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HomeMy WebLinkAboutJCPC minutes 060719Orange County Juvenile Crime Prevention Council Meeting Friday, June 7, 2019 (12:00noon – 2:00pm) Hillsborough Commons – 113 Mayo Street Hillsborough, NC Proposed Minutes Attendees: Bernard Miles, Tina Sykes, Maren Hardin, Peggy Hamlett, Stephanie Jones, Sharron Hinton, Carol McClelland, Kysha Thompson, Matthew Hinton, Beverly Scarlett, Donna King, Gayane Chambless, Jay Cole, Amanda Farris, Meg McGurk, Stacey Allred, Sarah Black, Tami Pfeifer, Frances Henderson, Amy Kirshner, Scott Dryer, Jamezetta Bedford, Rebekah Rapoza, Denise Briggs (*Members in bold) Absent: Charlos Banks, Jaime Lescinski, Dana Graves, Nick Allen, Lee Barnes Excused: Sherita Cobb, Megan Johnson, Penny Rich Welcome The meeting opened with a welcome from Chair, Bernard Miles, and introductions. Minutes Review and Approval The Council reviewed the minutes from April 2019. Donna King motioned for minutes to be approved and was seconded by Peggy Hamlett. Motion carried unanimously. Agency Roundtable Volunteers for Youth – Everything is going well and they are getting ready for summer. Numbers have picked up and they are getting close to meeting their identified target number. Ligo Dojo – They have received two new referrals and will begin preparing to close out the program. Freedom House – FAN has served 45 families and is beginning the close out process. It is Carol’s understanding that Orange County is looking for somewhere to possibly house that type of programming because FAN will not be continuing through Freedom House. Dispute Settlement Center – Restorative Justice Program has six new youth for a total of 25 this year. Wrenn House – They currently have an Orange County youth staying with them. Boomerang – Served a total of 143 referrals, which is down from last year. This isn’t too much of a surprise given that they knew they have been having trouble serving youth from Orange County Schools due to transportation issues. Substance use and fighting were the two most common reasons for suspension. Boomerang will be opening another location for next school year to better serve Orange County School students. The space will be over at Orange Works. JJ Data Report/Update No update again this month as their data system is still being updated and they are unable to run reports at this time. Amanda will update the Council with all missed months of data as soon as it’s available again. JCPC Business Officer Nominations – Ballots for FY19-20 JCPC Chair and Vice Chair were distributed to voting members and collected. Membership Review – If you are a current JCPC member and know you will not be able to serve in FY19- 20, please let us know as we are preparing the membership list to be presented to the BOCC for vote. Monitoring Committee – One of the JCPC responsibilities is the yearly monitoring of currently funded programs. This usually happens during the month of January and all programs were successfully monitored with no significant findings noted. Anyone who hasn’t participated in the monitoring committee is strongly encouraged to next year. Programs do a great job reporting out at the meetings, but it’s different than actually going out and seeing the programs. Funding Committee Report – As a result of the first RFP and funding process, it was decided to issue a second RFP specifically for programming that provides parenting services and that includes a youth component in the curriculum. Three agencies submitted applications and the Funding Committee listened to presentations from each before entering into discussion. It was decided that the Exchange Club of Alamance had the strongest application and also a proven track record for providing services in the particular area. Today, the Funding Committee is recommending that the Exchange Club receive funding for FY19-20. The program type is Interpersonal Skill Building and consists of two components – Parent Child Groups and Home Services. The Funding Committee is asking the JCPC to decide to: 1) fund The Exchange Club of Alamance, and 2) fund one or both components. During the Funding Committee deliberations it was presented that there are already in-home services available within Orange County and the committee was split on whether this component should be funded. As a result, they would like the JCPC to hear from the program about their services. Sarah Black presented to the JCPC about the Exchange Club’s application. She explained that the components are two different but also interconnected and designed to work together. The Exchange Club is a non-profit whose mission is to prevent child abuse and neglect. From their experience, many of the youth involved in the juvenile justice have complex childhood trauma. They have grown up in environments where what has been modeled is crime, violence, lack of parenting skills, lack of social skills, undiagnosed and untreated mental health issues, substance use, etc. Over their 40+ years they have worked on ways to treat these issues, and not just put a band-aid on them, which is why the application was designed with two components. The group based component will work heavily on skills building in a class format providing education and support. Groups begin with everyone together, then are separated out and taught according to their age group, and conclude the night coming back together for summary and practice and are given homework. The group gives the skills knowledge and practice to some degree and provides an opportunity for “ah ha” moments. For some parents, hands-on coaching is needed to really get their skills levels up, especially for teens and youth with behavioral issues. For parents who need the extra in-home help, they spend at least 3 hours minimum a week. Some parents will only do/need the group component, but many will need both. Amanda Farris motioned that both components of the Exchange Club’s application be funded and was seconded by Peggy Hamlett. Motion carried unanimously. Carol McClelland and Gayane Chambless abstained. Election of Officers – Peggy Hamlett motioned that Bernard Miles serve as Chair and Amanda Farris serve as Vice Chair and Carol McClelland seconded. Motion carried unanimously. Hot Topics There are still lots of questions and unknowns about Medicaid transformation and the pending lawsuits may affect the implementation. If you have families with children who are Medicaid eligible, they are expected to have packets in the mail July 13 and then they will have the opportunity to pick the standard plan they want. If they do not select a plan, they will automatically be enrolled in one after a certain timeframe. There will be a phone number (423-646-4333) that families can call with questions and help navigating the enrollment process. The Health Department is conducting the Community Health Assessment that is done every four years and they are currently recruiting volunteers to help do door to door surveying in the community. They have survey days scheduled for June 22 and 27 with shifts from 10-4. The questionnaire is about 30 questions and takes approximately 20 minutes to complete. They are going out in random census blocks in Chapel Hill and Carrboro area but have sent out postcards ahead of time letting the household know. Additionally, law enforcement has been notified and volunteers will go out in teams. Consultant Update An email went out to program providers about Trauma Informed Training that the Department is offering. Denise is beginning to look at program agreements to start moving them forward so that there is no disruption in the July disbursements. Denise just finished monitoring Wrenn House and they were in full compliance. Teen Court is being scheduled for monitoring. There is a bill that was being looked at this week in the Legislature that would allow for more than one referral to be made to Teen Court by court counselors. Currently the statute reads that it’s only for first- time offenders and only one referral can be made. This is coming about also in preparation for Raise the Age. There will be a screening process to ensure that any additional referrals made are appropriate.