Division Board Reports – November 2013
Substance Abuse & Violence Prevention Division Board Report
Regional Support Center (RSC)
RSC staff provided 18 trainings/presentations in October, including:
· One synthetic drug presentation at the Greene County Medical Society Alliance conference to 25 attendees.
· One alcohol awareness presentation to 200 members of the Sigma Kappa Sorority of Missouri State University.
· One methamphetamine awareness presentation to 22 Missouri State University students.
· One presentation on Drug Endangered Children to 43 participants at the Missouri Corrections Association and Missouri Probation and Parole Officers Association annual meeting.
· One presentation on the Core Drug Endangered Children Training Model at the Missouri Juvenile Justice Association bi-annual conference to 49 attendees.
· One presentation on “Regional DEC Activities for Southwest Missouri” at the “Taking Action to Build a Healthy and Safe Missouri” conference to 24 attendees.
· One Darkness to Light Stewards of Children training to 15 individuals in Springfield.
· One “In Her Shoes” presentation to 45 participants in Polk County.
· Five Responsible Beverage Service trainings to 123 Newton County, Branson and Springfield alcohol retailer employees and Sertoma members.
· One presentation on prevention strategies and community resources to 50 attendees of Burrell Behavioral Health’s “Cravings” conference.
· One Mental Health First Aid Training to 18 Polk County community members and Southwest Baptist University students.
· Two presentations on substance abuse prevention for Red Ribbon Week activities at Greenfield and Lockwood schools to 400 students.
· One presentation on capacity and leadership at the Regional Youth Summit conference to 18 youth.
RSC staff provided technical assistance to several coalitions and communities groups in October, including:
· Completing the first installment of the web-based training series called Helping Everyone Learn Prevention (HELP), with this video focusing on methamphetamine awareness.
· Participating in several media interviews, including 1) the Ozarks News Journal on Cyber Bullying, 2) KY3, KSMU and the Newsleader about the graffiti removal campaign, 3) KY3 about medication take back events, 4) KOLR10 about the first segment of the HELP Video Series, and 5) the Newsleader on the Silent Witness Project.
· Assisting the Ozarks Area Pharmacist Association and regional coalitions in coordinating 33 medication take back events in the 21-county region, collecting 3,535 pounds of medication.
· Assisting two coalitions (Dade County C-2000 Coalition and Reduce the Abuse Christian County Coalition) in applying for and being awarded Regional Development Funds in the amounts of $500 and $497, respectively.
· Displaying the domestic violence awareness Silent Witness Project at five different locations including Ozark Technical College, Harmony House’s Night of Unity, Domestic Violence Forum, Burrell Behavioral Health and Missouri State University.
· Assisted six coalition members from five coalitions in acquiring scholarships to the statewide prevention conference in November.
· Assisting in coordinating the Domestic Violence Forum that served 180 attendees.
· Coordinating a youth alternative activity called “Friday To Be Downtown” that served 200 youth in Springfield.
Staff participated in six workforce development opportunities this month, including becoming certified facilitators of the Substance Abuse Prevention Skills Training (SAPST), attending the QPR Suicide Prevention Training, Children’s Safety Network Suicide Prevention webinar, Workplace Wellness conference, Systems of Care Cross Training, and the Relationship Violence Intervention Summit.
Staff and the 934 volunteer hours from coalition and community members directly served 5,516 people in October and provided technical assistance to 11 other coalitions, committees or groups in addition to services listed above.
SPIRIT
SPIRIT staff facilitated 244 PeaceBuilders lessons in October. The school district began implementing several bullying awareness and prevention strategies this month, including 1) celebrating “Stomp Out Bullying Day” district wide with middle school students created promotional posters for the event, 2) hosting an anti-bullying assembly called “Living Life Tour” at the middle school, 3) creating an anti-bullying PSA featuring Carthage Middle School students that will be aired on local TV stations, and several school buildings completed a bullying survey, with results shared with the administration at each building. An aggregate report of these survey results will be presented to the Carthage Behavioral Management team in December.
Regional Prevention Grant (collaboration with Alternative Opportunities)
FY2014 implementation plans include coordinating a conference with a focus on the effects of trauma on men and how that affects fatherhood. Possible locations for this conference include the Barry/Lawrence County area or on the southwest side of Springfield. We will also complete an “Baby and Me” training in both the 31st (Greene) & 39th (Barry, Lawrence, Stone) circuits next year, along with a Guiding Good Choices parenting program in the 39th circuit.Drug Endangered Children awareness training has been planned for November 12th & 14th in Pierce City at the Clark Mental Health Facility.
Early Childhood Division
Early Childhood Division – General
Each staff member within the Early Childhood Division attended Parents as Teachers training on 1) Health, Hearing, & Vision Screenings and 2) ASQ3 & ASQ:SE developmental screenings during the month of October. Educare staff will begin using these developmental screenings to initiate conversations with providers and parents about child development. Baby & Me staff will provide screenings to all participating families. All screenings done by CPO staff will be reported to SPS/Parents as Teachers and additional services will be provided by PAT as needed.
In addition, an Early Childhood Menu of Services has been created and is being utilized to solicit requests for fee for service childcare provider trainings in the community.
Early Care and Education Collaborative
Fifteen members of the collaborative met on October 22nd to discuss the collaborative’s focus for 2013-14. More work will be done at the next meeting on November 19th, after the release of Every Child’s Promise recommendations.
HB1519
October’s Baby & Me group connection event focused on Healthy Relationships with our Children, using Parents As Teachers group connection curriculum. Seven families (24 adults and 14 children) participated in discussion about how relationships with their children were strengthened or damaged by life experiences, and how to be intentional about building positive and healthy relationships with their families.
Five new families with children (unborn through 6 months of age) have been recruited into a new class of Baby & Me participants through referrals from The Doula Foundation and Pregnancy Care Center. Twice monthly personal home visits and weekly contacts began with these families in October and continue using Parents as Teacher curriculum.
Strengthening Families
48 childcare providers continue to implement changes aimed to strengthen families by providing child development information, helping parents build their own resilience, offering ways to connect them to other families in their program, linking families to resources in the community, and/or building the social emotional competency in the children they serve. Although simple, Strengthening Families is a foundational approach to reducing child abuse and neglect through supporting families.
Educare
Educare Specialists completed 51 technical assistance visits, serving 55 child care providers from 31 programs and directly affecting the development of 507 children. Child care providers were assisted in setting 61 goals and meeting 55 goals aimed at improving the quality of care provided to children in our community. Educare staff also made 6 visits related to the CLASS observation and assessment.
The 11th Annual Childcare Provider Health Conference (Mind, Body, & Soul) served as Springfield Friends, Family and Neighbors Provider Support Group in October. More than 140 childcare providers attended the event, ten of those received Educare scholarships and received training on surviving a violent intruder, immunizations, and health screenings.
Separately, 13 providers attended the Branson area Support Group and were trained in CPR & First Aid.
Providers checked out 12 learning bags and 21 pieces of Lending Library equipment in October. 159 newsletters were distributed, 64 by email.
Additionally, Educare staff continue to serve on the planning committee for the November Hope Connection and have collected more than $500 in children’s clothing donations to be distributed to families at the event.
CLASS
During the month of October, staff began executing Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) in 45 Head Start classrooms. The assessment process includes making the assessment observation visit, scoring the assessment, preparing a written report, and returning to the classroom to review the assessment with the staff and Head Start support personnel. 18 CLASS observations and 11 follow-up visits were completed in October. Staff anticipates completing 27 additional observations and 34 follow-up visits before the end of the year.
Community & Neighborhood Development Division
Caring Communities
Working with our neighborhoods:
· Staff attended monthly meetings for Bissett, Doling, Grant Beach, Midtown, Robberson, Tom Watkins, Weller, Westside Betterment and Woodland Heights.
· Staff had 25 technical assistance contacts for a total of 34 hours and 15 minutes. This included:
- Helped Tom Watkins Neighborhood address graffiti on a train bridge in their neighborhood.
- Helped a new officer create a template to help her with her duties as secretary.
- Assisted the Bissett neighborhood in changing their by-laws.
- Assisted with newsletters.
- Helped a neighborhood with their social media website.
· 6 volunteers contributed 122.5 hours at the Neighborhood Resource Center and served 11 people.
Working with families and our community:
· The GED site at Pathways UMC served 18 students and 8 children.
· Our Bed, Bath & Beyond Restore served 10 people this month.
· Our Community Social Worker completed 65 family contacts and made 44 referrals to community resources. 4 families were served by our emergency fund, and emergency food and hygiene pantries.
· 4 families were served through our partnership with a Greene County Family Support eligibility specialist, who reported that she was able to resolve issues all four families were having regarding their active cases or the opening of a new case.
· Our senior social worker arranged for 19 Paul Mitchell – The System stylists and trainees to provide haircuts to our Hope Connection guests. 169 people were able to receive free haircuts at this homeless outreach event.
Working with our schools:
· Assisted with:
- Attendance celebrations at: Weaver (97 students)
- PTAs at: Boyd, Weaver, Weller and Williams.
- Lunch Buddies at McGregor (21 students served)
- The Weekend Backpack Program at Robberson and McGregor.
- After School Clubs at: Bowerman, Boyd, Campbell, Pipkin, Reed, Robberson, Weller, Westport, and Williams.
· The Bowerman Comic Book Club took a field trip to Conway, Ark., for ComiCon-way, an annual comic book convention. The 8 students were able to meet a comic book writer who helped to design T-shirts for the club. Nonna’s provided lunch for the trip.
· The success of the No Boring Books! Club at Boyd has resulted in the school expanding the club and offering it to students in all grades. To date, almost 25% of the students at Boyd have signed up to participate in the club and have attended the first meetings.
- Helped to facilitate and deliver Thanksgiving baskets to 3 McGregor families and 12 Weaver families.
- 100 people attended Campbell’s Math Night
- We worked with Westport PTA and Scenic Church of the Nazarene to provide Thanksgiving turkeys to 16 families.
- 45 McGregor families received Power Packs of food through a partnership with High Street Baptist.
- 8 families were served through the Weller Family Pride Store. The store provides incentives – like home goods and hygiene items – to parents to volunteer at the school each month
- 110 people attended a Math Night at Weaver.
- 78 people attended the Grandparent’s Lunch at Bissett.
· Staff is working with Pipkin Middle School and Askinosie Chocolate to develop a “Product of Change.” The product will be a satchel bag made from the cocoa burlap bags. \
· All Pro Dad’s Days were held at Reed (11 attending), Pipkin (33 attending), Westport (22 attending) and Weller (110 attending). At Pipkin’s event, Matt Giles from Freedom Photography spoke to the group on the topic of role models. At Weller, the event started with fathers sharing why they are proud of their kids. More than 20 fathers stood up to share, and one dad attended that had walked more than 3 miles in the rain to get to the event.
· 158 people attended Weller’s iMom’s parent involvement breakfast. This event is similar to All Pro Dad’s Day and encourages moms to connect with their children.
· The Mobile Food Pantry which served Bowerman and Reed families assisted 130 families for a total of 510 individuals. This was our first “drive-thru” pantry that allowed families to stay in their vehicles while volunteers gathered their food and loaded their vehicles. Ozark Food Harvest provided the food this month.
· 180 people attended Pipkin’s Points of Expression night, where students displayed art and music inspired by Edgar Allen Poe.
· We are continuing our Drug Prevention Club this year at Reed and Robberson, and have expanded the club to Pipkin and Weaver. 58 Reed and Robberson students and 44 Pipkin and Weaver students are participating, and we are working with members of the Ozarks Fighting Back board to develop an educational outreach program for the parents on how to talk to their kids about drugs. Two Springfield Police Officers also attended the middle school clubs’ meeting to discuss the risks of alcohol use.
· Seven 8th grade girls participated in our Girltalk mentoring program at Westport. A psychology intern helped to develop this program to include peer-to-peer mentoring starting in the spring. These 8th grade girls will act as one-on-one mentors to 5th grade girls and help to facilitate the program. The program focuses on self-esteem and friendship.
· Through a grant from the Target Foundation, we are developing family book clubs at 4 elementary schools. We are working with school staff and literacy coaches to choose books that children and their parents can read together at home, and then the families can come together regularly to discuss the book and/or participate in activities related to what they are reading. Our first Literacy Leaders group has kicked off at McGregor with 4 families participating.
· 60 people attended Weller’s “You Don’t Have to be Wealthy to Eat Healthy” event. The event focused on meal planning. The Health Department and Healthy Living Alliance partnered on the event with HLA providing a healthy dinner. There was significant media coverage of the event.