HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES - 05152001 - C.69 FHS #2 �' �.-�.` �; CONTRA
r, COSTA
TO: BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
7i�,r. ,�� fr•, # � COUNTY
FROM: Family & Human Services Committee
�� c�vra'�
DATE: May 15, 2001
SUBJECT: Report on the Contra Costa Service Integration Program
SPECIFIC REQUEST(S) OR RECOMMENDATION(S) & BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION
RECOMMENDATION(S):
ACCEPT the report on the history, goals, strategies and achievements of the Contra Costa
Service Integration Program.
BACKGROUNDIREASON(S) FOR RECOMMENDATION:
On April 23, 2001, the Family and Human Services Committee considered a report from Nina
Goldman, Service Integration Program Manager, on the status of the County's Service Integration
Program. Ms. Goldman provided an overview of the program's goals and strategies, the teams'
approach to working with families, the history of the program, partnerships with other programs
and agencies and highlights of activities and outcomes over the past year.
With regard to outcomes, Ms. Goldman noted that tracking outcomes have been very helpful not
only in evaluating the program, but also in focusing staff attention on the impact of their work with
clients. Over the past year, SIT has added a number of success indicators that it tracks
CONTINUED ON ATTACHMENT: —YES SIGNATURE:
_ RECOMMENDATION OF COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR_RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD COMMITTEE
APPROVE OTHER
SIGNATURE(S): MARK DESAULNIERE D. VER
ACTION OF BOARD ON APPROVED AS RE OMMENDE XX
_OTHER
VOTE OF SUPERVISORS
I HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THIS IS A
XX UNANIMOUS(ABSENT ------ 1 TRUE AND CORRECT COPY OF AN
AYES: NOES: ACTION TAKEN AND ENTERED
ABSENT: ABSTAIN: ON MINUTES OF THE BOARD OF
SUPERVISORS ON THE DATE SHOWN.
Contact:Sara Hoffman,335-1090
ATTESTED May 15, 201
JOHN SWEETEN,CLERK OF
THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
,AND COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR
cc: CAO
Nina Goldman,SIT Program Manager
SIT Oversight Committee DEPUTY
BACKGROUND/REASON(S) FOR RECOMMENDATION (cont'd):
Overall SIT now tracks:
➢ Percent and number of SIT CalWORKs participants working
➢ Percent and number of SIT CalWORKs participants entering employment
➢ Percent and number of SIT CPS cases that require court involvement
➢ Percent and number of SIT CPS children who remain safely in their homes
➢ Percent and number of SIT CPS families whose children remain safely in their homes
➢ Percent of school days attended by SIT youth on probation
➢ Number of violations filed on SIT youth on probation
➢ Level of violations filed on SIT youth on probation
➢ Percent and number of SIT participants served by the SIT public health nurse with a
"medical home"
➢ Percent and number of SIT participants served by the SIT public health nurse utilizing
their"medical home"
Jim Hicks, AFSCME Business Agent, commented favorably on the SIT program. Supervisor Federal
Glover thanked the SIT staff members for their good work in serving the children and families of Bay
Point and North Richmond.
2
r
Service Integration Program
CONTRA COSTA COUNTY
TO: Family and Human Services Committee
Supervisor Mark DeSaulnier, Chair
Supervisor Federal Glover, Member
FROM: Ni ha Goldman, Program Manager, Service Integration Program
SUB7ECT: Report on the Contra Costa County Service Integration Program
DATE: April 23, 2001
RECOMMENDATION
ACCEPT the attached report on the history, goals, strategies and achievements of the Contra
Costa County Service Integration Program.
INTRODUCTION
Contra Costa County's Service Integration Program is a multi-disciplinary collaboration of staff
from the County Departments of Employment and Human Services, Health Services and
Probation, the County Administrator's Office, the Mount Diablo Unified School District, the
West Contra Costa Unified School District, community-based organizations and neighborhood
residents. Established in August of 1994, the Service Integration Program was designed to
take an innovative approach to working with families that historically have posed some of the
greatest challenges to service providers: multi-problem families involved in two or more
county programs who live in the County's lowest income, highest risk communities. This
report to the Family and Human Services Committee of the Contra Costa County Board of
Supervisors provides a status update on the Service Integration Program.
SERVICE INTEGRATION PROGRAM GOALS AND STRATEGIES
Currently, two Service Integration Teams (SITeams) provide community-based, family-
focused services to approximately 700 families in Bay Point and North Richmond/"Old Town"
San Pablo. Housed in neighborhood-based Family Service Centers, the approximately 45
SITeam staff members include: Employment Specialists, MediCal and Food Stamps
Specialists, Children's Mental Health Counselors, Juvenile Probation Officers, Child Welfare
Workers, Public Health Nurses, an Adult Mental Health/Substance Abuse Counselor, '
School/Family Resource Specialists and community residents, who staff the SITeams'two
neighborhood employment collaboratives.
Page 1
2530 Arnold Drive, Suite 100 • Mortinez, CA 94553 • Phone 925-335-8503 • Fox 925-646- 1202
The Service Integration Program strives to achieve the following three goals:
® Increase family economic self-sufficiency
aImprove family functioning
® Expand community capacity to support children and families
Underlying the Service Integration model is the belief that participant families will be more
likely to achieve their individual self-sufficiency and family functioning goals through the
following service delivery strategies:
• Locating services in the communities where the most distressed families live;
• Partnering with the wide range of County and community-based agencies that serve these
families;
• Engaging neighborhood residents in service development and delivery;
• Building trusting and enduring relationships among service providers and between service
providers and participant families; and
• Building upon family and community strengths.
THE SITeam APPROACH TO WORKING WITH FAMILIES
The SITeams' approach is based on the premise that the challenges facing multi-problem
families are inter-related. Consequently, the SITeams take a holistic approach in their work
with these families. SITeam members work with the participant families using an integrated
case management process, developed specifically for the SITeams. Focusing on the whole
family unit, rather than just the individual, SITeam staff builds upon family strengths to
provide services driven by and tailored to each family's unique needs.
Staff and family members together develop a comprehensive plan for addressing issues in a
range of interdependent life domains, such as child care, child and adult health,
transportation, social supports, school and employment. The SITeams not only provide
families with more accessible, personalized services in the communities where they live, but
the multi-disciplinary and inter-departmental collaboration among staff members also allow
the team of service providers involved to establish a comprehensive, consistent strategy for
each family, avoiding conflicting expectations and demands by different programs.
PROGRAM HISTORY
The Service Integration Program was built on a strong foundation of countywide
collaboration, intensive needs assessments and program and fiscal evaluation. Since its initial
implementation, the Service Integration Program has continuously sought to evaluate both its
service delivery methods and evolving community needs and issues. As a result, the program
has embraced a number of changes and innovations that have considerably strengthened the
efficiency and effectiveness of the integrated services approach.
Page 2
In 1992, the County established the Service Integration Management Team (SIMT). The
SIMT, comprised of representatives from key County programs, schools and employee
organizations, oversaw the early planning and implementation of the Service Integration
Program. The SIMT provided guidance and oversight on a wide range of implementation
issues, including:
• Intensive countywide data matching to determine those communities most in need of
services: In April 1992 and ]une 1993, geographical mapping software wasused to
identify the location of households, by census tract, of families receiving welfare, child
welfare, probation, mental health, hospital/clinic, substance abuse and public health
services. The data match identified both Bay Point and North Richmond as census tracts
with among the highest number of households receiving four or more services and served
by multiple County agencies.
• Community needs assessments to identify both the strengths and the needs of the most
distressed of these communities: The needs assessment process in both Bay Point and
North Richmond included census and school data analyses, household surveys, focus
groups, sample client evaluations and service adequacy assessments.
• Development of Service Integration Program vision, goals, outcomes and indicators: The
SIMT embarked on a collaborative process, working with a wide range of staff from
County departments, schools and family-serving organizations, to develop key outcomes
that would serve as quantifiable indices of the success of each SITeam. The SlTeam
outcomes have undergone numerous revisions and refinements over the years based on
feedback and increasing program experience.
• Program strategy and staffing configurations: The SIMT worked intensively,.to design the
strengths-based, community-focused, integrated services strategy which would support
the best results for children and families served by the SITeams.
In August of 1994, following this extensive planning process, the Bay Point and North
Richmond Family Service Centers opened their doors.
Over the past six and a half years, Contra Costa has used the Service Integration Program as
a laboratory for programmatic, fiscal and organizational innovations. The Service Integration
Program has consistently broken new ground both at the frontline level, by bringing together
service providers from multiple County departments to work collaboratively with high-risk
families, and at higher levels in the County organization, by bringing together department
heads and administrators to resolve administrative and organizational issues. The'planning
model and structures used during the development and early implementation of Service
Integration have served as a precedent and guide for other cross-agency collaborations.
In 1994, the California Health and Welfare Agency selected Contra Costa County's Service
Integration Program as one of the six Assembly Bill (AB) 1741 "Youth Pilot Projects". AB
1741 encourages counties"to test innovative strategies for improving outcomes for children
Page 3
and families" while the State provides support to the counties'"efforts to decategorize and
integrate their service delivery systems in order to improve the lives of California's children
and families."
Through its AB 1741 designation, the Service Integration Program was able to develop.the
Reinvesting In Self-sufficiency and Employment (RISE) Initiative, which eliminates significant
amounts of paperwork requirements to allow staff to devote more time to intensive case
management and face-to-face interactions with participants. Contra Costa was granted a
federal waiver to test the RISE initiative. In August 2000, the two SIT sites started piloting
RISE, which, if successful, may be expanded countywide.
SERVICE INTEGRATION PARTNERSHIPS
The Service Integration Program has developed and sustained strong partnerships in three
key areas:
(1) Intra-County PartnershiQs, which weave together the services and resources of
programs and agencies within the County organization;
(2) Public-Private Partnerships, which bridge the efforts of local government and
foundations; and
(3) County-Community Partnerships, which engage government, community-based service
providers and neighborhood residents in the common task of improving the well-being
of children, families and communities.
Intra-County Partnerships: The Service Integration Program is based on the collaboration of
multiple County agencies from the frontline to the policy oversight level. The SITeams'
unique organizational structure reflects the collaborative nature of this program. The SITeam
staff reside within four different County Departments (Employment and Human Services,
Health Services, Probation and the County Administrator's Office), the schools and
community-based organizations.
Policy oversight is provided by the SITeams' Executive Oversight Committee, comprised of
the Directors of the key county agencies that contribute staff and resources to the program.
The day-to-day operation of the SITeams are charged to the SITeam Program Manager and
the two SITeam Coordinators, positions that oversee staff across a number of different
agencies.
Other examples of Service Integration's intra-county partnerships include:
✓ Working together, the County Departments of Employment and Human Services, Health
Services and Probation, County Counsel and the County Administrator's Office developed
the County's first informed consent agreement for integrated services in 1994. This
agreement, which is signed on annual basis by all SIT clients, gives permission for staff
from participating agencies to share information to better serve families. A second
Page 4
generation of the SIT informed consent agreement is currently under development, as is
a formal Interagency Memorandum of Understanding, which will establish the SITeams as
Multidisciplinary Children's Services Teams, allowing for greater sharing of information
across programs.
✓ The Community Development Block Grant Program, the Employment and Human Services
Department and the Health Services Department have partnered with the Service
Integration Program in the development of the SIT Adult Substance Abuse/Mental Health
strategy, which pulls together fragmented funding streams to allow for community-based
services for a wide range of families and individuals.
✓ The four Employee Organizations that represent the Service Integration Program staff
(CCC Employees Association Local #1, Professional and Technical Employees AFSCME
Local #512, Social Service Union Local #535 and United Clerical, Technical and Spec.
Employees Local #2700) worked with the four County departments that collaborate on
the SIT Program to develop a new position, the S1Team Coordinator, to oversee cross-
agency SIT staff and initiatives. The S1Team Coordinator positions in Bay Point and North
Richmond were filled in August 2000.
Public-Private Partnerships: Partnerships with the private and non-profit sector have been
critical to the Service Integ ration'Prog ram's successful implementation. Generous grants
from the Zellerbach Family Fund, the S.H. Cowell Foundation, the James C. Penney
Foundation and the East Bay Community Foundation have allowed the Service Integration
Program to test new approaches, relocate and improve services to better meet the needs of
the communities and to hire and develop neighborhood staff.
Examples of Service Integration's public-private partnerships include:
✓ Since September 1997, the Zellerbach Family Fund has been supporting the SITeams' two
neighborhood employment projects to establish and sustain neighborhood-based systems
of employment services.
✓ For the past year and a half, BPW has worked in partnership with Los Medanos College
(LMC) to provide supportive, paid work experience for CalWORKs participants who are
pursuing their educational goals. Over the past year, BPW has hired six Bay Point
residents as Career Center Assistants in partnership with LMC. BPW's Career Center
Coordinator and Project Manager work intensively with these staff, training them in
everything from basic workplace protocol to computer and internet skills. At the same
time, the Career Center Assistants earn an income to supplement their school expenses.
Based on the success of the work experience partnership with LMC, BPW recently
expanded its partnership with LMC and began offering supportive paid work experience to
clients of Rubicon Program's "Bridges" Program. Bridges clients are "hard-to-serve"
CalWORKs participants who are recovering from chemical dependency.
✓ In March 2001, the S.H. Cowell Foundation granted $170,000 over two years to a unique
collaboration of the North Richmond SlTeam/North Richmond Employment Collaborative
Page 5
and the West Contra Costa Unified School District (WCCUSD). The Verde Involving
Parents (V.I.P.) Program draws together the resources of the community, the SIT and the
school district, to improve school attendance and student success at Verde Elementary
School. To support this collaboration, the Contra Costa County Employment and Human
Services Department committed $83,046 in matching funds per year.
County-Community Partnerships: Over the past three years, the Service Integration Program
has placed particular emphasis on expanding its partnership base to include a number of
other public and non-profit agencies and neighborhood residents. For example, until its
recent move, the North Richmond SITeam co-sponsored the North Richmond Community
Garden on the grounds of the Family Service Center in partnership with the Asian Pacific
Environmental Network's Laotian Organizing Project. This garden, which flourished for over
three years, provided over 25 families with an important source of food as well as an
opportunity to continue long held cultural traditions. `
In early 1997, each SITeam initiated a series of community-wide planning sessions, resulting
in the establishment of Bay Point Works (BPW) and the North Richmond Employment
Collaborative (NREC). Through these two neighborhood employment projects, the Service
Integration Program has been able to engage a wide range of partners in activities that go
beyond crisis intervention and strategies limited by State and Federal funding to include
activities such as leadership development and community capacity-building. Working in
concert with their partner agencies and following a community-driven process, the two
collaboratives have established a number of critical services in Bay Point and North
Richmond, including Community Career Centers, designed and staffed by neighborhood
residents and centrally located in both communities. At the Career Centers, unemployed and
underemployed community residents have access to computers, the internet, fax and copy
machines, as well as job listings and other employment-related resources, such as child care
and transportation information. While Bay Point Works continues to run the Bay Point
Community Career Center, the North Richmond Community Career Resource Center was
transitioned to oversight by the Neighborhood House of North Richmond in March 2000.
In addition, the employment projects have allowed the Srreams to expand their services to
focus on youth and children by partnering with community non-profits. Bay Point Works now
regularly offers summer programs for teens, such as summer youth workshops that teach
11-14 year-olds how to set and achieve goals. In the summer of 1999, the North Richmond
Employment Collaborative joined forces with Athletes United for Peace (AUP) to establish a
digital technology academy, which targeted at-risk teens and provided them with an
opportunity to produce a video about their neighborhood while learning applicable skills, such
as script-writing, interviewing and editing. In May 2000, NREC and AUP hosted a community
premiere of the 28-minute documentary on the history of North Richmond at Shields-Reid
Community Center in North Richmond. This program was expanded to Bay Point in X000.
In addition, the Service Integration Program has maintained successful partnerships with a
number of other community-based organizations including Community Housing Development
Corporation of North Richmond, Los Medanos College, New Connections and Rubicon
Programs, among others.
Page 6
ACTIVITY HIGHLIGHTS AND OUTCOMES
A critical aspect of the Service Integration program is its emphasis on tracking participant
outcomes. Through outcomes, the SITeams are able to judge their success based on
measurable improvements in the lives of children and families. In 2000 the SIT Executive
Oversight Committee undertook the challenge of expanding and refining the outcomes
tracked by the Service Integration Program. In developing these outcomes, the SIT
Executive Oversight Committee members asked questions such as:
• What changes should we view in the lives of participant families if the Service Integration
Program is effective in its work with families?
• What changes can we feasibly and efficiently measure?
• What data exists which will allow us to compare the effectiveness of the Service
Integration Program model to the more traditional service delivery model?
To that end, the SIT Executive Oversight Committee members maintained certain data
elements that the program has been tracking since as early as 1996 (for example, the
workforce participation rates of CalWORKs participants) and developed some new data
elements, including the extent to which SIT Public Health Nurse clients have "medical homes"
(insurance and/or regular medical providers) and are utilizing these "medical homes." The
revised SITeam outcomes and the outcome data for the year 2000 are summarized in Figure
1.
The outcome data that follows is primarily for the 2000 calendar year. Data for 2001 to date
is included where available.
id Increase family economic self-sufficiency
The framework of the Service Integration Program's self-sufficiency services pre-dates both
federal and state welfare reform legislation. In late 1995, the Service Integration Program
began focusing on specific strategies to increase the employability and self-sufficiency of
families receiving welfare. Strategies included staff members across all of the SITeam
disciplines embracing a more employment-focused approach to working with families,
involving clients and community residents in the planning and implementation of employment
services and building neighborhood capacity to provide a wide range of employment support
services.
QThe workforce participation rates of CalWORKs participants served by the SITeams have
risen significantly since the establishment of the Family Service Centers in 1994,
surpassing rates both at neighboring district offices and countywide. In 2000, the Bay
Point and North Richmond SITeams led all EHS District Offices with 37.4% and 36.0% of
their CalWORKs participants reporting earnings (see Figure 2).
Page 7
FIGURE 1 : SERVICE INTEGRATION PROGRAM OUTCOMES REPORT
January - December 2000
Presented to the Family and Human Services Committee of the
Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors
April 2001
Indicator Year 2000
% of SIT CalWORKs participants working BP SIT: 37.4% (48)
(# of participants working) NR SIT: 36.0% (75)
Year 2000 monthly average
% of SIT CalWORKs participants entering
employment (# of participants entering BP SIT: 6.6% (13)
employment) NR SIT:10.0% (13)
Year 2000 monthly average
% of SIT CPS cases that require court involvement gp SIT: 8.3% (4/48)'
(# of cases involving courtltotal cases)
Year 2000 total NR SIT: 10.8% (131120)
% of SIT CPS children who remain safely in their
homes (# of CPS children who remain safely in BP SIT: 96.2% (128/133) '
their homes/total children) NR SIT: 94.1% (301/320)
Year 2000 total
% of SIT CPS families whose children remain
safely in their homes (# of CPS families whose BP SIT: 91.7% (44/48) '
children remain safely in their homes/total families) NR SIT: 91.7% (110/120)
Year 2000 total
% of school days attended by youth on SIT BP SIT: 86.8%
Probation
Year 2000 monthly averse NR SIT: 67.2%
# of violations filed on youth on SIT probation2 BP SIT: 18 violations (10 youth)
Year 2000 total NR SIT: 5 violations (5 youth)
BP SIT: 3 Technical,
Level of violations filed on youth on SIT probation2 11 Misdemeanor, 4 Felony
Year 2000 Notal NR SIT: 4 Technical,
1 Misdemeanor
% of SIT participants served by the SIT PHN with a
"medical homes3 BP SIT: 83.2%
Year 2000 monthlyaverse NR SIT: .1
% of SIT participants served by the SIT PHN BP SIT: 31.5%
utilizing their "medical home" NR SIT: 56.0%
Year 2000 monthly average
' May - December 2000 data. The Bay Point SIT did not have a CPS worker from
January -April 2000.
2 July - December 2000 data. SIT began tracking this outcome in July 2000.
3 October - December 2000 data. SIT began tracking this outcome in October 2000.
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Q Between 1996 and 2000, the workforce participation rates of Bay Point SIT CalWORKs
articipants doubled — increasing almost 19 percentage points, from 18.7% to 37.4%
(see Figure 3). In contrast, the percentage of CalWORKs participants working increased
from 17.3% to 30.8% (by 13.5 percentage points) at the neighboring Antioch District,
Office. Countywide the share of CalWORKs participants working increased from 17.6% to
28.9% (by 11.3 percentage points) over this same five-year period.
QThe percentage of North Richmond SIT CalWORKsparticipants increased by 21.5
percentage points between 1996 and 2000 — from 14.5% to 36.0% (see Figure 4). In
contrast, the share of CalWORKs participants working increased from 12.8% to 24.0%
(by 11.2 percentage points) at the neighboring Richmond District Office.
Q Designed and fully staffed by neighborhood residents, the Bay_Point Community Career
Center serves as a vital community hub both for unemployed Bay Point residents seeking
work and working neighborhood residents striving to advance their careers. Five days and
one evening per week, neighborhood residents can search through numerous up-to-date
job listings, learn how to do job searches on the internet, create their owri high-quality
resumes with the technical guidance of BPW community staff, develop their typing or
computer software skills by doing self-paced tutorials and conduct practice interviews with
BPW staff. In response to requests from community residents, over the past year, Bay
Point Works formed a new partnership with the Community Services Block Grant Program
to obtain two more computers and printers, Microsoft Word and Excel Program Tutorials,
as well as video tapes with eight-minute overviews of 100 different types of jobs. Also in
response to member requests, the Career Center now sells U.S. Postage stamps and Tri-
Delta bus tickets and passes (which were previously unavailable in the community). In
addition, to address the impact of the hike in home energy prices, Bay Point Works
recently formed a new partnership with the Community Services Department's Home
Energy Assistance Program (HEAP) and will be helping residents to fill out HEAP
applications at the Career Center.
Q Usage numbers in Bay Point indicate the tremendous acceptance and success of the
Career Center. Since opening its doors to the public in May 1998, the Bay Point
Community Career Center has developed a membership base of over 1,600 neighborhood
residents, who regularly access the Center's resources (See Figure 5). On average, 40
new members joined the Career Center each month in 2000, bringing the annual increase
in membership to almost 500. The Career Center enjoyed an average of 355 member
visits per month and 18 member visits per day in 2000. We were pleased to note that the
average number of monthly visits in November 2000 through March 2001 were'actually
higher than they had been for those same months the prior year. For more information
on the Career Center membership, please see Attachment A.
Q Employment rates of Career Center members collected 30-, 90- and 180-days after their
visits to the Bay Point Community Career Center indicate that the many community
Page 8
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residents are working as a direct result of visiting the Career Center and keeping the jobs
they find. The following data was collected between October 2000 and March 2001.
• 61.2% of the members that the Career Center was able to successfully contact 30
days after their visit to the Career Center between October 2000 and March 2001
reported that they were employed (235 members were successfully contacted; 144
members reported that they were employed).
• 76.4% of the members that the Career Center was able to successfully contact 90
days after their visit to the Career Center reported that they were employed (89
members were successfully contacted; 68 reported that they were employed).
• 63.8% of the members that the Career Center was able to successfully contact 180
days after their visit to the Career Center reported that they were employed (36
members were successfully contacted; 23 reported that they were employed).
Career Center members have reported obtaining a wide variety of positions as a result of
working with the Career Center. Positions obtained over the past six months include: file
clerk, security guard, cook, collection agent, nurse, Head Start teacher, janitor, fire alarm
inspector, welder, post office clerk, sales associate, retail management, fast food
management, Contra Costa County positions, sales, medical assistant, warehouse worker,
counselor, construction, project coordinator, customer service, receptionist and
administrative assistant.
�On May 3, 2000, Bay Point Works hosted its second annual community job fair.
Organized in collaboration with the St. Vincent de Paul Society and the Bay Point Works
Community Advisory Board, BPW's community employment fair attracted over 240 people
looking for employment and over 20 community employers. We were delighted to see
the number of job seekers who attended this event double relative to last year's 110
participants. Bay Point Works received a great deal of positive feedback from both
employers and job seekers. We also received comments regarding the need for more
summer job opportunities targeting younger teens, ages 14-16. In the 2001 job fair we
will place an increased focus on recruiting employers interested in hiring these younger
job seekers.
#' Improve family functioning
The Service Integration approach emphasizes earlier intervention and greater client contact,
allowing the SITeam staff to get involved with families before situations reach crisis levels. In
addition, SITeam staff members typically stay involved with families longer, providing
"informal" services to ensure that families safely make the transition to better functioning.
Through intensive contact with other community service providers, Srfeam staff is able to
keep a closer eye on participant families to make sure that children are obtaining needed
health care services, attending school and are living safely in their own homes. The family
Page 9
functioning outcomes regularly recorded at both SITeams indicate that this approach has
been successful.
Q Children served by the SIT child welfare workers have been successfully maintained in
their homes. In 2000, 94.1% of the 320 children served by the North Richmond
SITeam's two child welfare workers remained safely at home and 96.2% of the 133
children' served by the Bay Point SITeam's child welfare worker remained safely at home.
These figures are relatively consistent with SIT data from recent years. (In 1999, 92% of
the 105 children served by the North Richmond SITeam child welfare worker remained
safely at home.z In 1998, 97% of the 167 children served by the Bay Point SITeam child
welfare worker and 87% of the 208 children served by the North Richmond SITeam child
welfare workers were successfully maintained at home.)
Q During the fail semester of 2000, Bay Point SIT youth on probation attended school on
average 87% of school days each month. North Richmond SIT youth on probation
attended school on average 67% of school days each month. In past years, the Service
Integration Program measured the school enrollment status of youth on probation.
However, upon closer examination of this indicator, the SIT Executive Oversight
Committee refined this indicator to capture the school attendance rates of youth on
probation, rather than the school enrollment rates. This new data element is stronger, in
that youth can be enrolled in school, but not attending. In future reports to the Family
and Human Services Committee we hope to be able to provide comparison data over
time.
Q Between October and December 20003, 83.2% of SIT clients served by the Bay Point
Public Health Nurse and 95.8% percent of the SIT clients served by the North Richmond
Public Health Nurse had a "medical home".4 An ongoing challenge for the SIT Public
Health component is that many SIT clients are not utilizing their "medical homes".S
During this period, only 31.5% of Bay Point SIT clients and 56.0% of North Richmond SIT
clients served by the Public Health Nurses utilized their medical homes. These new public
health outcomes developed by the SIT Executive Oversight Committee are very revealing
and suggest that SIT must come up with new strategies for ensuring that SIT families
follow through with medical recommendations. We are hopeful that our 2001 data will
reflect a greater impact in this area.
Q Between July 2000 and March 2001, 81 SIT clients received substance abuse or mental
health services from the SIT counselor. Of the 51 of these clients who completed
assessments, 76% were referred to treatment. Of the 28 clients referred to mental
1 May— December 2000 data. The Bay Point SrTeam did not have a CPS worker from January—Apri1.2000.
z 1999 North Richmond SITeam data refers to only one of the two North Richmond child welfare workers. 1999
Bay Point SITeam child welfare data is not available.
3 SIT began tracking this outcome in October 2000. More comprehensive data will be available for 2001.
4 Having a "medical home" is defined as having medical insurance and/or having a regular medical provider.
5 "Utilization of a Medical Home" is defined as (1) for the well poupulation: within periodicity for their age
group; (2) for the unwell population: following through with recommendations from their medical provider.
Page 10
health treatment, 61% successfully entered treatment. Of the 11 clients referred to
substance abuse treatment, 73% successfully enter treatment. The SITeams are very
pleased with the high percentage of individuals who successfully entered long-term
treatment, particularly in light of the fact that, typically, it is extremely difficult to
convince substance abusers who are in denial and individuals with major mental health
problems to seek treatment.
L4Expand community capacity to support children and
families
In addition to maintaining a community-driven approach to the development of its services,
the Service Integration Program has provided substantial training and mentoring
opportunities to community staff hired through the employment collaboratives to ensure that
local efforts to improve the well-being of families and children are sustained over the long-
term. In addition, the Service Integration Program is spearheading a number of community-
building projects and local efforts to meet the needs of families within the community.
Q Both employment collaboratives have mentored community staff into leadership positions.
Since January 1999, the North Richmond Employment Collaborative has been run by
Annie King-Meredith, a lifelong community resident, who successfully completed an
intensive mentorship program. After two years on staff with Bay Point Works, Eva Garcia,
a neighborhood resident succeeded the original Project Manager to become the first
community member to run Bay Point Works in January 2000. Bay Point Works currently
has a staff of eight community residents. Seven out of eight of the BPW staff members
were CalWORKs participants being served by the Bay Point Family Service Center at the
time that they were hired.
QTo counteract the lack of local child-care resources, the North Richmond Employment
Collaborative assisted two community residents to obtain the training and start-up
funding needed to open child care businesses in their homes. These two in-home
facilities continue to be convenient and popular with North Richmond residents. Gloria
Purvis, who opened G.G.'s Kiddieland with NREC's help in October 1998, continues to
serve approximately 10 children per day. Due to the expansion of her business, she has
hired two Child Care Center Assistants, one of whom is a North Richmond resident
referred by NREC. Jeaneca Bailey continues to run Happy Children, which also serves 10
children per day. While she had to move her business into Central Richmond, she
continues to pick up children at their homes in North Richmond daily. Both Ms. Purvis
and Ms. Bailey have been able to purchase vans with the proceeds from their businesses.
As a result, they are able to provide a much needed service to working parents: picking
up and dropping off children. NREC is currently seeking a community resident interested
in establishing an additional in-home family day care center in the neighborhood.. To
better meet the needs of "Old Town" residents, we will be actively recruiting candidates
from "Old Town".
Page 11
@The Bay Point Works Community Advisory Board continues to meet 10 times a year to
ensure a consistent level of community input and control over the programs Bay Point
Works implements. The BPW Community advisory Board was established in the fall of
1999 "to provide ongoing advice regarding the operations and future development of Bay
Point Works." The responsibilities of this seven-member board include: giving guidance
to and building support for BPW programs; speaking out for BPW and those it serves;
planning, promoting and helping to implement BPW community events; selecting and
orienting new board members; helping to determine the evolution of BPW's mission and
purposes; and giving financial and programmatic advice to BPW staff. Among other
activities, the Community Advisory Board oversees the planning of events. For example,
the Board assisted Bay Point Works staff this past March with the "Exploration of Our
History" event. The Board will help with the upcoming "Celebrating Our Working Mothers
Day" event and continues to support our efforts with programs for youth.
@The most exciting development at the North Richmond Employment Collaborative over
the Bast six months is the establishment of the Verde Involving Parents (V.I.P.) Program
at Verde Elementary School. The V.I.P. Program is a joint initiative of NREC and North
Richmond's Verde.Elementary School aimed at improving student's attendance and overall
success at Verde.
NREC's decision to embark on this initiative was the result of persistent community
concerns about the toll that the combined effects of poverty and family stress are taking
on the school attendance and, therefore, academic achievement of Verde students. In
recent years, school attendance at Verde has been the lowest of all elementary schools in
the West Contra Costa Unified School District. In the 1999-2000 school year, Verde's
actual attendance (the percentage of school days students actually attended some part of
the school day) was the lowest of all elementary schools in the district at 88.87% --
compared to a districtwide average of 93.92%. In other words, the average Verde School
student missed approximately 20 full school days last year — or one out of every nine
school days. Verde students miss approximately twice as many full school days as
children attending elementary schools districtwide. (Please note that even these figures
may be misleadingly positive, in that they do not capture the high incidence of student
tardiness and partial school days missed.) As a result of these absences, Verde School
lost an estimated $197,519 in ADA during the 1999/2001 school year. Needless to say,
this funding loss poses a further disadvantage to students attending Verde, including
limited resources and staffing.
In winter 2001, NREC's V.I.P. partnership was awarded funding from both the S.H. Cowell
Foundation and the Contra Costa County Employment and Human Services Department's
TANF Performance Incentive Funding. In February 2001, NREC hired five neighborhood
residents and caregivers of children who attend Verde Elementary School to serve as
Family Partners. In March 2001, we hired a Family and Community Services Coordinator
to supervise the Family Partners. The Family Partners were selected from a pool of
individuals who reflect the ethnic diversity of the school and whose children have
successfully maintained good school attendance and behaviors. The work of the Family
Page 12
Partners.focuses primarily on providing positive parent outreach and support for children
who experience frequent tardiness and absences. While the Family Partners officially are
on staff with the North Richmond Employment Collaborative, they work closely with the
County departmental and CBO staff from the North Richmond SITeam, as well as with
Verde School teachers and administrators.
The Family Partners work with Verde School staff to identify children who are absent from
the school and whose parents have not provided the appropriate verification to the school
regarding the absence. The Family Partners conduct home visits to the family of the
absent child on the day or evening after the absence. During the home visits, the Family .
Partners assess the family's circumstances, talk with the parent(s) and child to see what
is keeping the child away from school and offer referrals and resources to ensure that the
child is able to get back to school as soon as possible.
The goal of this component is to offer positive peer support, encouragement and
resources to families in need. When the Family Partners come out to the home, they do
so as concerned neighbors who want to help out, not as outside authorities. They
respond primarily to the needs of the family as the family defines them. If; for example,
a parent says that his or her child is unable to go to school because he or she does not
have the proper clothing, cannot wake up on time in the morning or does not have
transportation to get to school and back, the Family Partners have the resources and
discretion to purchase school clothes, alarm clocks or bus tickets to address these needs.
We are delighted that the Verde Involving Parents Program has been invited.to participate
in the Family Development Training Program curriculum. This 2-semester training (once
a week every two weeks) is being offered by a consortium of Contra Costa County
agencies and Los Medanos College. All of the Family Partners, the Family and Children's
Services Coordinator and the NREC Project Manager are participating in this training,
which is geared toward empowering human services workers to provide services in ways
that are family-focused, strength-based and help families develop their own capacity to
solve problems and achieve self-reliance. Completion of this coursework will earn each of
the Family Partners six community college credits.
While it is still too early to tell, preliminary and anecdotal data indicate that the V.I.P.
Program is off to a good start. The actual attendance rate at Verde rose to 90.1% in the
first month following implementation and 91.0% in the second month following
implementation, compared to 86.2% the month prior. The number of unexcused
absences at Verde dropped dramatically following the implementation of V.I.P. In the
month prior to implementation, Verde reported 700 unexcused absences. In the month
following implementation, Verde reported only 90 unexcused absences. We look forward
to providing more extensive data in our upcoming reports.
In the upcoming several months, the NREC Project Manager will be working to further
build the V.I.P. Program to include early morning "Breakfast Clubs", aimed at motivating
kids to get to school early and begin the day with a full breakfast, and a new Student
Improvement Center, which will offer an alternative to out-of-school suspension by
Page 13
providing an on-school site where students who are experiencing behavioral problems will
have an opportunity to learn conflict resolution and anger management skills.
0 Bay Point Works has been very involved with the Bay Point Collaborative for the Public
Health, which was formed as a result of the California Endowment's Partnership for the
Public Health Program. In October 2000, BPW Project Manager Eva Garcia was one of
three Bay Point representatives selected to attend a two-day conference in San Diego
sponsored:by the California Endowment's Public Health Program. Ms. Garcia had the
opportunity to meet with representatives from other communities participating in the
California Endowment's initiative. She felt she both gained a lot of new ideas at the
conference and received a lot affirmation that Bay Point Works is headed in the right
direction in terms of community involvement and responsiveness to community needs.
Q The North Richmond Employment Collaborative has served as a co-lead agency on
developing the North Richmond Farmer's Market, a project which emerged out of North
Richmond's revised Community Action Plan. Supervisor John Gioia's Office is overseeing
the effort to establish the Farmers' Market/Community Garden. Annie King-Meredith,
NREC Project Manager, has taken on a coordination role during the project development
phase with Belinda Smith, Contra Costa County Community Development Block Grant
Program, and Don Gilmore, Executive Director, Community Housing Development
Corporation of North Richmond. To date, NREC's role in this project has included: working
with property owners to identify the optimal location for the community garden,
developing written proposals to gain funding support for the garden, recruiting potential
community gardeners from diverse ethnic backgrounds and drafting a job description for
the Farmers Market Manager. NREC will continue to provide consultation and support in
the development of the North Richmond Farmers Market/Community Garden on an as
needed basis.
In collaboration with other local agencies, BPW was instrumental in starting the Bay Point
Community Residents'Association. This organization evolved from the Bay Point Working
Parents Network and the Latino Parents Group. The group has been active for several
years, and has accomplished a great deal. For example, the Bay Point Residents
Association applied for and received non-profit status last year. Some of the past
activities organized by the Residents Association have included: Christmas parties, Easter-
egg hunt, the Bay Point Flea Market, and the "Christmas in April Program"to aid low-
income home owners with repairs in their homes. However, in recent months, the
membership dwindled to a handful of residents, due to lack of leadership within the group
and the deficit of committed officers. The Residents Association recently recruited Eva
Garcia, Bay Point Works Project Manager, to come in and try to revive the hard work of
the past couple of years. Ms. Garcia agreed to serve as President of the Resident
Association until elections are held in July 2001. Ms. Garcia is working hard in this interim
position to set up a strong foundation based on clear communication channels, training
and structured meetings.
Page 14
Q In winter 2000 NREC took over the North Richmond Family Service Center's "Community
Clothes Closet' and completely renovated it, transforming it into the newly named "Family
Agparel Shop". The Family Apparel Shop has received so many clothing donations that
we have run out of storage space. The new Family Apparel Shop will be open to the
public within the next month, offering free clothing to the community. The NREC Project
Manager is currently in the process of hiring an Attendant to run the Family Apparel Shop
and help community shoppers pick out appropriate wardrobes. E
@As a result of being involved in BPW's YE=S program, 30 Bay Point youth developed their
skills in critical thinking, personal accountability, self-motivation decision-making and
goal-setting. For the second summer in a row, BPW collaborated with St. Vincent de Paul
to offer the YE=S Program to Bay Point. BPW facilitated two two-week sessions of the
YE=S Program during the summer of 2000. The YE=S curriculum focuses on developing
basic life, school and pre-career skills to youth ages 8-17. The first summer session
targeted teenagers and the second session targeted pre-teens. This program not only
promotes the positive development of Bay Points younger generation, but also provides a
much needed support for working parents in the community who are often unable to find
summer activities for their children.
Q During summer of 1999, NREC launched the first session of the North Richmond Youth
Digital Academy, a highly successful teen video training program, in partnership with
Athletes United for Peace (AUP). Through this 10-week training program during the
summer and fall of 1999, six North Richmond teens received extensive training in
digital/video production, experienced success in a work environment, developed stronger
connections with community senior citizens and learned more about the rich history of
their community.
@The North Richmond Youth Digital Academy 1999 culminated in a 28-minute documentary
on the history of North Richmond from 1910 through the mid-1950s entitled, "An
Exploration of Our History" Part 1. In May 2000, NREC and AUP, hosted the premiere of
"An Exploration of Our History"at North Richmond's Shields-Reid Recreation Center.
Over 90 people attended this screening, which included welcomes from Richmond Mayor
Rosemary Corbin, County Supervisor John Gioia and Richmond City Manager Isaiah
Turner. "An Exploration of Our History"was awarded the Western Access Video
Excellence (W.A.V.E.) award under the documentary category at a ceremony in
Sacramento on October 28`h, 2000. In addition, "An Exploration of Our History" won
honorable mention at the 2000 Black Filmmakers International Hall of Fame; as part of
this award, the documentary was screened for the public at the Oakland Museum (where
it received three standing ovations!). The documentary has been shown on Contra Costa
and City of Richmond Cable Television.
In October 2000, 10 North Richmond teens completed the second North Richmond Teen
Video Project's Digital Technology Academy. Of these 10, two participated in last year's
academy and were hired on for a second year as Assistant Trainers. Part 2 of the North
Page 15
Richmond Teen Video Project is now in its final editing stages. A community premiere of
this video will be held on June 6t', 2001, at Shields-Reid Recreation Center in North
Richmond. NREC is also in the process of completing a North Richmond'Neighborhood
History Exhibit, which will be displayed at the screening.
@The Bay Point Youth Digital Academy 2000 was built upon NREC's highly successful teen
video training program. In collaboration with Athletes United for Peace (AUP), BPW's
offered this 10-week training program from July - October 2000 at the Bay Point Family
Service Center. The Bay Point Youth Digital Academy engaged an ethnically diverse
group of 11 high school age community youth in an intensive video training and historical
research project; 9 out of the 11 students successfully completed the program, earning a
stipend of $500 per student. The youth participants in this program gained marketable
skills and knowledge, learned strong work ethics and gained a far better understanding of
their community's rich history.
@ On March 6`h, 2001 150 people attended Bay Point Works' neighborhood premiere of"An
Exploration of Our History", a 52-minute documentary on the history of Bay Point created
by the Bay Point Works Teen Video Project. In addition, this event included a viewing of
the "Bay Point Neighborhood History Exhibit", a display of eight historical framed
photographs depicting key events in East Contra Costa County history. The event was led
off by County Supervisor Federal Glover, who welcomed the guests, including
Employment and Human Services Director John Cullen and many neighborhood residents.
Our guests were very impressed with the whole event. Everyone enjoyed the
documentary, the food and, particularly, the searchlight outside which gave the event a
Hollywood ambience. Since its initial screening, the Bay Point Teen Video Project's
documentary has been aired on Contra Costa Cable Television and Berkeley Cable
Television. The documentary was also screened at the Barnes and Noble Bookstore in
Pleasant Hill for an audience of 12 members of the Contra Costa County Historical
Society.
@ In fall 2000, NREC finished production of its second Community Resource Guide ("What
You Need That's In Your Own Back Yard..."). The NREC Project Manager completely
updated the resource guide, expanded it to include Senior, Asian and Spanish services
(based on community feedback) and improved the design from the 1998 version (see
attached). The V.I.P. Family Partners distributed copies of the Community Resource
Guide to 1,200 service providers and households in North Richmond and "Old Town".
Door-to-door distribution of the Community Resource Guides served as an excellent
opportunity for introducing the communities of North Richmond and "Old Town" San
Pablo to the new Verde Involving Parents Program. Thus, the V.I.P. Family Partners
passed out the guides while simultaneously informing parents Qf children at Verde School
about this new program.
Page 16
LESSONS LEARNED AND ON-GOING CHALLENGES
This past year has been a time of continued successes, as well as one in which we have
continued to learn a number of lessons about the nature of community-based work. This
section focuses on some of the key lessons that we have learned through our work this year:
Children, youth and their parents are eager to embrace positive opportunities to learn
after school and during the summer
Since the summer of 1999, the Service Integration Program has expanded its repertoires by
targeting more activities to children and youth. The response has been tremendous. From
the Bay Point job fairs to the YE=S Program to the Youth Digital Academies, kids want to get
involved in positive activities. Given engaging instructors and exciting subject matter, even
the allegedly"disaffected"teenagers come to life and pour over piles of historical documents
to weave together the rich history of their communities.
At the same time, we realize that the programs we offer are not nearly enough to fully tap
into and develop the talents and abilities that so many of the Bay Point, North Richmond and
Old Town youth have within themselves. Over the coming years, we hope to develop the
ability to provide more intensive, in-depth programs for this target population.
AQ
TDeveloping the workplace skills of community residents who face multiple barriers
, requires employer flexibility and patience
As the Service Integration Program more and more CalWORKs participants from the
community to gain work experience through the Career Center and the Verde Involving
Parents Program, the challenges associated with being a first—time employer have grown
increasingly clear. While across the board, these new workers have ultimately developed
considerable workplace skills, mentoring these new workers has often meant helping them to
address very serious issues in their lives.
We have found, however, is that with flexibility and patience, struggling new workforce
members can overcome tremendous obstacles to become excellent workers. In one example
this year, BPW's Project Manager had to address a Career Center staff member who was
struggling with drug addiction. With the support of Ms. Garcia and staff from the Bay Point
Family Service Center, this talented young women was able to enter a treatment program
while maintaining her position at the Career Center. Today, she has been clean and sober
for over a year and is succeeding at a new job where she earns almost $30,000 per year and
benefits.
We do recognize, however, that few employers have the patience or commitment to working
with staff in this way. We hope that the work experience opportunities we offer will allow
these new employees the opportunity to make some mistakes and learn from them before
they enter the less forgiving outside world of work.
Page 17
Building successful, interagency collaborations takes time and trust, but can reap great
rewards
The Service Integration Program continues to work collaboratively with a wide range of
agencies and groups. We have continually found that while it takes time and energy to build
a common ground from which to work together, collaboration results in more efficient and
effective delivery of services and better supports the communities we serve.
In North Richmond, we continue to build upon our strong partnerships with Athletes United
for Peace for the Youth Digital Academy, with Verde School for the Verde Involving Parents
Program, with the Community Housing Development Corporation to recruit seniors and
neighborhood residents to new community housing developments, and many others.
In Bay Point, where we originally had relatively few partnerships, the Service Integration
Program has emerged as a truly collaborative entity. The Bay Point Family Service Center
and Bay Point Works work closely with Los Medanos College and Rubicon Programs on the
work experience program, with St. Vincent de Paul and AUP on its youth programs, and with
a wide range of agencies in the Promoting Safe and Stable Families partnership and the Bay
Point Collaborative for the Public Health.
We also see that many opportunities for partnership remain untapped. We will continue to
work hard on building bridges with different agencies and organizations for the betterment of
our communities.
When it comes to neighborhood leadership development, even more than training, on-
going mentorship and coaching make all the difference
BPW and NREC have successfully mentored community staff into leadership positions. Since
January 1999, NREC has been run by Annie King-Meredith, a lifelong community resident,
who successfully completed NREC's intensive Project Manager Mentorship Initiative. In
March 2000, Ms. King-Meredith's leadership abilities were honored with her induction into the
Contra Costa County Women's Hall of Fame under the "Women Creating Community"
category. In January 2000, Eva Garcia, a 10-year resident of Bay Point, took the helm of
BPW. She too was mentored substantially by the former BPW Project Manager, Katharina
Zulliger.
Both Ms. Garcia and Ms. King-Meredith are doing excellent work and continue to hone and
build their skills. Both neighborhood leaders report that while the training they have received
has been extremely helpful in preparing them for their roles, even more helpful has been the
on-going mentorship and coaching first from the former BPW and NREC Project Managers
and now from the SIT Program Manager and partner agencies.
Page 18
Celebrating the small successes of new workforce participants is a key element to
ensuring their continued achievement
Perhaps one of the greatest rewards of our work is having the opportunity to see our
unemployed neighbors build their self-confidence and transform their lives by achieving.
economic self-sufficiency. Increasingly we have recognized the importance of providing on-
going positive feedback to our participants, many of whom overcome numerous challenges,
to get and keep jobs.
One special highlight of the year 2000 was NREC's first"Working Mothers Day" celebration
on Saturday, May 6, 2000. Fifty working moms from North Richmond and Old Town spent
the day getting pampered by NREC, Rubicon and North Richmond SITeam staff. These
working mothers received manicures, pedicures, makeovers and/or massages, dined on a
delicious barbecue lunch, enjoyed great live music and heard an inspirational speaker. Each
working mom left with the gift of a single red rose and had her portrait taken after her
makeover. We were all very moved by the warm and enthusiastic feedback we received
from these impressive women who are learning to balance the challenges of paid
employment with those of motherhood. We look forward to carrying out this tradition, as
well as to developing many new ways of honoring their successes.
Page 19
ATTACHMENT A: ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON BAY POINT
COMMUNITY CAREER CENTER MEMBERS
In July 2000, the Career Center staff began tracking additional characteristics of Career
Center members to meet a new grant reporting requirement. This data illustrates the
ethnically diverse population served by the Career Center (Figure 6).
All but a few Career Center members identify themselves as low-, very low- and extremely
low-income according to Housing and Urban Development Department definitions. Of the
population of members visiting the Center between October 2000 and March 2001, 71%
identified themselves as extremely low-income (earning 30% or less of median income), 20%
identified themselves as very low-income (earning more than 30% but less than 50% of
median income) and 9% identified themselves as low-income (earning up to 80% of the
median income).
Surprisingly, individuals who identify themselves as receiving CalWORKs continue to comprise
a relatively small share of the Career Center membership. Only 14% of the Career Center
members visiting between October 2000 and March 2001 identified themselves as receiving
CalWORKs. 52% of the members stated that they did not receive CalWORKs, while 34%
preferred not to report this information.
The vast majority of Career Center members continue to be Bay Point residents. As
illustrated in Figure 7, residents of Bay Point made up 84% of the Career Center members
between October 2000 and March 2001.
Page 20
Figure 7: Residence of Bay Point Career Center Members"
Other
2%
Concord
1%
Antioch
4% 1
i
Pittsburg
9%
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Bay Point
84%
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*Based on information provided by Career Center visitors between October 1, 2000- March 31, 2001. i
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