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Prevention Works! Minutes |
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Meeting
of Prevention Works! October
8, 2001 http://www.preventionworkscc.org/ Jane Shefler called the meeting to order. Those attending were Jane, Nancy Martin, Yvette Cline, Deborah Feldman, Mel Melmed, Mary Morgan, Martha Hall, Kim Kettel, Jennifer Charles, Fiona Hert, Patra Boots, Kim Johnson, Nita Quan, Mary Jacoby, Betsy Cadwell, Diana Assumpcao, Cherie Reeves Sperr, and Cynthia Martin. Evaluation Presentation: Deborah Feldman was here to present the evaluation for the First Step program and the Parent Education classes. She distributed the summary of these findings. Full reports can be obtained from Deborah (dfeld@seanet.com). Deborah is a professional evaluator working primarily in human services programs. This is the second year she has been involved in Clallam County. A previous evaluation was done in 1999. She commended the group for being involved in ways to collect data together, which is very unusual. The program goals were discussed. The Family Strengthening Goals for the program included to 1) increase parenting skills, 2) increase knowledge of child development/appropriate expectations, and 3) strengthen social support network—especially home visiting. She showed the tools (the Parenting Ladder and the Parent Opinion Questionnaire) used to measure the home visiting and parent education programs. The Home Visiting program remarkably had a 95% retention rate. Obviously this pleased her even though that wasn’t one of the main goals. The parenting ladders showed significant perceived learning gains, especially in the earliest months. There was a significant gain in skills in discipline and knowledge of child development. This group had either 0 or 1 previous contact from some agency so it is reaching a new group of people who have not previously been served. The responders indicated that positive relationships doubled after six months. The biggest changes happened in the first six months. Cherie asked if these changes will last over time and will that be examined. Follow-up studies have difficulty in retaining the people to be studied. There was a slight dip in one of the measurements during the second six months. Some of that would be because they have used the system resource but there may not be as great a need in the second six months. All the measures were significantly improved. People studied in the previous evaluation were higher functioning when they originally entered. The population may be more needy now. Diana Assumpcao asked questions about the previous study recipients how they are doing now. The Parenting Education Classes used the parenting ladder and the Parent Opinion Questionnaire for evaluation purposes. Only had 34% returned so that makes the results even more positive. There was a strange bifurcation of attendance. Most of these were classes in 10 series. Either they came a lot or quit early. There tended to be a relationship between attendance and size of class. Agencies need to look at the details for each program. Parent Opinion Questionnaire gave different kinds of information and also gave people a chance to respond to open ended questions. Satisfaction rates were very high and especially high about instructors. There were indicators of a very positive social climate in the classes. 87% indicated they made a friend in the class. This also indicated a very welcoming class environment Most of the people felt that they had changed and 95 replies were exceptionally high on communication patterns, discipline techniques, bonding with their child, and anger management issues. Deborah had concerns about the parenting ladder. She felt more data came from the questionnaire. She recommended we drop using the ladder and only use the Parent Opinion Questionnaire. The group agreed to eliminate the ladder for parent education only. There may be some future qualitative evaluation. The issue of evaluation for Carolyn Foundation funding may fall under a different group. This needs to be discussed in a future meeting of the executive board. (Carolyn Foundation has 10% for evaluation.) BUSINESS MEETINGMinutes In the future all the minutes will be on the web site. We will indicate in the e-mail that these are the minutes and people can click onto them to read or print out. Anyone who has trouble should let Cynthia or Shaine know. Committee ReportsAt the last Prevention Works! Board of Directors Meeting, it was decided to go back to having oral reports. Everyone agreed they added to the meetings. Parent Education Committee Fiona passed out the registration forms for the Parent Education committee. Joseph Garcia will be here talking about Signing with Your Baby, A Panel on Curricula being used in Clallam County will be included, and Drew Betz from WSU will be talking about experiential learning and interactive parent education. Registration forms are available on the website. Seating is limited so get reservations in early. There will be credit for teachers. The next meeting is tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. at Bonnie’s Bakery. Home Visitors Summit: The Summit will be on Friday January 18 at Olympic Medical Center. The focus of the summit will be providing home visiting services to Native American families. Lorraine Brave will be the keynote speaker. There will be a panel of local tribal members to discuss specific strategies for our area. Money is always tight and this year we have a commitment from New Family Services to provide up to $50 to cover seat time for people attending to help defray cost to agencies of sending people to the training. This means that the agency sending people will receive $50 for each person they send. This doesn’t cover all of the cost but it will help. Next meeting is November 5 at 8:30 a.m. at Bennie’s Bakery. Family Friendly Business: This new committee is off to a great start. They decided to spread out their time line. We will be recognizing certain employers by first using preselected businesses having some kind of service to customers and employers. We want to recommend businesses that are family friendly in each area of the county. We want to get the information out to other businesses. Nancy gave out a number of criteria that might be used. The next meeting is Friday, October 26 at 8:00 at State Farm Insurance Building. Big Event: Rene Martinez went to the first meeting about the visit from Judy Ford. She is not willing to do this entire event. The event is scheduled for March 3. Joy Sheedy volunteered to help (even though she wasn’t in attendance). Fiona also volunteered. Yvette said that we would need to get some publicity. OPAEYC conference will be $35. Jane talked about the need to charge something for this event. People paid more than requested for the last forum. KEYS: (Kids Elementary Years for Success) is moving ahead. Their book drive was successful and will continue. Elna Kawal has indicated she will need to resign from the chair of this committee so the committee will be selecting someone else. They are meeting on Tuesday, October 16 at 4:15 at the Port Angeles School District Office with telelinking to Forks. Publicity and Public Relations: Jim Borte is actively helping the Family Friendly Business Committee to figure out how to get started. He will be contacted about the Big Event Membership: Mel Melmed showed the banner she had made by Copy Plus for about $81.50. Jennifer Charles will keep it at the Health Department. It looked great. Strategic Planning Committee: The Strategic Planning Committee chairman, Carol Huard, now has a full time job. The committee will come up with another chairman. OLD BUSINESSAmendment to the By Laws: It was moved, seconded and passed to accept the change in the by-laws as written on the agenda. This was the second reading.
C.
Board of Directors Non-Profit Status: This item will be discussed by the Board of Directors at a special meeting. An accountant will be providing some information on what this entails. Florence will be doing some research on other coalitions and what their by-laws look like. Early Learning Foundation Grant: RFP for Early Learning Foundation are now available. This is money apart from the help this foundation offers for conferences. The Executive Board recommended that Prevention Works! apply for funds. Nita said there are several ways we can do it. She talked with Patty Hannah and they are willing to distribute funds. We could have either have several agencies go together or we could do it as we did for the Carolyn Foundation where Prevention Works! received the funds and group put in grant requests to Prevention Works! We need a committee to decide how we will do this. Jane discussed the previous meeting with the representatives from the foundation that seemed to encourage collaboration. It was moved, seconded and passed that we submit a collaborate proposal from the agencies who choose to participate. United Way has grant proposal writers and Florence also said she will check into this. A committee was of interested people meet immediately after the meeting. That committee decided to meet again next Monday, October 15 at 8:00 a.m. at Bennie’s Bakery. Prevention Works! Specialist: Nita suggested we ask Florence to talk about what the job description for the Prevention Works! specialist. The role of Jennifer should be clearer. We need to have a clearer understanding of how she is involved in Prevention Works!
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