AGENCY: Lutheran Services in Iowa (LSI)
November, 2013
Need for the Program:LSI has a wide variety of programs to provide social and mental health services to children and families. The following is a brief description of the ASSET funded programs and the needs they address:
Family Life Education Program includes parent education classes. The Family Life Program provides training on child development, parenting strategies, health and nutrition, positive discipline, special needs, early literacy, communication, sibling rivalry, stress and grief, and behaviors.
MELD Parenting Program provides skills to parents of children age 0 to 5. The program meets twice a month and MELD groups are parent driven with education topics chosen by the parents. The program provides education and support and cover topics such as car seat and home safety, discipline, etc. The training is provided by representatives from law enforcement, the library, Octagon, etc. Families can join the program at any time during the year. A special needs group has also been started.
Another program offered is called the Parents as Teacher’s Program. To participate in this program, the family has to be identified as at risk, have a special needs child, or be dealing with poverty. 28 families and 38 childrenwere assisted with this program. 24 families were assisted the previous fiscal year. 562 home visits (approx. 1 hr each) were completed. The program allows for a parent educator to do in home visits and to assist those families in tracking their children’s health or planning for the family’s future. Currently 2 staff members plus Lisa Heddens are trained to provide the program training. Another staff person is currently being trained to help with this program. Growth in this program has come from International families and young families.
2) Crisis Child Care provides childcare (0-12 year olds) outside of the home for up to 72 hours for parents that have a crisis such as being sick, mental health problems or other problems that interfere with child care. These parents have no other support available and the program includes counseling to address long term solutions. This program has been heavily utilized this year. Funding continues to be a barrier. The program is available 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Lisa Heddens has implemented positive administrative changes which include cross training of staff which has helped with staff stability. The numbers for the most recent fiscal year end were up significantly. Numbers served were78 up from 48 unduplicated children in the previous year. 126 totalchildren were provided with servicein the last fiscal year. These children represented 59 families.The trend continues as 1st quarter numbers are up from last year. Majority of calls come from Ames. The number of providers remained consistent at 12 however they are looking to grow those numbers.
3) Supported Community Living offers services for people with disabilities and was first funded by ASSET in FY 2006. This program has 4 clients living in the community. Supported Community Living offers services for children and adults that seek assistance to become self-sufficient. Services range from balancing a check book to developing communication skills to interact with others. LSI takes a personal approach to meeting the needs of individuals by working as cohesive unit. The organization’s service is most relatable to StoryCounty’s priority of transportation and affordable housing. An individual can receive hourly services, which can be provided in the home or community. Each client works on a goal one-on-one with an LSI staff member. Also, daily services are available for adults and teens that are prepared to make a transition to independent living.
4) Foster Care Recruitment was established to target foster care needs for specific groups like special needs children. LSI is doing more outreach to coordinate with other service agencies to increase utilization by families and to increase continuity to families. LSI is communicating more about services throughout the county by providing information to all local county newspapers.
2. Program Strengths: The programs are addressing a broad range of family needs, which are not addressed by other agencies. Many of the clients are identified at risk and referred to the programs by other organizations. LSI collaborates with other community organizations including ACCESS, DHS, MICA, YSS, schools, counselors and other practitioners in StoryCounty, and local law enforcement which help in the referral and placement process. They have done a great job with this collaboration over the past year especially with Child Care Resources. The programs are building increased confidence and competence in parenting, building increased communication skills, addressing mental health problems that interfere with the functioning of families and providing care and training for at risk children. Providers of crisis care for children are well trained initially and continue to receive inservices each year. Through self-evaluation surveys in the Family Life Education Program, attendees report that these programs are very helpful in increasing knowledge and enhancing their parenting skills. Utilizing people who have completed the parenting programs to help facilitate new MELD classes benefits new attendees and also saves on costs for the agency. LSI staff are very passionate about all these programs. As evidenced by the increased numbers served,Lisa Heddens has done a good job cross training staff when possible to help with efficiency. The marketing and communications department have worked to use technology such as Facebook and the LSI web site to reach more of the community. Staff changes have helped minimize the delay between parenting programs thus providing more continuity for participating families. LSI is also working more to coordinate with ISU to reach more of the ISU students with families to provide support.
3. Program Weaknesses: While LSI is affiliated with the Lutheran Synod,it is very clear that services funded through ASSET are open to all and there will be no religious content provided. A continuing challenge faced in the crisis child care program is increasing the number of respite and crisis care providers. They continue to get information out into the community by "word of mouth" from current crisis care providers and through brochures and advertisements, but new providers are limited. Despite barriers to recruiting new crisis care family providers, LSI is able to arrange crisis care within hours if needed. Provider rates for crisis child care have not significantly changed for over five years and this has become a barrier for needed after-hours child care. A restriction in the LSI crisis child care program is they serve children age 0-12 yrs old only; if these clients have a sibling who is older than 12, LSI must make a referral to another agency to care for the adolescent. Ongoing evaluation information regarding effectiveness of treatment programs can be difficult to gather due to transient nature of some clients; i.e., those served from ACCESS or from the Emergency Residence Project.
4. Financial Outlook: LSI financial condition appears to be stable. There is generally a need for more services than the funding will support. Consequently the programs are dependent on ASSET and other public funding. The dollars available to LSI keep “drying up” and even though they are affiliated with the Lutheran Synod, most of their budget comes from other sources. The challenge for this agency has been and remains the fluctuation and uncertainty of state funding.
5. Internal Management Practices: LSI has a local Advisory Council. There is a statewide Board, which provides direction to all LSI programs. There is no local Board and the policy decisions come from the state Board through the LSI Des Moines staff. The local council is very active in this organization and is sponsoring additional fundraising this year with a chocolate walk. The ISU Greek Community has taken an active role in planning and supporting the Blue Sky Day event for LSI.
GENERAL ASSESSMENT: LSI is providing a broad range of ASSET funded programs that that are effectively supporting families in StoryCounty. They have pulled together many programs that provide needed services to a significant number ofStory County children and families.