Agenda Item No.V

Agenda Item No.V

Regular Meeting: 10-25-17

M E M O R A N D U M

TO:First 5 Lake County Commission

FROM:Carla Ritz, Executive Director

DATE:October 18, 2017

SUBJECT:Executive Director’s Report

DIRECTOR’S COMMENTS – Following our last regular meeting in September, I spent two days in Sacramento at a strategic planning training. I learned and practiced using several tools that will help us to develop our new strategic plan in the coming year and I am excited to share those with you in 2018.

Per our conversations, I’ve drafted a meeting calendar for 2018 which would include moving our regular meetings from the 4th Wednesday of each month to the 3rd Wednesday. I am also suggesting a full-day meeting on April 18 to begin the strategic planning process. Please bring your calendars with you to the meeting next week or respond via email letting me know whether you can commit to this.

FEDERAL LEVEL–Both CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program) and MIECHV (Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting) expired on September 30th, putting both programs at risk. Some progress was made on each of these last week, but much remains to be done.On Wednesday, the Senate Finance Committee quickly passed a bill to reauthorizes the funding, but gotconsiderable push backfrom Democrats because it required the dollars to be offset by Medicare. As for MIECHV, the House passed a 5-year extension bill with challenging policy changes lastweek; it is now up to the Senate to negotiate the policy differences and move their reauthorization bill for a floor vote.

In California, tribal organizations in LakeCounty, Alameda, Riverside and San Bernardino will be hit the hardest if Congress does not re-up MIECHV by the end of the year.I’ve asked Daphne Colacion from Lake County Tribal Health to keep us informed as they receive updates about the future of their program.

STATE LEVEL–On October 12, 2017, Governor Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 63 by Senator Hannah Beth Jackson, which extends job protections to 2.6 million more Californians when they become parents. Under pre-existing law, only parents working for very large employers have a right to take up to 12 weeks of parental leave. Now, parents working for medium-size employers will have basic job protections and be able to invest that time in nurturing their newborn child.The new law makes it illegal for companies that employ 20 to 49 workers to refuse to grant new parents up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave within one year of their child’s birth, adoption or foster care placement. Employees must have at least one year of experience and 1,250 hours on the job to be eligible for job-protected leave under the bill. First 5 California partnered with Senator Jackson, Legal Aid at Work, the California Employment Lawyers Association, and the California Work and Family Coalition to sponsor and champion the passage of SB 63.
The latest medical research reveals the very first days and months of a baby’s life are crucial to each child’s future. A baby’s brain development starts even before birth and accelerates during the first three months of life, as well as throughout the first five years. What parents and caregivers do for and with their babies in those first months give children both a strong learning start and emotionally secure underpinnings for life.
A 2011 field poll found almost 2 out of 5 employees who were eligible to use California’s Paid Family Leave program did not apply for the state benefit because they feared losing their job or other negative consequences at work. This is a Paid Family Leave program that employees fund with deductions from their very own paychecks, and these parents didn’t get to access the benefit because they had no job protections.
The new legislation will take effect on January 1, 2018.

STATE FIRST 5 COMMISSIONFIRST 5 ASSOCIATION–Camille Maben, First 5 CA Executive Director, asked if the Association might be able to pool funds from other funders (potentially First 5 CA) interested in supporting 0-5 programs affected by the wildfires.Working quickly, Moira polled the Executive Committee members, who enthusiastically supported the idea. They have, as a result, established the First 5 Wildfire Recovery Fund with a Generosity site (part of the Indiegogo network, but for nonprofits).

Moira and Camille hope this idea is welcome news; the idea is that any funds donated would be held in a restricted fund at the Association until Commissionsfrom affected counties all have an opportunity to talk about how to divide the funds. There would be no restrictions on the fund, unless First 5 CA provides funding, in which case it might become more restrictive. Some of the ideas included in the appeal were mental health personnel, supplies for family child care homes, new playgroups or other family activities, but these were put in the fundraising letter just to be explanatory, not restrictive.

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 will give a presentation at our meeting on Oct. 25.

BLOOM – Bloom launched at the Heroes of Health and Safety Fair on Oct. 14, with an eye-catching and engaging booth that attracted a lot of attention. The Facebook page is now active and bags of books have been given out to families who have registered for Imagination Library and Ready4K, and “liked” the Bloom Facebook page. The Bloom website is still under construction and Carly is looking into ways to gather data from the Vroom App.

EASTER SEALS– In the first quarter, 74 calls were made to the Health Line, three new Family Child Care Home providers have requested ASQ screenings for their programs, a training was provided for NCO about the purpose of using the ASQ screening, ESBA staff attended the Mendocino College Resource Fair and offered resources to families, and 36 families returned ASQ screening forms (received from HL calls, Dr. visits, Early Learning Center visits, or child care programs) and referrals have been discussed with 10 of those families. The Early Learning Centers were visited by 147 repeat parents and 48 new parents.

IMAGINATION LIBRARY - Imagination Library sign-ups were offered via iPads at the Bloom booth at Heroes of Health and Safety. In the first quarter of this year, there were 391 new sign-ups for IL. As of the end of September there were a total of 1,709 Lake County children enrolled in the program – 36% Clearlake/CLO/CLP, 19% Lakeport, 18% Kelseyville, 6% Middletown/HVL, 5% Lower Lake, 4% Lucerne, 4% Nice, 4% Upper Lake, 4% (Cobb, Finley, Witter Springs).

IMPACT – The IMPACT coaching team at LCOE has had success recently in recruiting non-traditional and non-CSPP (California State Preschool Program) grant sites to participate in IMPACT QRIS (Quality Rating & Improvement System), including tribal programs, three family childcare homes and the First 5 Early Learning Center. The first sites will be assessed and rated in October and November. Next steps for the QRIS consortium will be to develop a rating matrix for the nontraditional sites and to review the grant budgets.

NURTURING FAMILIES – In the first quarter of this year, 196 parents and 235 children have received some type of service from Nurturing Families. More than half of these parents and children are Native Americans! This is due to Ana Santana and her team’s persistent outreach at tribal events (where they are frequently manning the only booth with activities for children).

ORAL HEALTH – In the first quarter, 153 preschool children received dental screenings. The inability to fill the Middletown AmeriCorps position until just recently has put the program behind in delivering services to Middletown Early Connection. AmeriCorps Training for new members was rescheduled that resulted to lessons starting a little later than planned for. All member positions have been filled and trained and service delivery is on track now. At the end of last year Ana and her team decided to fold Cobb Elementary into the Oral Health Project. Staff is now assigned to Cobb Elementary one day per week to provide Oral Health and other services. Children are transported every Tuesday to the Adventist Dental clinic.

SAFE SLEEP MINI-GRANT – Sutter Lakeside Hospital has held four Safe Sleep classes since the program launched in July. To date, 102 Lake County residents have participated. 48% of participants reported a household income of less than $25,000/year. Nurses from the Family Birth Center will be providing the training to staff from Lake Family Resource Center in the near future. Mother-Wise staff have been calling through the participant list 30 days following their due dates to check-in and offer support. SLH staff are working on ways to increase the likelihood of response to those calls.

TRANSPORTATION MINI-GRANTS

• Just over 10% of the $4,500 grant to Easter Seals Bay Area was spent in the first quarter on trips for 11 children and 10 parents to UCSF and Ukiah for specialized medical care. Both Jaclyn Ley from Mother-Wise and Mary Prather from ESBA have been sharing information about the travel fund with those in attendance at the monthly Safe Sleep classes at Sutter Lakeside Hospital.
• Adventist Health Clearlake issued a total of $720 in gas vouchers and $85 in bus vouchers to 25 patients for travel to and from OB education classes and travel out of the county for specialized care for high risk OB appointments. They had previously used Flyers Gas as a vendor for the gas vouchers, but the station has been sold and the new owner will not work with them to provide the vouchers. Administration is looking for a solution.

ADMINISTRATION

Annual Audit – The 2016-17 audit is still being drafted as of the writing of this report, there are a few points of clarification being worked out with the County Auditor-Controller’s office and the LCOE business office. Our hope is that the audit will be completed by Jennifer Jensen with Jensen-Smith, CPA, Inc. and presented on time at the public hearing at the Oct. 25, 2017 meeting, but there is a possibility that it will not be complete in time to meet the Brown Act requirements for distribution prior to the meeting.

Program Evaluation – The 2016-17 program evaluation report has been submitted by Cathy Ferron and will be presented in a public hearing at the Oct. 25, 2017 meeting.

Financial Statements–September financials submitted separately.

Planning - Current grantees were sent a form to request one-year grant extensions for the 2018-19 fiscal year. Those completed forms are due to First 5 Lake by November 17. The Commission will review them at the regular meeting on December 6, 2017.

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