by law to
act for the child' s best interest, we have a more objective point
of view. ,
SUPERVISORS:
12. The system is a .conveyor belt. Not designed for children,
but we have no choice this is the decision, we fought it all the
way, but now we have to make the best of it.
Can't .see how we could survive if we went back to mixed case-
loads. The court and legal work would kill us. No one worker
would have all the skills needed .
Need a Children's Bureau with one administration who understands
Childrens Services and has influence to help all parts of county
work together and heip solve these problems.
Social Workers don' t have the luxury to work with Foster Parents
in deciding a treatment plan for the child while in the Foster
Parent' s home. . The paperwork and plan is directed at family
unification.
We need to do more individual work with child and Foster Parents,
but there is no time with 30 -35 cases per worker, one visit a
month, one visit every 6 months, we do what we can.
DIVISION SUPERVISORS & POLICY:
12. The system is not child oriented, but there are no other
alternatives under SB14
A-13
Should have Children' s Bureau with authority and central adminis-
tration to make the system more child oriented and get problems
solved.
Not sure Children' s Bureau is the answer, managers need to manage
their regions -and take the initiative to solve problems. In-
dividual managers have the authority to solve these problems that_ _
would still--exist even with Children's Bureau.
Social Workers rarely have. time to do planning with Foster
Parents on individual child.
Believe no one has really clarified- what we want Foster Parents
to do and the defined lines of authority and responsibility in
clear operational. terms to all Foster Parents.
FOSTER PARENTS:
12. The system is so fragmented and chopped up. Have 3 to 4
workers per child, some of us have had 10 different workers while
a - child is in our homes. Often each one comes in and does
something new and different from the preceding Social Worker.
Would be nice to have - one Social Worker to work with and with
whom I had established a stable relationship.
Social Workers don' t know the kids and don't listen to us who
really do know what they need and should have.
Social Workers do not sit down with us and plan what we should be
working on with the children, we kind of do it informally.
After a while we learn that the children are going back to
dangerous homes and they will need to learn how to take care of
themselves day to day, so. we teach them to cook and wash clothes,
etc.
In this system there is no one who is for the Foster Parents.
13. Investigation of complaints of abuse and neglect by Foster
Parents
WORKERS:
13 Very difficult to investigate Foster Parents whom we must
rely upon for ongoing placement. Impossible to do the job right.
Seems like a conflict of interest. We are getting more and. more
complaints against Foster Parents and the Foster Parents must be
investigated as if we don't know them. Pretty -hard to do.
SUPERVISORS;
A-14
t _ _
Appendix: B
SAMPLE: -MISSION STATEMENT
The purpose of the Foster Care Program is to insure that every
child regardless of the degree of personal trauma and life
experiences of unfortunate violence will be given every possible
opportunity to achieve his/her potential for a normal, healthy,
happy life.
To achieve this mission, we will orchestrate services on behalf
of the child to help his/her grow and develop.
B-1
Appendix: C -
SAMPLE: PERFORMANCE STANDARDS ,
The- degree to which children complete their education
The degree to which children find and maintain part-time jobs
during placement
The degree to which children maintain stable placement
The degree to which Foster Parents have state of art training in
their speciality area
The degree to which Social Workers feel competent and capable in
their efforts to serve children
Number of new Foster Parents recruited each month
Number of new Foster Parents licensed each month , .
Number of kids reunited with natural parents
Number of Foster Parents who attend training, support meetings
Number of Foster Parents grievances resolved in Win-Win fashion
Number of children who have identifiable hobbies, interests and
planned recreational activities
Level of Foster Parents satisfaction based upon regular Foster
Parents surveys
C-i
-Appendix: D _
_ SAMPLE: MANAGE BY DATA ANALYSIS AND TRENDS
1105 children in placement:
266.17. had 3 or more placements (25%)
361.92 had been in placement 736 months (33%)
age specific categories
(20 per caseload)
0-2 105.4 10% 5.3 workers
2-4 99.09 9% 5
4-10 329.99 30% 16.5
10-13 187.5 17% 9.4
14-18 368.92 33% 18. 35
(Targets to guide Foster Parents recruitment)
10% child sexual molestation )
17% physical abuse )
39% neglect ) focus
05% handicapped ) training
D-1
Appendix: E
RESEARCHER'S ROUGH ESTIMATES OF AVAILABLE FOSTER PARENTS
-TO SERVE CONTRA COSTA COUNTY - -
1. Currently 430 Foster Homes Licensed
* (73 pending license with 30 children
already placed in these homes)
2. Analyze Foster Homes by:.
o The # serving only one specific child?
(estimate that. nearly 20% or 1186"
foster parents are licensed for one
specific child)
0 of the remaining 344 homes
how many are being used by other
counties and private agencies not
serving Contra Costa County? (estimate
nearly 10% or 34 foster parents work
for private agencies) .
0 of the remaining 309.6 homes, how many
are used solely for emergency placement? .
(estimate 65 foster parents are emergency)
0 of the remaining 245.6 available for permanent
placement/family reuntification
How many of these are full?
Are thinking about quitting soon?
Can serve babies and small children?
Children who have been sexually molested?
Emotionally disturbed children?
Teenagers, etc. ? '
E-1
13. Impossible situation to investigate Foster Parents when you
- - must use the same Foster Parents the very next month, or maintain
working relationships. When you have been working closely with
them, placing difficult and demanding children in their homes,
when they . have done you favors by taking "one more", it is hard
to go out and investigate a complaint made by a Natural Parent.
Someone else should do these investigations, maybe other regions,
specialist from Concord police or something. _
DIVISION SUPERVISORS AND POLICY
13. We are getting more and more complaints about- Foster Parents
abusing children. We over use them, place kids they are not
suited to care for in their homes against their wishes, make them
feel guilty if they turn our requests down, then when they are
unable to handle the strain, we lose them.
We need to figure out a better" way of handling these
investigations.
FOSTER PARENTS:
13. One day I am a wonderful person, they are trying to persuade
to take "one more child" and then the next day, I hm treated like
a criminal.
I know they have to investigate when there are complaints, but
then when they have finished, no one comes around and stands up
for me or says it was all a mistake and ties all the loose
strings together. The next time I hear from them is when they
want to place another child.
Have seen Foster Parents who have sacrificed themselves for the
department, treated like dirt, destroyed in the community, lost
everything because of the way the department handles complaints.
No one remembers all the good you did when one mistake is made
your history is forgotten.
Social Workers are always selling us children, misinforming us
about the children and their problems, so we will take the child.
Then when something goes wrong they forget that they did this to
US.
Yet, no Social Worker gets protective of my own children when a
foster child beats up one of my kids or attacks the family. . .they
just wonder why I couldn't manage better.
Foster Parents only get bad publicity, no one plans ' to put good
stories in the newspapers.
Every worker handles Difficulty of Care differently, I could have
two children in my home .exactly ,alike, one worker will give me
Difficulty of Care the other will not. I can I have the same
child, and a new worker will agree that I need Difficulty of
Care.
E-2
----_
�,- - ,o• HUMORELATIONS COMMISSION
Contra Y�
'''f Room 103, Adm. Bldg.
Costa ;;'� ` 's 651 Pine Street
Colin}` , Martinez, California 94553
l�/ '�.. ,��'° (415) 646-2013
°
Srd-c---NZ'i
DATE: April 17, 1990
TO: Board of Supervisors
FROM: Fred Persily, Executive Director
SUBJECT: Summary of Minutes
Following is a short list of highlights of our Commission's activities since
January, 1990 as requested by Scott Tandy in his letter of January 25, 1990.
JANUARY
- The Commission contracted with Alan Tafapolsky to conduct
Dispute Resolution training which will commence in May.
- The Independent Living Center agreed to allow the Commission to
use their TDD number for our Dispute Resolution services.
- A Press Conference was held on January 17 to formally announce the
Hate Violence Reduction Task Force.
- Several complaints were investigated by Director Persily, including
two involving the County Jail.
- September 29 was selected as the date to hold this year's Annual
Dinner Dance if finances allow.
- Director Persily and Commissioner Roseman participated on the Mt.
Diablo Unified School District Task Force to look into complaints of
discrimination lodged by parents.
- HR 30, child care legislation, was supported.
- The Contra Costa County Hate Violence Reduction Plan was reviewed
by both San Francisco and Los Angeles, Counties as a possible model
for adoption.
- The Education Committee held a meeting of all school human relations
officers in the County to discuss hate violence reporting.
-2-
FEBRUARY
A Youth Rights Hearing, co-sponsored by the Concord and
Richmond Human Realations Commissions and the Contra Costa
County Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Commission, was held on
February 10.
The Criminal Justice Committee of the Hate Violence Reduction Task
Force began work on training law enforcement to report and
respond to violence motivated by bigotry and the Education
Committee began implementation of the school bias response
guidelines they developed.
Director Persily and Commissioner Howard met with Lt. Henderson
of the Sheriff's Department on the recent violence in the
Rollingwood area of Richmond. The Sheriff's Department agreed to .
develop a system to use the Commission to deal with issues as they
occur.
MARCH
- The Commission sent a letter to Congresspeople representing Contra
Costa .County requesting their assistance in inquiring and
investigating allegations of discrimination at Veteran's Hospital in
Martinez. Commissioners met with Clarence Nixon, President of
facility., to discuss the issue.
- A-retreat was held on Saturday, March 3 to formulate a workplan
and direction for the Commission for the remainder of 1990.
- The Commission _sent a letter of support for S1018,,, the 1990 Federal
Civil Rights Bill, to legislators.
- The Hate Violence Reduction Plan received grants of $5000 from Van
Loben Sels Foundation and $7500 from the Deercreek Foundation.
-` .Commissioner Howard, with the help of Supervisor McPeak,
succeeded in having the Sheraton Hotel waive the $500 deposit
required for the September dinner dance.
-- Contra Costa County
REIVE� ealth Services Department
P
. .�� MAY I 1990 PUBLIC HEALTH DIVISION
Maternal Child & Adolescent Health
.�` PNII BA11' 'U aR
CtERr.''- ��RDU+ �utlRVl'ORS 595 Center Avenue, Suite' 310
:.y CONTRACOSTaCO pP ur .Martinez, CA 94553
(415) 646-1286
TO: Clerk of the Board DATE: May 8 , 1990
FROM: Billie Young
SUBJECT: Surrmary of Minutes : NC,AH Advisory Board
PLEASE NOTE: THE STAFF PERSON FOR THE NOAH BOARD HAS CHANGED FROM
B I LL I E YOLI G TO MARY FORAN. ADDRESS AND PHONE N-MBER
REMAIN THE SANE.
January 1990
1 . Reviewed and granted approval of CHDP annual plan .
2 . Executive Board ' s recommendation reviewed and accepted to
continue to focus on perinatal alcohol and drug abuse with
with emphasis on :
a . Residential treatment for pregnant drug , addicted women .
b . Recognizing and encouraging the efforts of the Interagency
Council of Infant Services .
c . Assuring that the County looks at the needs of children
who are affected by drug abuse .
d . Advising a study to assess the need to coordinate all
support services to alcohol and drug abuse affected
children by the Boards of Education .
3 . Health Access Report : The OB Department at Brookside Hospital
is experiencing difficulty. Negotiations are underway between
Health Services and Brookside to discuss ways to have obstetrical
services more available in West County .
4. Dental Report : "Help the Children Program" surveyed dentists in
Contra Costa County to determine if they will see• one to three
new Denti -Cal children per month. Program is coordinated through
CHDP and working very well .
The response was so positive that the same format is being
considered for OB and Pediatrics . In December , 1989 there were
17 referrals to dentists ; eight East County , seven West County
and two Central County for a 94% kept appointment rate .
5 . Expanded Youth Services Board Report : The Board is in the process
of setting goals which include attention to effects of drugs on
ciildren , as well as coordination of existing programs .
6 . Tobacco Tax Initiative: Dr . Malloy explained that most of the
Prop. 99 funds are divided between the county offices for
education and health. Within each County's Health Department the
funds are divided between educational activities and payment for
indigent health care .
Within MCAH Programs , the CHOP Program will do extensive outreach
and support to MediCal providers in support of smoking cessation.
Other funding will allow children ages 1-18 years of age (who are
below 200% of poverty but not eligible for MediCal ) to receive
health screening exams. The law states that all counties must
ensure that health problems found in these exams be treated
through the use of Prop . 99 funds .
March 1990
1 . The focus of the meeting was a presentation from the Early
Childhood Mental Health Program on their new project for cocaine
exposed infants and their families , called Infant Bond .
2 . HSAC Report :. The HSAC quarterly training was attended by two MCAH
Board members.
3 . FACT Report : Arlette stated that AB1713 (child abuse money ) will
be used to expand four contracts instead of making new
directions .
4. Health Access Report : Charity reported that the regional Board
has discussed the need for publicity about the under - and non -
insured. Child Assault Prevention (CAP) was blue-penciled out of
the budget by the governor .
5 . Expanded Youth Services Board Report : Mary Foran reported that
the 2 major issues of discussion were a) beds for children' s
mental health in the new County Hospital ; b) setting up of a task
force to determine what is needed in the residential treatment
services for women and their children and how to finance same .
6 . Dental Report : Dr . Grafton reported that the Dental Society ' s
Outreach Proram was advertised and received 225 calls. Patients
were seen in private offices. No evaluation is available , but
there was a good response .
7 . Other Reports : a) Head Start and Social Services are to get a
grant for a BABY Head Start program; b) A grant application is
being made for a preschool drug prevention curriculum.
8 . The Board reviewed statistics comparing 1986-87 vs . 1989 MediCal
claims made by OB MediCal providers . These data highlight the
decrease in available services for MediCal eligible pregnant women.
csp
CONTRA COSTA COUNTY
MENTAL HEALTH ADVISORY BOARD
595 CENTER AVENUE,SUITE 200
— = MARTINEZ,CALIFORNIA 94553
Ole :4;6i0% Phone(415)646-4910
as a
COUIZ
MEMO
To: Scott Tandy, Chief Date: 4-11-90
County Administrator
From: Cynthia Miller, Chair Subject: Summary of
Mental Health Advisory Board Board .Minutes
MENTAL HEALTH ADVISORY BOARD
REPORT TO THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
APRIL 1990
The following is a summary of most significant actions from the
minutes of the Mental Health Advisory Board (MHAB) over the past
six months.
STATE SHORT-DOYLE BUDGET PLAN
Yearly the MHAB reviews County Mental Health' s submission of the
State Short-Doyle Plan including the budget and program
summaries. As part of that process, Mental Health' s needs,
services, facilities and special problems are reviewed. Final
approval will be given in April 1990 for the FY' 89-90.
NEW COUNTY HOSPITAL
In current planning for the new County hospital, the MHAB
successfully advocated for the addition of an 8-bed Child and
Adolescent Inpatient Psychiatric Unit.
The MHAB Chair and Vice Chair were invited to participate on the
Hospital Planning Oversite Committee.
A351 (6/88)
. Ar
FEDERAL ADAMHA BLOCK GRANT RENEWAL APPLICATION
The West County Mental Health Federal Block Grant renewal
application required a plan for extensive program reorganization.
The MHAB has participated in and monitored the development of the
reorganization plan and signed-off on its review requirements.
MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM
The MHAB advocated for the implementation of a Management
Information System for the A/DA/MH Division. The system has been
installed and staff have been trained.
QUARTERLY REVIEWS
The MHAB monitors quarterly the effectiveness of the State.
Department of Rehabilitation' s Vocational Initiative, County
Affirmative Action policies regarding adequate services to
clients with cultural and language differences and will begin to
monitor Mental Health services provided the incarcerated mentally
ill.
PROGRAM ADVOCACY
Mental Health Consumer Concerns, a client run program which is
under County contract, received a Challenge Grant in 1988 to
implement self-help in the three regions of the County. Due to
budget cuts, Mental Health was unable to fund this outstanding
program. MHAB has advocated for funding from Health Services, and
that funding has been approved.
COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES
Individual MHAB members have spoken at community meetings
regarding neighborhood opposition to group homes and homeless
shelters.
The MHAB has participated in community activities such as the Annual
Mental Health Rally Day in Sacramento, the Alcohol Tax
Initiative, the MH Coalition, the Mental Illness New Directions
Campaign and the Self-Esteem Task Force.
MERIT BOARD Contra Administration Building
Walter G. Treanor + 651 Pine Street
Michael Q. Hamilton Costa Martinez,California 94553
Estuardo Sobalvarro County (415) 646-2016
Joyce Hawkins JOAN J. PACE
Ramon Flores ------ o Executive Secretary
SUMMARY
April 10, 1990
1. Approved minutes of the March 27, 1990 Merit Board Meeting.
2. Noted and filed correspondence from Jim Hicks, Business Agent, AFSCME,
Local 2700, withdrawing the appeal of Linda Simpson, Clerk-Experienced
Level, of being put on leave of absence without pay pending a psychological
evaluation.
3. Noted and filed correspondence from John Martin, Attorney, withdrawing the
appeal of Denise Decarsky from discrimination in hiring on the basis of sex
in the Firefighters' examination.
4. Denied appeal of Robert Mena, Equipment Operator II, Public Works
Department, of a 40 hour suspension.
5. Denied appeal of Ernie Chapman, Electrician, General Services Department,
of a two day suspension.
lj
4/10/90
CONTRA COSTA COUNTY
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT
TO: Clerk of the Board . DATE: April 30, 1990
FROM: Harvey E. Bragdon,
Director of Community Development
SUBJECT: Recent Mobilehome Advisory Co e A ti ities
---------------------------------------------------------------------------=----
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Mobilehome Advisory Committee is currently reviewing a series of complaints
by the homeowner organization of the Tara Hills Manor Mobilehome Park in San
Pablo. The homeowner organization is concerned that while rent levels continue
to escalate, maintenance of park facilities is deteriorating.
Last year, the park clubhouse experienced substantial damage from a fire. The
clubhouse has not been. repaired to date. Similarly, the swimming, pool is in
disrepair.
The homeowners association has also expressed concern that the fire hydrants in
the park are not being adequately maintained.
The Committee has. indicated that they will work with the homeowners group and
Supervisor Fanden in trying to resolve the concerns.
Questions
Any questions on the Mobilehome Advisory Committee. activities should be
directed to Bob Drake of my staff at 2091.
RD/aa
MOHOIII/Taraman.RD
D:)NTR;:-COSTA COUNTY •
PRIVATE'-INDUSTRY COUNCIL •
2426 BISSO LANE, SUITE 100
CONCORD, CA 94520 646-5239
DATE: April 26, 1990 cc:
TO: Clerk of the Board
FROM: Barbar�A. Jensen, Executive Secretary
Private Industry Council
SUBJECT: SUMMARY OF MINUTES = JANUARY - APRIL 1990
Per. the Board of Supervisor's request of January 23, 1990 (see attached memo),
attached are summary minutes reflecting January - April 1990 meetings of the
Private Industry Council and the Advisory Committee on .the Employment and
Economic Status of Women.
BAJ:ibm
Attachments
1
OONTRA OOuTA OOUNTY
I
-"VAT"
f VAT$ INDUSTRY COUNCII. �.
. 42, 5 BISSO LANE, SUITE 100
COI CORD, CA 94520 646-5239
QA
January 23, 1990 cc:
TO: Private Industry Council Members
Interested P rties
FROM: n Director
Private Industry Council
SUBJECT: PRIVATE INDUSTRY COUNCIL SUMMARY. MINUTES - JANUARY 19, 1990 ,
The luncheon meeting began at 12:10 p.m. with introductions of guests by Supervisor
Fanden. Assemblyman Campbell served as the keynote speaker. Volunteers of the
Business Resource Center, contractors, field offices of the Employment Development
Department, SYJP workers, Chevron, and outgoing PIC officers and committee chairs
received awards for their fine work. The 1990 PIC Officers, Steve Giacomi, PIC Chair,
and Uda Johnson, PIC Vice=Chair were sworn into office with Steve Giacomi making the
closing remarks.
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE:
Committee report was accepted. The committee received an overview of the'West County
Regional, Office.
Monthly progress reports were reviewed.
The committee suggested that the congratulatory letter sent to those participants that
obtain jobs. be refined to serve as a strong promotional tool and that a specific contact
be included. The committee also suggested that Regional. Offices bring successful
participants back to orientation sessions with new participants.
Correspondence from the State regarding the prior year audit reflects there were no
disallowed costs. Correspondence regarding the State's monitoring review of the Title
IIA terminations indicates that the final reports were appropriate as submitted.
PLANNING COMMITTEE:
Committee report was accepted. The first part of the current Two Year Plan,
Administrative Systems and .Structures and Program Systems and Structures were
reviewed. The final draft will be reviewed at the February lst meeting.
Guidelines for expenditure of 6% Incentive Funds were approved. An RFP will be issued
for the 6%funds with a minimum amount request of $35,000; projects will begin no earlier
than June 1990 or later than September 1990-.with a termination date of September 30,
1991.
The committee recommended that the Proposal Review Committee formalize a mechanism
of balancing new programs and existing effective programs in its review of proposals. ''
The committee felt that balance needs to be struck between the goal of trying to
encourage new and innovative programs that address the hard to serve against the
needs of established programs that the committee would like to see mainstreamed. Staff
was requested to provide highlights of the Planning Committee meeting discussion and
an analysis of 6% programs to the Planning and Proposal Review Committees. There was
considerable discussion regarding this matter at the January Planning, Executive and
PIC meetings. .Also discussed was consideration.of research and demonstration projects
and the guidelines and parameters necessary for implementation. Staff will attempt to
provide some flexibility in the draft RFP to address the issues discussed. These issues
will be reviewed by the committees for input and forwarded to the Executive Committee
for resolution.
The PIC approved the issuance of an 8% prospectus to the GAIN Subcommittee of the
Contra Costa County Adult/Continuing Education Coordinating Council to fund a self-
esteem curriculum program for all adult, schools to use with GAIN participants was
approved.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE:
Committee report was accepted.
The new DOL proposed performance standards were reviewed. DOL is proposing four
follow-up standards for adults (adult employment rate at 13 weeks, adult weekly
earnings at 13 weeks, welfare employment rate at 13 weeks, welfare weekly earnings at
13 weeks) and two youth program termination measures (job placement, youth
competencies). Youth will be required to achieve youth competencies as,a stand alone
competency requirement, cost standards will be eliminated from the= performance
standards to promote services to the hard-to-serve, in-school youth are being exempted
from the job placement requirement and will not count against the performance
standards. The PIC's Try Out Employment Program for Youth (TEPP) is a youth
employment program with a youth competency element. The PIC approved the
continuation of the TEPY Program for one year, followed by review of the program,
unless proposed DOL regulations mandate the elimination of the TEPY Program.
The State is considering a menu type approach to the performance standards. This
would include the 6 required standards set by the DOL and would give SDAs the option
of choosing any 2 of the 7 current standards set by the State, for a total of 8
standards. To earn an incentive SDAs would have to meet 6 of the 8 standards.
CHAIR'S REPORT
Steve Giacomi reviewed the 1990 PIC committee assignments.
DIRECTOR'S REPORT:
Art Miner reported on various information items including the new DOL proposed
performance standards and proposed State policy on collection and use of participants'
social security number.
PUBLIC COMMENT
Bill Mazotti expressed appreciation to the members of the Oversight Committee for their
good work during his two year term as Chair of the Oversight Committee.
NOTE: This is a brief summary of the PIC meeting. Copies of the full minutes will be
distributed to PIC members and interested parties at the 2/26/90 PIC meeting.
ONTRA^mgta OOUN'PY •
ORNATE INDUSTRY COUNCIL
425 BISSO LANE, SUITE 100
ONCORD, CA 94520 646-5239
February-27, 1990
ATAcc:
Private Industry Council Members
Au
nd Interested Parties
ROM: Arne�r;�Executive Director
Private Industry Council
UBJECT: PRIVATE INDUSTRY COUNCIL SUMMARY MINUTES - FEBRUARY 26, 1990
PRESENTATION ON AGING OF THE WORKFORCE:
Dr. Connstance Mahoney, Research Director for' the Zitter Group, presented a
slide presentation on the major findings and conclusions of a survey, conducted
by the Zitter Group, on human resources issues and the aging of the workforce.
The Zitter Group is a _San Francisco based research and education firm,
specializing in the implications of aging for business and healthcare organizations.
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE:
Committee report was accepted. The committee.received an orientation on the role
and responsibilities of the committee and an overview of the performance
standards.
.All performance standards are being met.
PROPOSAL REVIEW COMMITTEE:
Committee report was accepted. The schedule for the 1990-91 Request for
Proposals and Prospectus was approved.
The review process for 6% incentive fund projects was approved. The review
process will be a two step system - first, an evaluation and scoring, and second,
a ranking for priority of funding all proposals receiving 65 points or more.
Special evaluation points for continuing effective hard to serve programs has been
added to the evaluation criteria. The PIC approved the substitution of language
in item 4 of the evaluation criteria from "a new and/or innovative manner" to "an
effective andlor innovative manner."
The 6% Project RFP format, Parts I, II and III were approved.
PLANNING COMMITTEE:
Committee report was accepted. Emphasis of PY 90-91 6%'projects will continue
to be hard to.serve groups rather than research and development. RFP's will
require the submission of an "End of Project Report" to the PIC which would
identify program accomplishment and successful program strategies.
The Administrative/Program Systems Structures for the 1990-92 Job Training Plan
and the Basic Education/Math Youth Competency Statements were approved.
MARKETING ANOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMITOE:
Committee report was accepted. The Summer Youth Jobs Program Kick-off
Breakfast is scheduled for April 6th,' 7:45 a.m. ,to 9:00 a.m. , at the Sheraton
Hotel. The committee discussed using the Contra Costa Council mailing list to
solicit funds from businesses for the Summer Program; these funds could be used
to hire more youth interns to assist in making additional placements.
During December, 77 individual businesses were served by the Business Resource
Center (BRC); in January, 157 were served. In January, 27 individuals attended
the Starting Your Own Business Workshop. The next workshop will be held on
February 28th.
The committee discussed BRC funding'strategies and options; staff will continue
to develop funding options for review by the committee.
The PIC will be co-sponsoring this year's Business Women's Expo in conjunction
with the PIC/BAM group and other organizations; the PIC's shared cost will be
$50•
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE:
Committee report was accepted. Staff will provide an overview of the performance '
standards at the March PIC meeting.
The Executive Director was authorized to sign off on 8% proposals on behalf of the
PIC Chair.
CHAIR'S REPORT:
Steve Giacomi and Barbara Shaw are attending the National Association of Private
Industry Council's (NAPIC) -Conference in Washington. It is expected that
Barbara Shaw will be elected NAPIC Chair; as the Chair, she will also serve on. the
National Alliance of Business (NAB) Board of Directors.
Chevron has confirmed they will be donating $30,000 to the Summer Youth Jobs
Program.
STAFF REPORT:
Various informational items were reviewed and distributed.
PUBLIC COMMENT
Anne Crisp reported on her attendance at a January conference, which she
attended on behalf of the PIC, entitled "A Partnership: Making it Work."
Uda Johnson gave an update on the PIC/BAM TV productions. PIC/BAM is moving
forward in producing TV productions that will be aired on PBS stations located
Northern California. The intent is to generate a core program with segments for
local adaptations
NOTE: This is a brief summary of the PIC meeting. Copies of the full minutes
will be .distributed to PIC, members and interested parties .at the 3/19/90 PIC
meeting.
BAJ:ibm
KTRA COSTA COUNTY •
tIYATE INDUSTRY COUNCIL •
25 BISSO LANE, SUITE 100
2NCORD, CA 94520 646-5239
March 21, 1990 cc:
T0. Private Industry Council Members
I nc�Int ssstted Parties
'lo
FROM:
_Arthur C.CCMinExecutive Director
Private Industry Council
Sgt; PRIVATE INDUSTRY .COUNCIL SUMMARY MINUTES - MARCH 19, 1990
PRESENTATION ON FUNDING AND PERFORMANCE STANDARDS:
Fred Canale, PIC Staff gave an overview of .the JTPA funding cycle from the
federal, state and local level. Our local SDA received approximately $2.1 million
for the Title IIA adult & youth program. The remaining 22% is allocated to the
3%, 5%, 6% and 8% special programs. We also receive.Title III/EDWAAA funds for
dislocated workers, and Title II-B funds for the Summer Youth Employment and
Training Program .
The performance standards have several measures that when.calculated a plus or
minus adjustment to the national departure point is achieved. These calculations
are the percentage or dollar figure we must meet or exceed.
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE:
Committee report was accepted.' The committee received an overview of the
Workers Assistance Center. The Center is funded under Title III/EDWAAA for
service to dislocated workers. The monthly reports and correspondence were
reviewed. All performance standards are being-met or exceeded.
PROPOSAL tREVIEW COMMITTEE:
Committee report was accepted. The format and issuance of Title IIB/SYETP,
Title II-A SECG/GAIN and'.Title III/EDWAAA prospectus was approved. These will .
be issued 3./23/90 and due back 4/2/90 and reviewed at the 4/11 meeting.
PLANNING COMMITTEE':' ,
Committee report was accepted. Reviewed 1990-92 Draft Job Training Plan and
Plan Summary. The summary is.being distributed for public review and comment.
Staff will follow up on PIC's .concern of under expenditure of CDBG funds on .
economic development activities to the Board of Supervisors, Community
Development and County Administrator.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE:
Committee report was accepted. Staff informed committee State_ proposes
performance standards (5 of 6) to be based on follow-up figures, state will
probably continue to do follow-up and possible elimination of high risk youth
incentive.
CHAIR'S REPORT:
Steve Giacomi and Barbara Shaw gave a brief summary of the NAPIC conference.
Barbara was elected Chair of NAPI C. Copies of resolutions.adopted at..conference
and a report by CSR, Inc. on ten Exemplary Private Industry Council (our council
is one of the ten) were distributed.
There is a conference hosted by IBM and NAPIC in cooperation with DOL to be
held in Pomona, Ca. 4/18-20/90 for two to four PIC members.
Members reminded about the SYJP breakfast on April 6th, at the Sheraton, from
7:45 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.
STAFF REPORT
Various informational items were reviewed and distributed.
There is a Legislation Reconciliation Session on 4/5 & 6 in Sacramento available
to one PIC member and one staff member.
BAJ:ibm
m
RTRA 00.STrAODUNTY
rAIVATE INDUSTRY COUNCIL
?425 BISSO LANE, SUITE 100
mnon, CA 94520. 646-5239
W( April 16, 1990
PO' . Private Industry Council Members
and Interested Parties
FROM: Arthur C. Exetti
Private I f
)VBJECT+ PRIVATE INDUSTRY COUNCIL SUMMARY MINUTES - APRIL 16, 1990
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE:
Committee report was accepted. The committee continued discussion on
management report. The committee will discuss "gender report" and status of Unit
Size Contracts at the May meeting. All performance k�tandards are being met or
exceeded. Committee reviewed the new follow-up Performance Standard measures
and will solicit ideas on how to enhance accountability of follow-up.
PROPOSAL REVIEW COMMITTEE:
: Committee report was accepted. Committee accepted recommendation for funding
SYETP, 8% GAIN and Title III EDWAAA.' Committee reviewed 13 RFPs for 6% Hard-
to-Serve incentive funds. Following RFPs funded: Veterans Assistance Center,
Pittsburg Adult .Education, Project MARC - NYC and Mt. Diablo USD. The 78%/3%
RFP format was reviewed.
PLANNING COMMITTEE:
Committee report was accepted. Reviewed and approved 1990-92 Job Training
Plan.
MARKETING/ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE
Committee ,report was accepted. Committee reviewed SYJP kick-off breakfast
program and letter being sent to all businesses to solicit jobs for county youth.
Committee will issue prospectus for newsletter for PY90/91 then RFP in 1991/92.
BRC served 143 individual businesses in.February and 168 in March. April 25th
is next "Starting Your Own Business Workshop." Committee received summary of
funding problems/options, relating to the use_ .of EGA funds. This matter will be
discussed at next meeting.
EXECUTIVE .COMMITTEE:
Committee report was accepted. Committee will continue discussion on implications
of the follow-up performance standards, alternate funding sources for the BRC
and..rev ew how Alameda.and Solano Counties,' BACs are funded.
r
CHAIR'S REPORT:
Steve Giacomi reported that approximately 100 attended the SYJP breakfast.
Representatives from the PIC, EDD, educators, businesses and chambers
attended. He also, reported that he and other PIC members and Art Miner would
be attending..a training in Pomona sponsored by IBMINAPIC/NABS on April 18-
20. Barbara Shaw will be attending the training for NAPIC in-Florida.
STAFF REPORT
Various informational items were reviewed and distributed. An advertisement will
be placed in the Pavilion program promoting the Private Industry Council.
BAJ:ibm
CONTRA COSTA
HEALTH PLAN INr1-k OFFICE. Mr\10
To: Clerk of the Board Date. March 27, 1990
From: �/�/` Subject:
Bobbi . ; Staf Highlights of
HMO. AdwI ory Board Activities -
January-March, 1990
1. Frank Puglisi, Executive Director of Merrithew Memorial Hospital
and Clinics, updated the Advisory Board on activities in the
clinics and hospital: _
A. The goal of the clinics is to have a waiting time standard of
30 minutes for CCHP members.
B. Convenience hours are a high priority.
C. Hospital replacement recommendations to go to Board of
Supervisors by May or June.
2. .The Advisory Board took action on the lack of progress in the
sales incentive plan which is now finally in the County
Administrator's office.
3. ' The Advisory Board endorsed premium increases in the SeniorHealth
program.
4. The Advisory Board. discussed new group underwriting guidelines .
5. The Advisory Board endorsed AB3223 which would give pregnant women
on Medi-Cal guaranteed eligibility if they remained in a health
plan.
6 . The Advisory Board reviewed the enrollment and utilization targets
and experience for the first half of fiscal year 1989-90 .
7 .- The Advisory Board reviewed the financial status of the health
plan for_ the first half of fiscal year 1989-90.
BB/lmb
cc: CCHP Advisory Board
Milt Camhi
L8:HA
A412 (3/88)
�. 7 ?
........ CONTRA COSTA COUNTY
s
DRUG ABUSE ADVISORY BOARD RECEIVED
_ 595 CENTER AVENUE,SUITE 200
"Ay 16 1 90
— - MARTINEZ,CALIFORNIA 94553
n1 -
O. ;am 11 '�;i Phone(415)646-4910
•• n 1� CI RK 10A., W$O;r.VISORS
CCr'cA:QS;RCo
ps Cs` e Oe� ty
Tq_COUP1
To: Jeanne Maglio Date : May 14 , 1990
Clerk of the Board
From: Chuck Deutschman Subject: Summary of Minutes
Drug Program Chief For the Drug Abuse
Advisory Board
■ The Board of Supervisors has requested that Assemblyman
Baker pursue legislation to merge the Alcoholism and Drug
Abuse Advisory Boards . The Drug Abuse Advisory Board has
been supportive of efforts to merge services and
administration when appropriate. The Drug Abuse Advisory
Board has taken an official position of support regarding
the merging of the two boards .
■ The debate surrounding the pros and cons for the
legalization of drugs remains a controversial topic . The
DAAB has discussed this item and has officially voted
against legalization primarily because it sends the wrong
message to society regarding the use of dangerous
substances such as crack cocaine .
■ On alternate months , the DAAB devotes a large portion of
its meeting time to educating board members about
particular topics germane to the prevention,
intervention, and treatment of drug abuse problems . The
topics addressed over the past year have been adolescent
treatment , AIDS/ARC, perinatal substance abuse, and Crack
Cocaine .
■ The chair of the DAAB has continued to work with various
private funding sources to gain commitments for better
public/private partnerships . At this time, it appears
likely that Bedford Properties may contribute up to
$100 , 000 for drug abuse prevention programs .
■ Discussion has consistently revolved around the status
of .the alcohol tax initiative. DAAB members have been
very supportive in insuring that this initiative passes .
The DAAB has also reviewed ACA 38 and the serious
limitations should this pass with all funds being
directed to the State coffers .
A352 (6/88)
Drug Abuse Advisory Board Minutes Summary
May 14 , 1990
page 2
■ The DAAB has added "alternates" to the board. It was the
opinion of the Board that with the tremendous groundswell
of interest in drug abuse issues and the DRAB, that it
was important to open .the board - up to greater
participation.
■ Considerable discussion has occurred regarding the crush
of legislative bills which address the drug crisis . Mr.
Van Marter has been most helpful in forwarding this
information to - the chair and to me.
■ The DAAB has taken a particular interest in the role that
media can play in preventing the use/abuse of drugs . The
Board plans on developing strategies to better utilize
this powerful resource .
• The DRAB developed and finalized a mission statement and
goals . These goals will be reviewed and updated on an
annual basis .
Numerous other business items were reviewed and discussed by the
DAAB . Some of these items were :
• Drug-free school zones ,
■ SB 2599 planning process,
■ AB 1983--OCJP review process,
■ Countywide Action Plan process ,
■ Policy regarding the serving of alcohol at fundraisers
by drug/alcohol providers ,
■ Review of various federal and state competitive grant
applications ,
■ Review of the County budgeting process and how the DAAB
can be involved in this process ,
■ HSAC requests for input.
Should you have further questions regarding this information,
.please contact me at 646-1087 .
cc : Mark Finucane
Stuart McCullough
Bill Kolin