TO: First 5 Lake County Commission

Agenda Item No. V

Regular Meeting: 9-27-17

M E M O R A N D U M

TO: First 5 Lake County Commission

FROM: Carla Ritz, Executive Director

DATE: September 20, 2017

SUBJECT: Executive Director’s Report

DIRECTOR’S COMMENTS – It has been a month of ideas and connections.

Connections:

·  I spent a half day with the LCOE QRIS team and our regional IMPACT leader, Leah Benz, in Santa Rosa in late August. This meeting helped to get us all on the same page (with all of the Lake County IMPACT staff now being less than one year in our current positions) and answered a multitude of questions.

·  I’ve kept in touch with Shelly Mascari at Adventist Health about their progress toward securing funding for a Safe Sleep initiative similar to Sutter Lakeside’s. Here is the latest word from Shelly: “We have received partial funding for this program from Redbud Community Health Care District. We are waiting for notice from an additional grantor for the balance of the funding. Our hope is to roll out the program in October 2017.”

·  I spent a full day with Jennifer Jensen, our independent auditor, on Aug. 30 and took notes on all of the items she (or another auditor) will need to have updated on an annual basis.

·  The last day of August was spent in Napa at the IMPACT hub meeting. Representatives from First 5 CA were present and I was able to spend time with Silvia Flores who is our regional liaison in the state office. We learned more about the ECE workforce registry and some new T&TA supports that will soon be available, including Brazelton Touchpoints.

·  Meetings attended – Healthy Start Collaborative, Children’s Council, Nurturing Families Advisory, Maternal, Child & Adolescent Health Advisory Board, Lake County Childcare Planning Council Retreat, CA-QRIS Consortium, and Sutter Lakeside Smart Start Baby Bundle quarterly meeting.

·  I spent time with Jolene Chappel from Redwood Community Services learning about the multitude of services available in the county through RCS and listened to her concern about ongoing funding for The NEST. She will find out on Sept. 29 whether their funding will be renewed for another five years. The end of their current funding cycle is Sept. 30. RCS is prepared to cover the program expenses through the end of 2017 if funding is cut, but Jolene is being proactive about looking at possible options for sustainability beginning in January 2018.

·  I spent time with the mother and father of one-year old and one-week old sons and listened to their experiences surrounding the birth of their second son and their search for child care. I also spent time with the parents of a child entering TK to learn about their experience transitioning from day care to TK.

·  Vicki volunteered at the LC Breastfeeding Coalition’s Comfort Station booth at the Lake County Fair and participated in a Zero-To-Three webinar on the unique needs of grandparents as caregivers.

Ideas:

·  Magnets - The Safe Sleep classes at SLH include a time for community agencies to share resources available to families with young children. The flyers/bullet-points/contact information from these agencies is then included in a folder given to each family in attendance. Since paper tends to get thrown away or misplaced, I am looking into the cost of producing colorful magnets with the contacts for these agencies as something to include in the Baby Bundles from First 5. This would be included in a mid-year budget revision proposal.

·  Leadership Development – I am intrigued by the “First 5 Institute” learning opportunities provided by First 5 Shasta, and by programs like Leadership Mendocino. I am looking into ways that First 5 might be involved in regular educational gatherings/webinars for professionals who work with young children and their families in the county, as a way to increase the leadership capacity of the workforce and thus increase the quality of service provided and longevity in the field.

·  Grandparents as Caregivers – The statistics say that 24% of children 0-5 are cared for by a grandparent (roughly the same number as receive care from a regular childcare provider). These are not state-licensed family childcare homes, they are loving family members with a set of strengths all their own, but with frequently little to no training or support. What would it look like if First 5 took the lead in offering support and educational opportunities for them on a regular basis – through our website, social media and through regular gatherings?

·  Agency Show and Tell – The more meetings and collaboratives I attend, the more familiar I am becoming with the types of services offered around the county and the way to access them. Unfortunately, most of the people involved in direct services with families and children do not have the ability to attend meetings like these during the course of their work day. What would it look like if there was a one-day agency “show and tell” conference once a year where information from county services, nonprofits, and other agencies and organizations are presented along with specifics about what is available from each and how to access it? The morning could be a show and tell, followed by lunch and then a series of brainstorming breakout sessions surrounding new ideas about systems, services, and sustainability. Should First 5 be a catalyst for something like this?

·  Brain Architecture Game – The Center for the Developing Child at Harvard University has come up with this unique, hands-on, competitive game to educate people on the factors (both positive and negative) influencing brain development in early childhood. Dr. Daly has ordered a licensed copy of the game ($99) and I am excited to see if it could be a useful educational tool in Lake County. I am signed up to participate in a breakout session with the game developers at the Zero-To-Three conference in November.

·  Wellness Roadmap Town Hall – This is always in the back of my mind. How can First 5 support such an endeavor and what would our role be?

FEDERAL LEVEL – Children Now has authored a letterurging representatives in Washington DC to extend funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for at least five years. I have added our support to this letter and the First 5 Association has as well.

STATE LEVEL – Per your request, on September 5, I sent letters on behalf of First 5 Lake to both Senator McGuire and Asm. Aguiar-Curry letting them know of our opposition to AB 1250 and asking for them to join us in opposing the bill.

The Census released new Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) analysis, which reflects cost of living and noncash benefits(e.g. food assistance and tax credits) that help families cover basic expenses. “With 20.4 percent of state residents struggling to get by, California ranks first among the 50 states based on the SPM. California’s No. 1 ranking largely reflects the state’s high housing costs. Unlike the official poverty measure, the SPM accounts for differences in housing costs across the US, and when these costs are factored in, a much larger share of the state’s population is living in poverty: 20.4 percent under the SPM, compared to 14.5 percent under the official measure. In fact, California’s poverty rate rises to the highest among the 50 states under the SPM, up from 16th highest under the official poverty measure.” – California Budget & Policy Center.

STATE FIRST 5 COMMISSION – Last week, Angela Cuellar-Marroquin (LCOE LPC/QRIS Coordinator), Brandy Perry (NCO R&R) and I attended the CA-QRIS Consortium meeting in Sacramento. This meeting was jointly sponsored and chaired by First 5 CA and the California Department of Education. The biggest change they unveiled was in statewide voting on CA-QRIS items: instead of three votes per region, it will become one vote per Consortia statewide. This means that Lake County gets one vote. The other big take-away was that the CDE Certification Grant (administered by LCOE) is extended to 3/31/18. It previously ended 12/30/17. This gives LCOE an additional three months to spend those funds and will potentially free up additional IMPACT dollars this year. Finally, they unveiled the new name for the CA-QRIS initiative: Quality Counts California.

FIRST 5 ASSOCIATION – The Small County Summit is next week on Monday and Tuesday in South Lake Tahoe. Lindsay Bellows of Open Impact will join and facilitate the summit. In partnership with the First 5 Association, Lindsay has been working on the broaderFirst 5 Network Project, with a goal of securing a place for First 5 at the table of leaders in the 0-5 space, leading to greater impact and funding for the field. This summit will be focused on the critical role of small counties in the implementation of this project, and how this work can be applied back home. I will share what I learn with you at our meeting on Sept. 27.

GRANT ACTIVITY UPDATES: (These are highlights, and not intended to convey the full scope of the work being accomplished by each grantee.)

AMERICORPS – Gilbert Rangel gave a presentation on AmeriCorps at the September Healthy Start Collaborative meeting. He is in the process of drafting their application for the next round of federal funding and is asking for community input this fall. AmeriCorps staff are delivering Oral Health lessons in preschools which will include the Habematolel preschool program in Upper Lake.

EASTER SEALS – Mary is working with four agencies on a regular basis for family visits to happen at either center. ASQ/ASQSE trainings are scheduled or recently held for NCO, LCOE preschool staff, and Early Head Start. ESBA will be at the Heroes of Health and Safety Fair in October. Early Learning Center attendance is steady and Mary has the “go ahead” for two interns this fall.

HERO PROJECT – Carly Swatosh will be presenting the proposed changes to the Hero Project at our meeting on Sept. 27.

IMAGINATION LIBRARY – Imagination Library will be one of the beneficiaries of this year’s Lake County Wine Alliance auction. Carly also received word that Adventist Health will now increase their funding of the program for babies born in their Clearlake hospital from covering the cost of the first year to covering the first two years.

IMPACT – Eight sites are set to be rated by the end of the year. There are now two full-time coaches on staff at LCOE and the plan is to ramp up the number of participating sites in the 2017-18 school year, including family child care homes and nontraditional settings.

NURTURING FAMILIES – A new ABC’s parenting class starts this week in Upper Lake and will run through the end of October. Ana Santana and Lisa Gilmore met with Judge Lunas about the NP curriculum and what can be offered to those in the county who are court-ordered to receive parenting education. This was a positive meeting with an exciting ripple effect of new connections within the county.

ORAL HEALTH – Dental screenings have begun in the schools and transportation to dental clinics is ongoing. Staff have engaged in community outreach about oral health at Power to the Youth in Austin Park in August, Recovery Happens in Lakeport and Scotts Valley Big Time Indian Day in September. They plan to participate in the Heroes of Health and Safety Fair in October as well.

ADMINISTRATION

Annual Audit – Jennifer Jensen was on site Aug 30-31 to conduct our annual independent fiscal audit. Work is ongoing. We will have a finished document for approval at our October meeting.

Program Evaluation – Our outside evaluator, Cathy Ferron, is in the process of preparing our annual report. We will have a finished document for approval at our October meeting.

Financial Statements – August financials submitted separately.

Planning - The grant contracts for the programs that we are currently funding will end June 30, 2018 (with the exception of Imagination Library which ends in 2019). Our current Strategic Plan is valid through June 30, 2019. Next year we will go through a strategic planning process for 2019-2024 and then solicit multi-year proposals that align with the plan we create. The Commission now needs to discuss how to proceed with funding programs in the final year of our current strategic plan. Do you want to extend current grants by one year? Do you want to publish a request for one-year proposals and look at 2018-19 with fresh eyes? Are there strong feelings either way? Let’s have this discussion and then I will reach out to our current grantees about next steps.

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