HomeMy WebLinkAboutJCPC Minutes 020218 Orange County Juvenile Crime Prevention Council Meeting
Friday, February 2, 2018 (12:00noon—2:00pm)
Hillsborough Commons
Hillsborough, NC
Proposed Minutes
Attendees: Meg McGurk, Bernard Miles, Nick Allen,Lee Barnes, Stephanie Jones, Carol
McClelland,Aidan Salmeron, Kristi Lescinski, Penny Rich, Tina Sykes,Donna King,
Peggy Hamlett,Amanda Farris, Karon Johnson, Theresa Collosso, Patricia Cardoso, Kate
Giduz, Desmond Frierson, Georgia Gamcsik, Susan Worley, Amy Kirshner, Tami Pfeifer, Val
Hanson, Gayane Chambless, Pam Weiden, Denise Briggs, Rebekah Rapoza(*Members in
Bold)
Absent: N/A
Excused: Sherita Cobb, Maren Hardin, Kysha Thompson, Sharron Hinton, Dana Graves, Jay
Bryan
Welcome
The meeting opened with a welcome from Chair, Meg McGurk and introductions.
Minutes Review and Approval
The Council reviewed the minutes from December 2017. Peggy Hamlett motioned for minutes to
be approved with two corrections and was seconded by Donna King. Motion carried
unanimously.
Agency Roundtable
Boomerang— So far this fiscal year Boomerang has served 81 referrals which is about on track
with this time last year(88 served). In December they served 19 kids, 15 from CHCCS and 4
from OCS, but year-to-date they numbers are about equal. The top two reasons for suspension
this year has consistently been substance use and fighting. Number of court-involved kids has
been low, with only 2 so far this year. They have started(or will be)tutoring and college &
career readiness workshops for the after-school program.
A question about type of substances was asked. Tami didn't have the exact breakdown, but
reported that marijuana and pills are most common, and e-cigs and juuls are starting to become
more popular.
Dispute Settlement Center—Currently have 5 youth in restorative justice program, including one
new referral from MDP. Family Table will be starting on March 14 and will be held for 8
weeks. They have had trouble the last couple years getting enough referrals and getting people
on board. DSC has trained almost 200 teachers in the past year in restorative practices that can
be used in their classrooms (New Hope Elementary has every teacher trained). They are hoping
to have the rest of the teachers trained within the next one to two years. CHCCS system uses a
different program/resource for training their teachers and staff.
Data shows that OCS is doing better than CHCCS with regards to short-term suspensions and the
question was asked as to whether this has anything to do with the restorative practices that DSC
is teaching at OCS v CHCCS and they training they receive from another provider. Val will
have a better answer at the end of this year because DSC has recently implemented a full-scale
evaluation process this year that includes teacher,parent, and student surveys being sent to
everyone within OCS to get a sense of how they are feeling about the culture of their school.
The results of these surveys will then be matched up with the quantitative data. This will be the
first year for a comprehensive evaluation and then they will watch the trends over the next few
years as more teachers implement the practice.
Freedom House—FAN's census to-date for this fiscal year is 6 admitted. They are finishing up
a Common Sense Parenting class and will be starting another one in March. The Child&
Adolescent Outpatient Services program has not received any referrals yet.
Haven House—In month of January they had 2 Orange County youth admitted and so far in
February they have 1, for a total of 5 this fiscal year.
Ligo Doio—Has served 9 youth to-date this fiscal year.
Volunteers for Youth—The Community Service program has served 35 kids year-to-date and has
seen a big pick-up during the month of January. Teen Court currently has about 15 kids.
DJJData—December: 10 distinct juveniles, 19 complaints, 3 approved for court, 6 juveniles
diverted, 2 juveniles in detention for 10 days, I juvenile in Wrenn House for 21 days, 3 juveniles
on electronic monitoring for 73 days, and 0 juveniles committed to YDC.
Types of charges included: simple assaults,undisciplined, several weapon on school grounds as
the result of a group incident, and cyber bullying. Referrals were from SROs, community patrol,
and parent referrals. The boost in numbers in December can be related to a group incident.
JCPC Business
Monitoring Committee Report—Amanda and Peggy monitored VFY and Ligo Dojo and things
went well. Everything was on track with VFY and there are no concerns. Ligo Dojo also went
well and the only concern was increasing amount of communication with court counselors for
court involved youth.
Peggy and Rebekah visited Boomerang and everything is going good and is on track.
Lee and Sherita visited Dispute Settlement Center and Freedom House. Everything is good with
DSC; the only minor concern is with Family Table not getting the number of needed referrals
and the program not being able to operate until the spring. The only concern with Freedom
House is with the Psych Services program,which will be addressed later on the agenda.
Bernard and Sharron went to Wrenn House and everything went well. There are no concerns.
Risk&Needs Committee Report—The subcommittee met last month and reviewed state and
local data. Upon reviewing the data, there were no striking differences from past years. There
were some concerns that the subcommittee discussed that as a JCPC we have been discussing
over the past year or so—substance use, mental health,bullying, fighting—but are already being
captured by the data.
Concern was raised about the 86% increase in kids under age 12. Compared to the prior fiscal
year, this number almost doubled—from 7 kids to 13. While the number is alarming,the overall
percentage that this age group makes up within the total county population is in line with the
average across the state. From a prevention perspective, it would be good to delve deeper to see
why and what we can do to lower that number. A couple of the programs mentioned that they
have been seeing an increase in the number of younger youth they are serving, especially those
of early middle school age (11-12 years). Denise reports that she has heard from other
consultants and counties that they are also seeing this trend.
Someone mentioned that they were concerned to see that 50% of youth come from a home where
parents have marginal or inadequate supervision skills. The question was asked about whether
the courts ever mandate that parents complete any programs to help build these skills. Truancy
court and DSS at times can require parents to attend certain programs to enhance their parenting
skills. A comment was made that it seems like a high percentage to have especially when we
have such great resources (FAN, Family Table, etc.)that can help parents with these skills but
the number of referrals to programs have been declining. It was also mentioned that a lot of the
youth we serve have multiple needs and that they are having to prioritize what's most important
because they can't do everything. So while a parent may need skill building, a child's mental
health needs often takes priority.
Continuum of Services Update—Each year as part of the Annual Plan, we update the Continuum
of Services. Please review and advise of any corrections or edits. The following corrections
were made: MH Services and SUD Services where changed from"available but difficult to
access"to "available in the community"; Alternative School for Non-Suspended Students was
removed because the schools are already listed; Communities in Schools was removed because
they are no longer providing services in Orange county; Whitaker School is not available to
Level III youth so the arrow was corrected; Wright School has such a long wait time and
stringent criteria for admission that it was decided to change to "Available but difficult to
access"; and Peer-to-Peer Mediation is a model that is no longer be used so it was decided to be
removed.
RFP—A question was asked about Nancy's new role with Orange County to determine what
services she is/will be providing and where there are gaps so that programs who are looking to
apply for funding within the assessment/treatment category know how to write their applications.
The Council reviewed the RFP for requested program types and dates. Peggy Hamlett motioned
for the RFP to be published as written and to include a program type description document and
was seconded by Stephanie Jones. Motion carried unanimously.
Funding Committee—Funding Committee will be meeting on Friday, March 23 and will be an
all-day session. Agencies come in the morning to present their applications to the committee and
they then hold a discussion in the afternoon to come to a consensus on funding recommendations
to bring before the full board at the April meeting. This is a voluntary committee and all board
members (without conflict of interest) are welcome to attend. Rebekah will send an email out
asking for volunteers.
Hot Topic Discussion
• Where/how are Boomerang's numbers reported by the school systems for detentions? Tami
will check-in with the school systems to see if she can get an answer.
• Child&Adolescent Outpatient Services program has yet to receive any referrals. Carol
shared the eligibility criteria: uninsured or underinsured(high deductible),undocumented.
The funds can serve 5 kids, but as 3rd Quarter Accounting approaches, budget amendment
may be made so that funds do not have to be paid back. Referrals can come from any JCPC
program and do not have to be court involved youth.
• Concern about the increase in the number of younger kids (under age 12)that are being
seeing in juvenile court, especially in recent years. With Orange County being a smaller
county, numbers are more easily skewed, but Denise also reported that this is becoming a
statewide trend. Is there a way to get more information? The Orange County Community
Collaborative is taking a look at some of this and Freedom House is going to look at mobile
crisis numbers, DSS CPS is going to bring information on reasons for kids entering foster
care, Cardinal is pulling information on service utilization, and Denise will pull data on
charges and referral source for those under 12. Anyone who is in JCPC and wants to be part
of Community Collaborative is welcome to come or join the mailing list.
Consultant Update
Psych Services program with Freedom House is going to be dissolved because those services are
now being provided by the new County position. The program originally was awarded
approximately $8,000; however, some of those funds have been spent on administrative
overhead so there is actually less than that available. Denise is proposing that the currently
funded programs be given an opportunity to submit a request for the additional funds for any
unexpected needs that may not have been budgeted. Denise will send an email to all the program
providers with instructions and the form they will be required to complete with the need and
amount. They will also be required to provide a match and must confirm that they have it
available if awarded the funds. The match can be in-kind unless a program is asking for
technology, then a cash match is required. Denise will then bring the requests to the Funding
Committee for review and to provide a recommendation to the board to be voted on in April.
➢ Next JCPC Meeting: Friday,April 6, 2018; Location: Southern Human Services
Center, 2501 Homestead Rd, Chapel Hill NC