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

2. 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.

3. 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

4. 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

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

6. 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.

7. 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!

8. 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.

9. 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

10. MRS is SOC in action at the DSS agency level!

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. 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

14. 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.

15. 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.

16. 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 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.

17. 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.

18. 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.

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

20. 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 , created the Children’s Services Work Group and directed that the group address 7 legislative responsibility areas around coordination and collaboration

21. 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.

22. 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

23. 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

24. Local Collaborative groups
Community
Local Collaborative groups

25. 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

26. 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.

27. 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

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

29. 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

30. 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.

31. 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

32. 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

33. 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

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

35. 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