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working together Our Vision

Franklin County is a thriving community of hopeful, healthy children and strong families.

Our Mission It is the mission of the Franklin County Family and Children First Council to provide leadership and insight to policy makers, other Franklin County organizations, and the community in order to make Franklin County a thriving community of hopeful, healthy children and strong families.

Franklin County

and

Children 1 First Council

www.franklinfamilyfirst.org

Our Member Agencies

Strategic Initiative Statement:

ADAMH Board of Franklin County

The Franklin County Family and Children First Council serves as a voice for children. It will process issues to action by marshalling resources of systems to make change happen.

Columbus City Council

Commitments to Child Well-Being:

Early Childhood Coordinating Committee

Through a partnership of government agencies and community organizations, the Franklin County Family and Children First Council is committed to improving the wellbeing of children and families. The Council attempts to align resources and activities around the needs of children in order to achieve the long term outcomes of the following commitments to child well-being: Expectant parents and newborns thrive Infants and toddlers thrive Children are ready for school Children and youth succeed in school Youth choose healthy behaviors Youth successfully transition into adulthood

Educational Service Center of Franklin County

Columbus Public Schools

Franklin County Board of Commissioners Franklin County Board of Health Franklin County Board of MR/DD Franklin County Children Services Franklin County Department of Job and Family Services Franklin County Head Start Franklin County Juvenile Court

Parent Representatives South-Western City Schools

Franklin County Family & Children First Council 855 W. Mound St. Columbus, OH 43223 Ph: (614) 275-2511 Fax: (614) 351-2010 www.franklinfamilyfirst.org

working together

Columbus Public Health

Ohio Department of Youth Services

For More Information Contact:

franklin county FAMILY AND CHILDREN FIRST council

Franklin County

and

Children 1 First Council

United Way of Central Ohio

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Partnerships for Success is a holistic and strategic approach to building capacity within counties to prevent and respond effectively to child and adolescent problem behaviors while promoting positive youth development.

In 2006, Franklin County was one of six counties selected through a competitive process to receive the Partnerships for Success (PfS) grant. Franklin County is the first large urban county in the state to receive a PfS grant. Over the course of a year, the community is to undertake a planning process that includes the following: Phase 1: Needs Assessment- a data-informed process that profiles the community, determines the magnitude of problem behaviors, identifies levels of risks, protective factors and opportunities for positive youth interaction, and narrows targets that can be successfully impacted.

Phase 2: Resource Assessment- during this phase it is determined the community resources are devoted to addressing the identified issues, determines if those resources are effective, and determines what gaps in resources exist.

Phase 3: Strategic Action Identification- during this phase it is determined what discrepancies exist between community needs and community resources, what strategies will allow us to achieve progress toward the outcomes, what evidence is there to support the strategies, and are the strategies feasible.

Phase 4: Implementation and Evaluation- this phase takes place in the second year and involves implementing the strategies selected and evaluating the effectiveness.

The Franklin County Family and Children First Council projects are administered by the joint staff of the Council's partners. Funded by administrative dollars/shared across the members of the Council, these individuals, on a very limited budget, accomplish significant reduction in duplication of services, and other things from the mission of the Council.

Help Me Grow Help Me Grow The purpose of the Help Me Grow Program (HMG) is to provide educational and development support services to pregnant women and families with children aged birth to three, at risk for or having a developmental delay or disability so they can have their children develop to their fullest potential. HMG provides service coordination, child development and parenting training through home visiting, developmental screenings and evaluations, outreach to find children with delays, linking families with services in the community and parent support.

Newborn home visits are also provided which provides a health assessment for both the mother and child and links the family to community resources as needed.

In SFY06, nearly 3,300 families in Franklin County benefitted from the service coordination of the Help Me Grow program, and 2,780 families received newborn home visits, to help new families and their at-risk children learn how to address any delays sooner rather than later.

In Franklin County, Partnerships for Success will be used as a comprehensive approach to: Create a better community

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success story

working together

Help Me Grow Help Me Grow service coordinators are specially trained to identify the appropriate services for children at risk for delays or diagnosed with developmental delays. Help Me Grow coordinators help families understand and navigate the steps necessary to enroll their children in the services critical to their children's health. Silvina Rellena, the Help Me Grow specialist, helped the Arellano family do just that with their son, Manuel.

The Arellano family was referred to Help Me Grow and Silvina when Manuel was 11 months old. Since Manuel did not have insurance yet, it was going to take several months for him to get therapy. However, since Manuel had speech, motor and social delays, Silvina referred him to MR/DD, helped facilitate the assessment (which included translating between English and the Arellano family's native Spanish), and helped enroll Manuel into the appropriate MR/DD school. Even with the help from Silvina, it still required a lot from Rosa, who took a day off work to complete the various forms and referrals from the various doctors.

Rosa, Manuel's mother, said that with the help of Help Me Grow not only was her son enrolled in the appropriate services with the Franklin County Department of MR/DD at the right time, but just a few months later he had made significant progress. “Manuel has made a lot of progress since we started working with Help Me Grow. He used to not be able to sit up, but now he can do things like other children his age. He is more secure in the house and with his big brother and sisters.”

Manuel's father Jose said that without Help Me Grow or the Help Me Grow staff, his son would not have been able to make the progress he had made. “We appreciate Silvina, and are grateful. She takes us very seriously.”

He added, “I want to let families know that if you have problems or your children have problems, you are not alone.

There are a lot of folks willing to help. We owe lots of people lots of stuff for what they did for us.”

working together collaboration During the 2006-07 state budget process, the Franklin County Family and Children First Council in coordination with many other children and family-focused advocates advocated for the passage of the Access to Better Care (ABC) legislation. This legislation was focused on transforming Ohio's mental health system because the existing system was broken.

Consultation, Assessment, Linkage, and Liaison (CALL) The CALL Project aims to increase collaboration between the child welfare and behavioral healthcare systems and improve access to quality behavioral healthcare for children and families involved with Franklin County Children Services (FCCS). Services are provided at each of the FCCS regions and include consultation, assessment, linkage to behavioral health services, and playing the liaison role between the behavioral health and child welfare systems. The project is intended to help FCCS gain a greater understanding of the behavioral health care needs of its population; provide information about available services, gaps in services, and wait times in the behavioral health system; connect youth and families to services; divert youth from custody relinquishment to access behavioral healthcare, divert youth from residential placements, reduce lengths of stay in high end treatment services, and reduce level of care; all when clinically appropriate.

Access to Better Care Transformation Plan Behavioral Health/Juvenile Justice Project Consultation, Assessment, Linkage and Liaison (CALL) Project Early Childhood Mental Health (ECMH) Initiative Family and System Teams (FAST) Each of these programs was developed to respond to the growing realization that failing to serve kids with alcohol, drug and/or mental health service needs result in increased costs in other parts of the system. More specifically, lack of access to care can lead to school failure, suicide, criminal behavior, unwanted pregnancy and other expensive problems that present a growing challenge for Ohio's foster care and juvenile justice systems. ABC was built upon the premise that these programs will result in children receiving cost-effective prevention services so they will not have to be removed from their homes to receive expensive mental health treatment.

Needs Statement Prior to the passage of ABC, it was estimated that only half of Ohio's 240,000 children who needed mental health treatment received it; and only one-third of Ohio's 68,000 youth aged 12-17 with a drug or alcohol problem received the treatment they needed.

success story

The resulting legislation both created new programs and resulted in the coordination of existing programs to respond to the needs of the community in the form of evidence-based practices.

Children's Hospital Behavioral Health, Youth Forum and the CALL Project Ensuring that children receive the health care they need is a key mission of the Franklin County Family and Children First Council. By coordinating efforts between agencies in our community, the Council helps our children and families live healthy lives.

The CALL (Consultation, Assessment, Linkage & Liaison) Project is a collaborative effort between Children's Hospital Behavioral Health, Franklin County Children Services (FCCS), the Alcohol, Drug, And Mental Health Board (ADAMH) of Franklin County and Youth Forum, Inc. that places mental health care professionals at each FCCS office. “By having a mental health specialist on-hand, our children can benefit from receiving an on-site assessment and consultation, without having to travel between several different agencies,” said Beth Crawford, Intersystem Administrator for the Council. “Not only does the CALL project demonstrate our system's ability to make services more efficient for our community, but it also shows how we strive to make families and children our top priority.”

The Franklin County Family and Children First Council in collaboration with the ADAMH Board of Franklin County, Franklin County MR/DD Board, Franklin County Help Me Grow and Action for Children Team, has developed an Early Childhood Mental Health model that is designed to promote healthy social and emotional development and address behavioral health care needs of young children. The model is to specifically serve young children who are likely to be at risk.

The ECMH consultant, employed by St. Vincent's Family Center, works with six targeted Early Learning Initiative (ELI) sites that have agreed to be involved with this initiative. The mental health consultation is a problem-solving intervention which includes issue identification, development of strategies, and development of implementation plan. This mental health consultation is a problem-solving and capacity-building intervention and will be implemented within a collaborative relationship between the ECMH consultant and child care center staff and other experts, as necessary. The purpose of our ECMH consultation will be to improve the ability of staff, families, programs, and systems to prevent, identify, refer for treatment and reduce the impact of behavioral health problems among children from birth to age 6 and their families.

Kris West, Ph.D., a psychologist at Children's Hospital Behavioral Health, supervises the CALL project. “The partnership between Children's Hospital Behavioral Health, Youth Forum, FCCS and ADAMH has allowed our agencies to improve identification of behavioral health treatment needs and to reduce the time between assessment or consultation to treatment, enabling our children and families to get the help they need as soon as possible,” Dr. West said.

Mike Nowlin, an LISW clinician at Children's Hospital Behavioral Health who works on the CALL project, has seen the beneficial impact of this type of collaboration of services and treatment can have, such as with Alexis Thompkins. “Alexis and her family were living in inadequate housing and she was in need of mental health services,” he said. “Now, Alexis and her two sons have a home, she is getting the health care she needs and they have a much better life because of the collaboration between agencies in this community. Within less than two weeks, Alexis was linked to services that have made a positive difference in the lives of her and her family.”

Alexis, who has two sons, ages 9 years and 7 months, sought help for her son's mental health and educational problems, and discovered her own personal mental health problems in the process. “Meeting Mike and finding out what problems we both were suffering from was one true blessing,” Alexis said. “Without him, I would never have found North Central Mental Health Services.”

Alexis said that after meeting with Mike and learning about the services available for her and her family, the process was quick and easy. “Mike did an in depth look into what problems we were having, assessed us both, and directed us to the organizations that could help us.”

to advocate for change

success story

Access to Better Care (ABC) Legislation

ABC has successfully created programs that address the behavioral health needs of children throughout the state.

There are several programs that make up the full legislation, each of which have similar purposes, outcomes, and early intervention, prevention and treatment needs they are addressing. However, each is directed toward slightly different target populations and employ slightly different activities. In most cases, the funding is directed through the local ADAMH board.

change

Early Childhood Mental Health (ECMH)

The Early Childhood Mental Health Initiative The Early Childhood Mental Health Initiative is designed to achieve this goal. “This program is a wonderful example of collaboration and partnership between families, schools and service providers,” said Beth Crawford, Intersystem Administrator for the Council. “We believe that the ultimate benefit of providing easy-to-access services is healthier kids.”

Katrina Ruege is St. Vincent Family Centers' Early Childhood Mental Health Coordinator. As part of the initiative, Ruege visits child care centers each week working with preschoolers, teachers and parents. This program is designed to work on the attributes that make children resilient and help them grow into resilient adults.

Gahanna Children's College has been part of the program for nearly a year. Each week the students spend time in Dina Dinosaur School. They focus on following rules at school, making and keeping friends, expressing emotions in a healthy way, managing anger, concentrating in school, and working as a team.

Edith Love, Director of Gahanna Children's College, said the groups have made a big difference. “One day the children were doing hand prints. One of our little guys was not happy.

Another student looked at him and calmly told him 'we're all friends here, we all get along.' I use that example quite a bit,” said Edith.

Katrina also does training with the staff on a variety of topics.

The entire center staff was recently trained on the Devereux Early Childhood Assessment (DECA) and they have begun implementing the social/emotional assessment program with the Pre-Kindergarten class. DECA is a strength-based assessment of protective factors in preschool children ages 2-5, which also contains a screening for behavioral concerns.

Katrina does group sessions in the centers for an 18-week period. She is available to teachers and the centers for an entire year; providing assessments and helping teachers make changes in the classroom to lessen behavioral challenges. For center directors like Edith Love, the ability to get help when they need it is a big plus. “Katrina is always available when we call. The trainings focus on the real needs of child care centers.”

working together more council projects Other Council projects include:

Multi-System Project (Service Coordination) Coordinate service on behalf of the families that receive services from various Council members (ADAMH, MRDD, Children Services, and/or Juvenile Court). This project is the crux of the Council's mission. The staff assigned to this project, from some of the Council members, provide individualized help to families with children with a specific emphasis on maintaining family stability while helping the family navigate the various systems, while also preventing placement of those youth into out-of-home care. This includes conducting an assessment which identifies strengths and needs of family, providing coordinated intersystem planning process which addresses needs of the family and ensures families are central to the planning process, and providing flexible funding to assist with providing needed services. In SFY06, 117 families benefited from this project. In SFY05, 93 families benefited.

“

Without your assistance, I don't know what I would have done. I can, for the first time in years, go to work without stress. Finding care and assistance for him in the past had been a nightmare. Your knowledge and options you've made available have had a wonderful impact on our lives.

– Parent

”

Council Projects and Collaborations The Franklin County Family and Children First Council works closely with agency partners and the community to be the voice of children. Working together, we can advocate change, strengthen partnerships and build upon a strong foundation for our children.

projects “ Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP)

Provide teens culturally and age-appropriate prevention classes to avoid pregnancy. In SFY06, over 6,300 took part in the Teen Pregnancy Prevention program (TPP).

In SFY05, 4,600 students participated. Services range from 5-10 weeks in duration and are provided in areas with identified high risks, primarily within the Columbus Public School district.

School Readiness Resource Centers (SRRC) Focused in two school districts (Columbus and SouthWestern, the largest and fifth-largest districts in the state, respectively), the School Readiness Resource Centers (SRRC) program helps students stay in school through one-on-one counseling, bullying and character education programs, incentives for attendance, truancy prevention programs, and tangible items such as clothing and school supplies. Among the six schools in Columbus Public Schools and the seven schools in South-Western City Schools, each district reported success in their identified outcomes (improved academic performance, attendance, and/or decreased behavioral incidents) at a rate between 75% and 87%.

Ohio Children's Trust Fund Created by the General Assembly in 1984, these funds are used to prevent children from abuse and neglect.

Programs include educational sessions, home visits, case management, and respite, among other activities. Some are particularly concerned with parents in crisis, and populations with special needs (i.e. teen parents, homeless parents, parents of children with developmental delays, Limited English Proficient parents). In SFY06, over 1,000 families received assistance from these funds. In SFY05, over 900 families received services.

Thank you for doing this program. Our students really benefit from the information.

The activities not only promote thought but also communication.

The students’ responses to the program are positive.

They always talk about how much they enjoyed and appreciated it.

”

– High School Teacher

business

state fiscal year 2006 (unaudited) Income and Expense Statement Income (Cash Basis) Federal Funds State Funds Local Funds (County)

$5,534,920 1,142,951 809,425

TOTAL 2006 Income

$7,487,296

Operating Expenditures (Cash Basis) Help Me Grow Ohio's Children Trust Fund Teen Pregnancy Prevention School Readiness Resource Centers Multi System Programs Administrative Costs

$4,995,387 321,555 685,884 407,150 694,788 382,532

TOTAL Operating Expenditures

$7,487,296

Family & Children First Council Revenue

Local Funds (County) State 11% Funds 15% Federal Funds 74%

Family & Children First Council Expenses

Administrative Costs – 5% Multi System Programs – 9% School Readiness Resource Centers – 5% Teen Pregnancy Prevention – 9% Ohio Children's Trust Fund – 4%

because it's good business

Help Me Grow 68%