Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutJCPC Minutes 040618 Orange County Juvenile Crime Prevention Council Meeting Friday,April 6, 2018 (12:OOnoon—2:OOpm) Southern Human Services Center Chapel Hill,NC Proposed Minutes Attendees: Meg McGurk, Bernard Miles, Karon Johnson, LaVerne Mattocks,Amanda Farris, Peggy Hamlett, Stephanie Jones, Sharron Hinton, Kysha Thompson, Maren Hardin, Gayane Chambless, Amy Kirshner, Linda Boldin, Georgia Gamcsik, Susan Worley, Sonia Frischemeier, Tami Pfeifer, Patricia Cardoso, Val Hanson, Theresa Collosso Denise Briggs, Rebekah Rapoza (*Members in Bold) Absent: Mia Burroughs, Dana Graves, Beverly Scarlett Excused.• Sherita Cobb, Tina Sykes, Carol McClelland, Donna King,Nick Allen, Lee Barnes Welcome The meeting opened with a welcome from Chair, Meg McGurk and introductions. Minutes Review and Approval The Council reviewed the minutes from February 2018. Peggy Hamlett motioned for minutes to be approved and was seconded by Stephanie Jones. Motion carried unanimously. Agency Roundtable Boomerang—Year-to-date they have served 130, on track compared to this time last year. Most common reason for suspension this past month was fighting. They have served 9 court-involved youth. Afterschool program hasn't been as busy as in past years. Dispute Settlement Center—Family Table has held 3 sessions out of 8 and are serving 5 families with a total of 8 kids. Conflict Resolution program has served about 15 youth year-to-date, with 1 active youth and are expecting referrals for 4 more. Freedom House—FAN has served 12 families, getting 6 referrals in the last couple months, helping them get closer to projected number to serve. They have served 240 with one-on-one consultation and just finished a Common Sense Parenting group that graduated 6 parents. A new Common Sense Parenting program will start in May in Durham. As part of Children's Mental Health Awareness Month in May, they will be offering a workshop on children and computer gaming addiction. Haven House—Year-to-date they have served 5 youth,which is the exact same number as they had served at this time last year. However, this year they have had those 5 youth in the house for a total of 86 days, compared to 42 days last year. Ligo Doio—Received 13 referrals year-to-date with 10 being court referred. The program's funding recommendation have been cut in half for next fiscal year but will continue to serve all youth and not turn anyone away. They would like to stay on the radar for any additional funding that may come through the JCPC for next fiscal year. Volunteers for Youth—Numbers for Community Service program are low and have been all year, but they have picked up this spring. Numbers for Teen Court program are right on track. This is a big time of year for Community Service program because the gardens are opening up. DJJ Data—January: 8 distinct juveniles, 12 complaints, 2 approved for court, 6 juveniles diverted, 0 juveniles admitted to detention, 2 juveniles admitted to Wrenn House, 34 bed days used at Wrenn House, 0 electronic monitoring activations, 33 days on electronic monitoring, and 0 juveniles committed to YDC. February: 11 distinct juveniles, 12 complaints, 3 approved for court, 8 juveniles diverted, 0 juveniles admitted to detention, 0 juveniles admitted to in Wrenn House, 7 bed days used at Wrenn House, 2 electronic monitoring activations, 77 days on electronic monitoring, and 0 juveniles committed to YDC. March: 10 distinct juveniles, 14 complaints, 1 approved for court, 8 juveniles diverted, 0 juveniles admitted to detention, 0 juveniles admitted to Wrenn House, 0 bed days used at Wrenn House, 0 electronic monitoring activations, 19 days on electronic monitoring, and 0 juveniles committed to YDC. JCPC Business Program Incident—Denise needs to update the Council on an incident that occurred at one of the JCPC funded program. On Monday, February 5, Tami called Denise to inform her that Friday, February 2 there was an incident at Boomerang that involved an adult that was in the building and a youth. On Fridays they have invited guests from the Marian Cheek Jackson Center to do life skills workshops. On that particular Friday the group arrived, and shortly after, someone else associated with the Center arrived who was recognized by staff. This individual had never been to Boomerang before, has never presented before, nor was he invited. When he identified himself at the front desk and was recognized by staff, he was allowed to not only enter the building, but also present and lead the workshop despite not being invited. From his involvement with the group, early on he made some inappropriate comments not only to staff, but also to the youth. He asked a male youth to stand up and participate in an exercise to show how things can weight heavy on you. He touched the youth on his shoulders, neck, and another time on his leg. "Witness accounts from Boomerang and Jackson Center staff report that the uninvited person immediately was inappropriate with his comments and actions with Boomerang staff and youth. The failure for Boomerang to intervene in a timely manner, coupled with in appropriate comments and actions, created an unsafe environment for youth. As a result, a youth reported to Boomerang staff that he almost felt like crying and added, `I feel like I have almost been sexually assaulted or something'. In the incident report that Tami submitted to the department, it was determined that a critical program violation has occurred. Programs are responsible for not only keeping youth safe,but for also having a safe environment for youth to be there. As a result, Boomerang has been cited by the Department for having a critical program violation. An overview of the critical program violation occurred when Boomerang staff failed to: 'follow agency policy for visitors entering the building; to stop a visitor from associating with youth, while realizing the visitor was there unannounced and not invited; did not intervene once inappropriate comments were made to staff and youth by the uninvited visitor;failed to immediately intervene once the uninvited visitor had physical contact with a youth;failed to immediately report the incident to the foster parent of the youth after he arrived to pick the youth up, but the staff gave direction to the youth to update the foster parent later that evening;failed to report the incident to DSS and local police;failed to exercise reasonable care, safety, and supervision of the space; and failed to protect the confidentiality of youth by visitors not signing some type of confidentiality statement when entering the building." Boomerang will be required to come up with a corrective action plan that includes: "Measures to address the incident with staff; changes in policies and procedures to prevent future incidents from occurring; develop implementation of policies and procedures for screening and approving persons to present or facilitate program activities for youth; a time table process for training staff on the newly created policies and existing DPS and JCPC policies." Tami was not on premises when this incident occurred, but when she arrived she acted appropriately. However, there was enough that had already occurred that warranted the finding. Tami reported that after the incident: she immediately met with staff individually and as a group; reviewed expectations and policies, especially around Boomerang child safeguarding policy; reviewed program policies in conjunction with the whole board; reinforced building entry process; immediately suspended the participation of the community agency that was involved in the incident; reviewed all contracts with partner agencies regarding the requirements around skills and abilities, confidentiality, and child safeguarding, and updated as needed; and have already begun to provide additional training to staff. Chapel Hill Police Department was notified, completed a full investigation, and it was determined that there was no sexual act or anything that happened. FYI 8-19 Membership Review: If anyone knows if they won't be here next fiscal year, or if their agency will be appointing a new representative, please let us know. The assumption will be that you will continue into the new FY if we don't receive notification otherwise. Funding Committee Report—The Funding Committee met a week ago and the program applicants came and gave a brief presentation to the committee. In front of you is the recommendation that the committee is presenting to the council for vote and approval. The amount available remains unchanged at $277,731. Presented were two new program components that from existing programs that came as a result of the conversations around substance abuse,mental health, and conflict that we have been having the past year. Additionally, they were responsive to the RFP needs and also included partnerships with other JCPC funded programs. The Funding Committee is making the recommendation that both of those new components be funded and that funding for Young Warriors program be cut. During the Agency Roundtable Discussion, Ligo Dojo shared their concerns about this recommended cut and need to find additional funding. • Peggy Hamlett motioned to recommend $9,422 for Young Warriors and was seconded by Bernard Miles. Motion carried unanimously. Carol McClelland abstained. • Peggy Hamlett motioned to recommend$40,500 for Mediation/Conflict Resolution and was seconded by Sharron Hinton. Motion carried unanimously. Carol McClelland abstained. • Sharron Hinton motioned to recommend$40,330 for Teen Court and was seconded by Bernard Miles. Motion carried unanimously. Carol McClelland abstained. • Amanda Farris motioned to recommend$10,722 for Wrenn House and was seconded by Stephanie Jones. Motion carried unanimously. Carol McClelland abstained. • Amanda Farris motioned to recommend$28,131 for Boomerang and was seconded by Sharron Hinton. Motion carried unanimously. Carol McClelland abstained. • Bernard Miles motioned to recommend $40,722 for Family Advocacy Network and was seconded by Karon Johnson. Motion carried unanimously. Carol McClelland and Stephanie Jones abstained. • Peggy Hamlett motioned to recommend$8,200 for Child and Adolescent Outpatient Services and was seconded by Bernard Miles. Motion carried unanimously. Carol McClelland and Stephanie Jones abstained. • Karon Johnson motioned to recommend $90,870 for Juvenile Community Service and Restitution and was seconded by Kysha Thompson. Motion carried unanimously. Carol McClelland abstained. • Stephanie Jones motioned to recommend$8,834 for JCPC Administrative Budget and was seconded by Kysha Thompson. Motion carried unanimously. Carol McClelland abstained. There have been financial issues happening with Freedom House, and due to some uncertainty with the strength of their fiscal controls to be able to manage JCPC funds and report on a timely basis, the Department is implementing funding stipulations for this current FY and for FY18-19. The stipulations are as follows: • Refund Orange County for FYI 6-17 Final Accounting refund that the County had paid; (Since JCPC funds are sent to counties and not programs, the Department will invoice the county when there is a refund due. Typically, when there is a refund due, the county and the program communicate to arrange for the program to pay the county and then the county pays the state. Orange County went ahead and made the payment to the State, as is typical for a county to do, so that the refund wouldn't be delinquent. To date, the program has failed to refund the county. As a result, Orange County has stopped payment on current FY funds to Freedom House, at the direction and support of the Department, until those funds have been received.) • Be in compliance with program monitoring regarding fiscal and program files and other documentation; (The reason for this stipulation is that they had failed to comply with Third Quarter Accounting despite numerous emails.) • Submit all fiscal reports to the Department by the established due dates; • Facilitate a review with the program fiscal officer of JCPC policies, specifically the fiscal policies; • Be in compliance with the monitoring Denise will conduct in September. Last FY we allocated FYI 7-18 funds to Psychological Services program because it was uncertain whether the County would vote to approve a new position whose duties would include providing the same service as Psych Services. Since the position was approved and filled, there was now funds available that could be reallocated. Programs applied based on their needs and the Funding Committee reviewed the requests and came up with their recommendation for the reallocation of the funds. The total available to be reallocated is $6,950 and the requests exceeded those funds by several thousand dollars. Despite the stipulations placed on Freedom House for this current FY and next FY, Denise reports that those have no bearing on the recommendation/award of some of the funds to another their programs. Bernard Miles motioned to reallocate Psychological Services remaining funds of$6,950 to: 1. Freedom House in the amount of$2,220; 2. Dispute Settlement Center in the amount of$516; 3. Haven House in the amount of$500; 4. Boomerang in the amount of$1,732; and 5. Volunteers for Youth in the amount of$1,982. Motion was seconded by Peggy Hamlett. Motion carried unanimously. Carol McClelland and Stephanie Jones abstained. Hot Topic Discussion Cardinal Community Reinvestment RFP is currently advertised. Programs that provide mental health, substance abuse, and/or intellectual disabilities related services have the opportunity to submit applications for pilot programs and/or additional funding. If Ligo Dojo has a component to their program that fits one of those needs, then they can apply for funding. Stephanie will email the RFP info to Rebekah to distribute to the JCPC email lists. The News and Observer published an article the other day about the use of restorative justice circle in Durham County where a child was accidentally shot by a gun. An adult had fired a gun off down into the floor below him and struck a 10 year old girl, who survived. The man was facing serious charges and prison time and Durham Courts used the restorative justice circle with her and her family. While we hear about the end product of the circle, something like that involves months and months of work and the community coming together to make it happen (including DAs, public defenders,judges). Public transportation in Northern Orange continues to be a barrier for households trying to access key medical and mental health services. For example, the circular bus does not stop at the Health Department in Hillsborough, OCIM, and other key locations. The circular bus used to stop at the Health Department but was dropped. And even trying to get from Hillsborough to Chapel Hill to access services is difficult. Advocates are trying to get the bus stops expanded, but in the meantime they are working to try to bring services to the locations that the bus does stop. Service providers are also encountering some barriers when it comes to trying to bring their services to more accessible locations. For example,when the County changed its reservation process and policies a few years back, it not only made the process more difficult, but it also instituted a facility use fee. Consultant Update Now that funding recommendations have been approved, and once award letters go out to program providers, Denise will notify the programs once their applications have been returned in NCALLIES in order to make adjustments to the budgets and/or the narrative part. The Department does have two RFPs out right now, but they don't apply to Orange County because we don't have the need based on the data. Denise briefly reviewed the NC DPS handout. It is a strategic plan that was submitted to the Juvenile Jurisdiction Advisory Committee that outlines how raise the age is going to impact Community Programs. Community Programs is a division with DPS, of which JCPC is part of. This report directly talks about how raise the age will impact JCPC across the state and also other areas of Community Programs. On pages 2-3, it is looking at a multi-pronged approach to meet three distinct points: increase JCPC programming capacity; JCPC-funded early intervention programming; expansion of programming for juveniles that penetrate the juvenile justice system; expansion of residential contractual services to meet capacity needs; and hiring additional Community Programs staff to support the expansion. On page 6, it starts to talk about how there is really going to be a focus on mediation and restitution because those are the programs that receive the highest referrals of youth who are adjudicated, and also on Teen Court programs. On the bottom of page 7, it lays out the funding recommendation for the JCPC expansion. There are funds that are being recommended for FYI 8-19 but since the State hasn't passed a budget yet, we don't know if all, some, or none of the recommended funds will be approved. If funds are approved, they will pass down to the counties and a new RFP will need to be advertised for these additional funds. There is also a possibility that the funds may be earmarked for specific programs/services because of the small amount. Announcements There will be a community conversation on April 26 around the opioid issue. The library will be hosting it and it is by invitation only because of capacity. If you received the invitation please RSVP; if you didn't, it won't be the only one. Ligo Dojo, while a non-profit, they also offer classes to the general public and use the money from paying members to be able to provide services to low-income students. Cardinal is hosting a Town Hall meeting on April 17 from 11-11:30am at the Mebane Arts & Community Center in Mebane. It is a great opportunity for folks wanting to learn how to dispense Narcan and/or get questions answered by the CEO. In July, Susan Worley will be celebrating 30 years at Volunteers for Youth and will taking a 4- week sabbatical so she will not be at the next meeting. Dispute Settlement Center will be offering youth-serving agencies a 2 to 3 hour introduction to restorative practices on how the model can be implemented in their agency. The training is free of charge and requires 8 to 20 people. ➢ Next JCPC Meeting: Friday,June 1, 2018; Location: Hillsborough Commons, 113 Mayo St,Hillsborough NC