Anne Arundel County Partnership for Children, Youth and Families met March 22.
Here is the minutes provided by the Partnership:
Members Present: Michael Yeakey (Chair), Kim Davidson (Vice Chair), Ryan Voegtlin (AACPS), Stephanie Trice (MHA/CSA), Vernon Osborne (formerly Disconnected Youth), Susan Nolte (Citizen Member), Fran Phillips (Dept. of Health), Jim Lightheizer (Citizen Member), Rachael Maconachy (DSS), Kim Atkinson (DJS), Ramona Burnett (Parent Advocate), Melissa Curtin (Community Foundation AA Co.)
Staff: Pam Brown, Alli Holstrom, Lisa Kovacs, Gabby McCrary
Guests: Lauren Maddox (Due East Partners), Trudy Jones (CREG Cares)
Votes:
1. Minutes from the February Board meeting were unanimously approved based on a motion from Kim Atkinson with a second from Ryan Voegtlin.
2. Michael Yeakey made a motion to accept the revised list of prioritized results areas and indicators for FY2019 as determined by the Board and Guiding Coalition, seconded by Susan Nolte. Motion was unanimously approved.
3. Susan Nolte moved to approve the programmatic funding plan for FY2019, seconded by Kim Davidson.
Motion was unanimously approved.
Overview: Year 2 Progress:
• Completed resource mapping of the county, mapped population density, and gap analysis pointed to North County as starting point for years 1 and 2 of the Community Plan
• Chose to focus on Disconnected Youth, Unaccompanied Homeless Youth and Impact of Incarceration special populations; did not select Hungry Children as it currently has the most resources allocated to it in the County
• Working to update new maps
• Looking at geography and color of poverty across the county and their needs. Racial & ethnic mix.
Brooklyn Park Food Survey-
• Equal mix between Hispanic, whites and blacks surveyed
• 53% income was less than 25k and 53% didn’t safe walking in BP
• Discussed what poverty means when you are living in it
Year 2 Updates – moving into Year 3-
• Collective Impact wheel updated with year 2 accomplishments
• Community plan will be updated next year when new needs assessment is complete and new data is available
• New Poverty Amidst Plenty will include traditional needs assessment components but will also include the Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) and sections on Domestic Violence and Human Trafficking which have traditional stood alone – now we’ll have one cohesive document for the whole County
• Action plans & turn the curves completed for each priority population
• Anchored Community of Hope (new director, new partners)
• Preliminary design, program & site selected for youth center
• CAC strategic planning on how to become a family support center
• Pop-up youth center at BP Library
• United Way extended homeless program in BP
• GOCCP became interested to look into domestic violence of building a guiding coalition
• Partners are growing and energized
Disconnected Youth Work Group-
• Solutions include mentoring, resiliency training, job skills
• Continued support of SOC, JIFI program, Peak Youth Bureau – also looking at the Deale Library as a potential hub
• South County has very little high speed internet so working to make that part of our hub
• Exploring solutions with AA County Transportation, AAWDC, and the library for disconnected & homeless youth at Deale Library
• JIFI & Peak have struggled because the parent agency for both programs is going out of business. Have worked to save both by working with a new vendor to house the programs.
Unaccompanied Homeless Youth Work Group-
• Power of One mentoring program
• Explored funding an expansion of this program but as we are now considered part of County Government we are no longer able to contract with the school system due to “maintenance of effort” conflict
• Youth center has been a big push for us in Brooklyn Park – “pop up” center operating at BP library in the interim
• Developing Universal Caregiver affidavit
• Year 3 programming will have mentoring, SOC supports, and build out of Youth Center
• Youth Reach is currently underway – should have preliminary data in April
Children and Families Impacted by Incarceration-
• Kinship Support Program is important and very successful
• Support of mentoring programs, literacy education, and soft skills workshops
• Parent/guardian education and supports are critical for supporting children
Cross cutting issues identified by all workgroups-
• “Look above the conversation and say what are we really hearing from the community”
• Youth center/Family success center
• Transportation is the biggest issue so mobile services and alternate modes of transportation are necessary
• Strategies to address racial disparities
• Community education & engagement – increased transparency & better resource maps
Proposal for a Community Dashboard-
• Requests for a public facing dashboard
• Looking for ways to create extra levels of transparency with community, partners, etc.
• Public access to data we collect- needs assessment, work groups, county agencies
• Potentially will allow people to drill down from population level issues/areas of concern to local data to strategies/programs/partners
• Eventually would like to link to online resource map
Year 3 of the Community Plan:
We are continuing to build out our Collective Impact model and shared data platform and we hope the number of agencies and organizations participating will continue to grow. We are in the process of writing the next iteration of “Poverty Amidst Plenty” which will inform the next update to the Community Plan. We are amazed and thrilled with what we’ve accomplished in just two short years and excited about the continued prospects for
growth and impact inside this model. Quick note that because this year our award from GOC will be a multi- year award we will not have to write a NOFA response in FY19 or FY20.
Everything we do is data driven – both at the county (population) level and the programmatic level. Results Based Accountability (RBA) is our framework which asks us to answer two key questions: Are we doing the right things? Are we doing those things right? The RBA framework and the planning efforts of this group in concert with our special population work groups will guide us to the right strategies, and our performance measurement tools will ensure those strategies perform and meet the needs of the target population(s).
Data and Process Review:
• Reviewed GOC’s eight Maryland Results for Child Well Being and related indicators
• Reviewed current indicator data for all Child Well Being Results Areas along with additional local data points to examine other trends like racial disparities, school specific data, geographic conditions, etc.
• Discussed role of Partnership as Backbone Organization and shared results of staff’s self-analysis of the Asset Inventory and Values Assessment – Board will be surveyed too
• Reviewed content of Turn the Curve exercises to marry qualitative data analysis with quantitative data and reviewed Action Plans from all three work groups
• Heard from partners about priorities within their organizations for FY19 and beyond and how they are aligning with the Community Plan
Key takeaways:
• Significant issues with social-emotional and behavior among those birth to five
• Black youth rate of unemployment among 16-24 y/o is going up at 25%; Hispanic rate is also up at 19% - HUGE disparities
• Looking at four populations within our programs the highest numbers are impact of incarceration and hungry children
• Continued massive growth among Hispanic population in the County
• Health Department will fund Healthy Start North County program starting in FY19 as part of a revision and renewal process for many Health Department operated programs so Partnership will not need to fund in FY19
• Families First federal funding will run through DSS which will help fund additional programming to support high risk/high need families
• New state money will be available to the Health Department to address infant mortality and low birth- weight issues
• Looking at models to attach behavioral health services to early childhood centers – RESPOND grant will provide funding for one pilot and the school system will be funding a second pilot
Prioritizing Results and Indicators for FY2019:
After discussion of the data presented and partner information-sharing, the Board unanimously approved to prioritize the following results and indicators for FY2019:
1. Children are Successful In School (Truancy Rate)
2. Children Enter School Ready to Learn (KRA scores)
3. Communities are Safe for Children, Youth & Families (DJS Recidivism Rate - Arrests)
4. Families are Safe & Economically Stable (Child Poverty Rate, School Homeless Youth Rate)
5. Youth Will Have Opportunities for Employment or Career Readiness (Disconnected Youth Rate)
Programming for FY2019:
Partnership staff provided a performance update on currently funded programs and shared success stories as well as challenges. The review concluded with an overview of proposed programming/strategies for FY2019 and the related budget expenses for the NOFA response. Given that the Health Department is now funding the
Healthy Start program and given the programming and data discussions, it was decided that additional funds should be allocated to the growing Homeless Youth Street Outreach program and funding should be allocated for the South County Bridge program at the Deale Library to reach Disconnected Youth.
The Board also discussed the importance of significant funding for administrative costs given the Partnership’s role as a Backbone Organization. The Board also agreed with proposed expenditures for planning, identification of additional funding sources, growth of Community of Hope, and the continuation of the shared data platform.
There were additional discussions on how to fund the Youth Center in Brooklyn Park. Pam and Melissa shared updates on other potential funding partners including the Greater Baybrook Alliance (which has budgeted funding for the Youth Center capital project) as well as two large, private, regional funders. Discussion followed on how to engage other partners and how to braid funding to ensure the initiative was successful.
Approved Programs for FY2019 are:
• BEST 2.0
• Homeless Youth Street Outreach
• JIFI Project
• The Peak Youth Services
• South County Bridge
• Strengthening Families (1 cycle)
• Systems of Care
• Yes
Additional Initiatives in FY2019:
• We are in the process of completing the strategic plan for the Safe & Thriving Collaborative with OJJDP to reduce gun and gang violence in Annapolis
• Have already begun data collection for the next iteration of “Poverty Amidst Plenty”
• Continue with the planning of Youth Center and Family Success Center
• Health Dept. is using mobile services vehicle to support Title I schools based on a model from Austin, TX – includes primary and dental care
• Health Dept. continues to expand its work around the opioid crisis including: FORT team to review all overdose deaths to better understand what is happening and identify patterns for systems change; looking more closely at the other victims of the epidemic, not just those that have overdosed; trying to look at potential strategies as there is currently very little in prevention
• Partnership is proposing a similar fatality review team for Safe & Thriving project
• There will be a Domestic Violence fatality review team as well utilizing a similar approach
Role of Board & GC:
As the Partnership continues to play a pivotal role as the Backbone Organization in multiple Collective Impact project, the Board would like to assess how it can better support the Partnership staff’s work and this role in the community. How can we do better?
• Need to be vocal advocates and help advance to policy
• Continue to guide in vision and strategy
• Need to learn to be “better ambassadors”; multiple members agreed that too many people in the community are unaware of all of the work the Partnership does and all of the roles it plays in the County
• Michael Yeakey offered that we are too humble – we are doing cutting edge work and providing leadership and that needs to be in the face of the public
• Jim Lighthizer suggested that we endeavor to tap more into the County Exec’s PR office – perhaps formalizing some kind of agreement?
• Need to think about ways to “unpack the community plan” and make it more accessible (link to Community Dashboard idea)
• Melissa Curtin suggests that if we can devise the correct approach and demonstrate how we consistently tackle tough issues that people will be willing to donate/support
• Board members asked for a “tool kit” that they could use that would help them be our best advocates
Final comments from Pam regarding NOFA – the narrative will be circulated to the Board for review and we will contact everyone electronically if the approved programming and budget need to be amended prior to submission.
http://www.aacounty.org/boards-and-commissions/partnership-for-children-youth-families/minutes/20180322.pdf
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