Hello Naimah -
Just wanted to let you know that I am on your report for you to have by tomorrow afternoon.
We don't have outcomes as in, "expulsions decreased by XYZ," or "hospital visits decreased by xyz" - as right now we are working on
- establishing relationships or deepening with Department of Social Services workers in the counties
- establishing or deepening relationships with Guardian ad Litem volunteers
- establishing or deepening relationships with SAYSO representatives
- establishing or deepening relationships with other influencers of caregivers, parents, teachers, faith and coaching communities, children in the system and those who may be aging out of the system
- growing the PACEs Connection Cooperative of Communities initiatives that are wrapping the communities in the work to become a healthier, more compassionate community
- delivering the Community Resiliency Model trainings to DSS workers
- delivering the Community Resiliency Model trainings to other groups identified
- creating or "dovetailing into" opportunities (health fairs, family fun days and such) where we can share flyers and invite parents and other community members to the Community Resiliency Model trainings
- growing the communities by adding to the memberships of each community, handling the Coop contracts, attending meetings, writing up events, promoting events that will support the efforts in each community.
I'm putting numbers together on meetings, trainings, new members, and such.
As discussed, this is a long-term endeavor. We have the Community Resiliency Tracker up for New Hanover County and are gaining ground in getting sufficient numbers of commitment documents from some of the other communities, so we can send the surveys that will populate the Community Resiliency Trackers for each community. This is a relationship building process and it does take some time.
I would like to talk with you as soon as possible, too, about a couple of hiccups I've mentioned before, the fact that Buncombe County is in a regrouping/reorganizing mode and there is not a PACEs initiative in Buncombe now. I have been helping one of the former leaders of the initiative (it disbanded several years ago as groups got deeper into their own work and the people who had been leading the initiative took other positions; one of the leaders passed away). There is talk of reformulating in Western North Carolina with a 24-county initiative. I am providing some data and support to that effort.
Also, Cumberland County, which was another of the five counties we hoped to bring into the Coop and this program, has been slowed by multiple layers of leadership, illness, regrouping after the first of the year. I presented, along with one or two members of our team at most meetings, our proposal to several members of their leadership group on three different occasions. As we were gearing up the other six counties, I prioritized getting those going as they were ready; and needed to circle back to Cumberland. Now, however, there is another county that is already doing most of the work and would be a terrific partner on this. Actually, there are two counties, as there is one brand-new initiative being led by a member of our team, a woman who is herself a foster parent who works in support of foster parents through Coastal Horizons, a multi-county mental health provider. Together these two counties they would add another 550 children into our total, which is about half of the number of children we could reach in Cumberland. We have learned, however, that having accessible, amenable, decisive partners, as we do in the current six counties, makes all the difference in the depth and speed of the work. As discussed, we are probably six months away from being able to measure outcomes in all but one of the counties, as that comes after we have the Community Resiliency Trackers up. New Hanover County would be the first county for which we may be able to measure outcomes, but until we have gotten deeper into the work, I believe that work wouldn't be reflective. It is going to take some time, especially in the midst of the pandemic, to begin to quantify change.
All this is to say that I am working on the report. I wanted to set some expectations, and let you know I would like to meet with you and our partners, Kelly Purcell and Amy Read, soon, to discuss where we are and add personal observation information to the numbers I'll be sending tomorrow.
Thank you!
Carey
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