Supporting Child Welfare Reform in North Carolina System of Care Supporting Child Welfare Reform in North Carolina

Our Focus Children involved with various public child serving system/agencies have a variety of: Physical health needs Emotional and mental health needs Social needs Educational needs Developmental needs Legal needs Child serving professionals have worked for years with other agencies to piece together the available resources for these children and their families with limited success.

Child/Family Human Services Neighborhoods, Friends $ $ $ $ $ JJ AOC Health/ Mental Health, SA, DD Comm-unity Orgs. Public Schools DSS Agencies are funded for specific purposes and to provide specific services. In the past, families were left out of the decision making processes around the types of services agencies would offer, what those services were and how to access those services. Families were often frustrated and confused about where they should go for needed services and whether or not the services would meet their needs. Services offered were based on the agency’s perceptions about what was needed, not the family’s perception. Protection Correction Education Treatment Support ? ? ? ? ? Extended Family Neighborhoods, Friends

Child/Family Human Services Reform Neighborhoods, Friends $ $ $ $ $ Health/MH,SA, DD JJ AOC Comm-unity Orgs. Public Schools DSS Positive Behavioral Supports (PBIS), Alternative Learning Programs MH Reform, Health Choice, Smart Start, MAJORS, Person-Centered Care Family-centered Practice, Child and Family Teams, Multiple Response System, System of Care Faith/Church, Clubs, Parks/Recreation Housing, Advocacy, etc. Restorative Justice, Comprehensive Strategy, ‘Blue Prints’ Recent human services reforms has seen formal child serving agencies attempt to become more family centered in their approach to developing and providing services to families. Family input has been invited and included to various degrees in these reform efforts. Although agencies are moving in the right direction, families who are served by several agencies at once, may still find it complicated to navigate their way through the various agencies to get the services they want and need. Agencies still tend to operate within silos concentrating only on the services they themselves can provide. Extended Family Neighborhoods, Friends

How can we Bridge the gap between families and services? Through a System of Care Approach

System of Care refers to: A nationally recognized, proven framework/approach for: Organizing and coordinating services and resources at the agency, community, and state level into a comprehensive and interconnected network BY: developing PARTNERSHIPS with individuals and families who need services or resources and all the agencies, both formal and informal, who serve them. building on individual and community STRENGTHS and making the most of existing resources to help children and their families achieve better outcomes. Improving the skills, knowledge, and attitudes of frontline service providers toward more FAMILY- CENTERED practices. A system of care approach is the bridge between agencies and families and between agencies and other agencies both formal and informal.

Where does SOC fit into the NC FSCW System? So what does system of care approach have to do with NC’s Family Support and Child Welfare System? It has everything to do with it!

Intra/Interagency Collaboration System of Care Guiding Principles/Values ARE NC Family Support & Child Welfare Principles/Values Intra/Interagency Collaboration Individualized Strengths-based Care for Families Cultural Competence Child and Family Partnership Community-based Services & supports Accountability to results Compare SOC principles and values with Family Centered Practice Principles. They mirror each other with their reflection of respect, strengths, partnership values.

North Carolina’s Family Support and Child Welfare System Well-Being Permanency Safety MRS Self-Sufficiency Foster Care Work First Adoption CPS Community Based Prevention Family centered practice and system of care principles are our foundation. Family-Centered Practice and System of Care is our Foundation - Collaboration between Work First and Child Welfare - Redesign of in-home services which is needs driven - Accountability - Child and Family Teams - Strengths-Based, Structured Intake - Cultural Competence - Choice of two approaches to reports of child - Shared Parenting Meetings abuse, neglect, and dependency - Community Based - Coordination between law enforcement agencies and CPS for the investigative assessment approach

MRS is SOC in action at the DSS agency level!

System Of Care is NOT: A new initiative A new “program” A “practice” model New or additional work For DSS agencies, SOC is simply doing more of what they are already doing implementing MRS.

System Of Care IS: organize, fund, purchase; and provide services A catalyst for changing the way child and family service agencies: organize, fund, purchase; and provide services for children and families with multiple needs.

System of Care IS : A way to support and enhance the implementation of the 7 strategies of MRS A way to work more efficiently and effectively with families and agencies within the community

System of Care Approach is: Being used to address needs identified by State’s CFSRs and improve outcomes for children and families involved with child welfare. One of the strategies named in NC’s program improvement plan for the new vision for Family Support and Child Welfare Services. Child and Family Service Reviews at the State and County level can be improved through implementation of a SOC framework because outcomes of safety, permanency, and well being are improved.

SOC is thinking out of the box when it comes to the way agencies provide services to families. If you open your mind to the possibilities, you can see things in a new way like the perspective on this box. When you stare at the box, the box doesn’t change but your perspective on the box changes. Suddenly, you see it in a new and different way. Developing a system of care philosophy is the same way. It is changing your perspective on how we work with families and the community.

System of Care History Approach was originally created for children with serious emotional disturbances (MH) In NC, began in 1994 with national System of Care grants through SAMHSA (Pen-Pal, NC FACES, SOC NET, Mecklenburg CARES) 2003 NCDSS received System of Care Grant from the Children’s Bureau to expand to other target populations including families in the child welfare system System of Care Originally, the system of care approach was created in the mental health arena to support families of children with serious emotional disturbances and ensure that children got the services they needed. The approach was so successful that in 2003, NCDSS received a grant from the Children’s Bureau to implement the approach in social services to help ensure effective and efficient delivery of services to families involved with the child welfare system, especially those families who were involved with multiple agencies. NCDSS had already implemented family centered practice and multiple response system reform strategies so that system of care principles and philosophy fit perfectly into the efforts to support families that were already taking place within the child welfare system. Site selection was purposeful – Alamance, Bladen, Mecklenburg Counties, a Level I, II, III county, our largest metro area, a rural county, and all three counties were pilot Multiple Response System Counties. The DSS SOC grant ends in September of 2008. The six month reports sent to the Children’s Bureau by each site are available on the NCDSS website that includes their activities to implement system of care and lessons learned in the process.

Overall Goals of NCDSS Grant Project: To show improved outcomes in safety, permanency, and well-being for children and families receiving child protective services and children in state custody through individualized and comprehensive systems of care within the context of the family’s home and communities. To institutionalize a System of Care infrastructure of interagency collaboration, best practices for workers and culturally competent services for families with child and family involvement at all levels of designing, building and sustaining System of Care. To evaluate the effectiveness of System of Care and establish a replicable model of organizational and programmatic transformations necessary for success at the practice, program and system levels.

What does System of Care infrastructure look like in NC? Three main areas: State Community Family Implementing a system of care must be done not just within a agency but across agencies and communities. One agency cannot implement a system of care. To be truly successful, it must be done on several levels simultaneously. It is a parallel process occurring at the state, community and family level.

State Level System of Care grants in NC State collaborative for children and families Legislation

North Carolina is Building a SOC Infrastructure Governor’s School-based Child and Family Support Team Initiative in 100 schools NC MH/DD/SAS commitment of a state coordinator position and a full time person for each LME dedicated solely to SOC NCDSS Multiple Response System Reform incorporates CFT’s statewide, family centered practices, system of care service delivery SL 2005-276, created the Children’s Services Work Group and directed that the group address 7 legislative responsibility areas around coordination and collaboration

New Legislation Establish “Children Services Work Group” Identify common outcomes Identify strategies for flexible funding Develop common service terminology Study the creation of a shared database Develop mechanisms to share information across agencies Study training needs to increase collaboration Study other issues that increase collaboration and coordination among child-serving agencies System of Care philosophy and principles are reflected in the goals of the Children Services Work Group.

The State Collaborative for Children and Families A Forum: for the discussion of System of Care development and issues regarding how agencies, community partners, and families can work together to better meet the needs of children and families which results in better outcomes. where recommendations are made to promote the coordination of services, funding, training, and local reporting requirements to eliminate duplication and make the system more child and family friendly. that provides support for Community Collaborative groups and Child and Family Teams. Meeting dates and times: Second Friday 9-11 NC Child Advocacy Institute Fourth Friday 9-11 Governor’s Crime Commission

State Collaborative for Children and Families Recent Activities Cross system child and family team curriculum with blended funds Website Charter Cross agency Committees including technical assistance System of Care Conferences/Training Events

Local Collaborative groups Community Local Collaborative groups

Communities Caring for their Own On a local level you can find multiple problem solving groups that are working together with families to achieve safety, permanence and well-being for children. Some examples of these groups are Juvenile Crime Prevention Councils (JCPC), Community Child Protection Teams (CCPT), Local Community Collaboratives

Local Community Collaborative A diverse governance team that brings together decision-makers (people responsible for services) and stakeholders (people using the services) to “drive”, manage, and monitor the local System of Care. Promote teamwork and change in the broader community that is necessary for Child and Family Teams to succeed in their work with children and families. One of the goals in implementing a system of care approach within a community is to encourage local child serving groups with similar purposes to become one large community collaborative. That way communities can share ideas, plans, address community needs and share resources together.

Community Collaboratives Integrating Resources & Response* One Unified Approach Child Serving Agencies , Community Resources and Families Local Collaborative Better outcomes for families and communities $ Maximizing Resources for a Comprehensive System of Services/Supports: Braided Funding & Blended Services Family, Neighborhood & Community Involvement * John Franz, 1999

Family Driven Child and Family Teams Partnership Advocacy In a system of care, families are equal partners in all planning and decision making.

Why Family Driven care? Families know what works for them Families know what their limitations are Families can keep track of services and change Families and youth comfort and buy in are necessary for success Families face the challenges all day and every day Families are passionate and will not give up Families have the most to lose and the most to gain Libby Jones-Family Advocate-NC Families United

Child and Family Teams: A group of persons (professionals, family members, friends and community supports) selected by the family to assist them in developing a plan to address the significant issues in their family. This group can be called together as needed, by the family or anyone involved with the family.

Family is central; with facilitator organizing the meeting Child & Family Teams: who’s in the car? Pastor Housing Authority MH /DD/SA Professional Consumer Credit Friends DSS Professional Child and Family Team Family is central; with facilitator organizing the meeting Advocate LEA Teacher Parks/Rec Job Coach Child and family teams are at the heart of a system of care approach. They are the intersection point for agencies and families when services are being providied. Courts JJ Professional Neighbors Primary Care Phy. Health Dept. Nurse 1 Family/1 Team/1 Plan

Why System of Care? Duplication is reduced by: - pooling resources & unifying services - encourages private/public partnerships Keeps children and families together by: - Reduces costly out-of-home placement for treatment or incarceration, unnecessary custody relinquishment - reduces trauma to child and their family due to separation - reduces the number of moves a child in placement experiences

More Results Provides incentives for communities to engineer enduring positive change by: - increasing school attendance and performance - decreasing instances of abuse, neglect, and juvenile justice involvement - increasing family involvement and satisfaction in meeting the behavioral, mental, physical, educational and safety needs of their children Establishes a system that promotes : family strengths, greater self-reliance, and children who will grow up in success

Don’t miss the bus!!!! You are a CRITICAL part of System of Care development and success in your community and state!

How can I become more involved? Advocate for system of care development within counties across the state Advocate for family participation whenever you can on boards, policy groups and other decision making groups Participate as a member on local community collaboratives Learn all that you can about implementing a system of care from the grant counties