CPPC Mission

Together, we keep children and their families healthy, engaged, and thriving.

GovernanceCommittee MeetingNotes

February 19, 2015

Attendance: Abby Alfred (CPPC), Ellen Nelson (DHHS Biddeford), Julie McShane (DHHS Portland), Cynthia Fitzgerald (South Portland resident), Ellen Dorr (Woodfords Family Services), Janine Roberts (Westbrook Police Department), Lois Galgay Reckitt (Family Crisis Services)

Website Page:

Everyone was content with the most recent draft (including corrections/additions) of the write-up about Governance Committee for a page on the website. Deb and Abby will tweak the language to match the rest of the website, and add a page for this committee.

New Member Mentors:

Abby shared with the group the idea of assigning new Governance Committee members to seasoned members who can help orient them to CPPC and the role of this committee. This is something that had been discussed in the past, but never came to fruition. Abby will share a short write up about this, including an explanation of this mentor matching as well as questions to guide the relationship. The group liked the idea, particularly the newer members in attendance, who said it would be very helpful. The one caution is that it does not become an expectation for the nominating committee only to act as mentors, and that many other people are involved in this.

Strategic Planning- Preventive Family Team Meeting Training Roll Out:

As the strategic arm of the CPPC, the group was presented with two questions to tackle:

  • how to roll out the new Preventive Family Team Meeting (PFTM) training to all partners
  • how to increase the number of Preventive Family Team Meetings before the end of the current contract period, as required

The group began the conversation by discussing who should be trained in facilitating PFTMs. Initially, the thought had been that all partners should train all staff, but through conversations with partners, it has become increasingly clear that not all partners want all their staff trained. Janine, for example, said that it does not make sense for all of her officers to be trained in facilitating, but that she does want everyone to know what a PFTM is.

Each organization will need to identify who and how many from within should be trained. For everyone else, we can develop ways to convey information about PFTMs so that people know what to expect when they attend. For example, Lois said that she could use a portion of a monthly staff meeting to educate her staff about PFTMs.

The committee also discussed other ways to make it more feasible and likely for organizations to send staff to be trained:

  • Look at the length of the training. It is very difficult for people to attend full day trainings, given most organizations’ capacities, and particularly for an staff/programs that are fee-for-service. Many “full day” trainings are actually only 6 hours—If this training is only 6 hours, or less, it should be marketed that way and shorted to what trainers really need. If there is any way to shorten the training to a half day, that would make it much easier for people to attend. If the training is in fact a full 8 hours, the committee said, that is fine, but there should be a breakdown in the outline/invitation so that managers know that this really does require that much time, and attendees know what to expect.
  • Evaluation v. counting FTMs. The question was asked how these PFTMs are counted. When explained that all facilitators are expected to hand out evaluations at the end of the PFTM, which they will then collect and input to Survey Monkey, there was some concern that this is a lot of additional work for people and could be a disincentive to holding PFTMs, or at least counting them as CPPC PFTMs.
  • Apply to be able to give CEUs. If this training can offer CEUs, it might be easier to get people (i.e. case managers and other billable staff) to attend. The application process is long, but if we apply and do not have in time for the training, people can still get credit for the training once the application is approved.
  • Online training. The group discussed the possibility of creating an online training, or at least introduction, for PFTMs that could be accessed through the website. This type of learning is not good for everyone, so it would not be sufficient to do alone, but could serve as one way to increase the numbers of people trained and able to facilitate PFTMs.
  • Tailoring messages to different partners. It is very important, when talking about PFTMs to different partners, to tailor the way they are discussed to be relevant to that particular partner. If we want partners to invest the time in training staff, they need to understand why PFTMs are a benefit to them and their work specifically. For example, Janine discussed that when talking to police about this, it could be described as a “concentrated conversation focused on a specific family or child” and that such a meeting could benefit police by minimizing the numbers of calls/reports from and/or about the family.

The committee discussed that some of these approaches are great for a longer term strategy to roll out PFTM training and increase the number of PFTMs, but that given the need to increase the number of PFTMs by the end of June, there should be a particular strategy to increase numbers in the next few months. For this, we should target some of the key organizations who have staff, i.e. case managers, for whom PFTMs would fit most easily into their job description and role. The organizations mentioned were: SMART, Connections for Kids, Health Affiliates of Maine, Sweetser, Family Crisis Services, Catholic Charities, Spurwink, Woodfords, Opportunity Alliance, and Maine Behavioral Health.

Each organization can determine if they would like to send everyone they want trained in this model to an external training, or have one or two individuals trained to be trainers for their organization. Different organizations have different needs, so the roll out process will have to be tailored somewhat to meet each organization’s needs.

The group decided there should be a training scheduled by the end of March. Janine offered the Westbrook Public Safety training space, which can fit about 25 people, and Ellen Dorr said we might also be able to use Woodfords’ training facility on Larabee.

Cynthia raised the point that we will also have to develop a strategy for rolling out this training to residents, which will be a conversation in the coming months.

Next Steps:

Action / Lead
Send PFTM training and PFTM summary to Governance Committee / Abby
Look into CEU application process / Abby, Julie, Ellen
Schedule training for end of March for identified staff within identified organizations / Abby, Deb

MEETINGS HELD ON 3rd THURSDAY OF THE MONTH.

NEXT MEETING WILL BE HELD THURSDAY 3/19 3:00-4:30

@ NEW DHHS BUILDING 151 JETPORT BOULEVARD SOUTH PORTLAND