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Prevention Works! Minutes |
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Clallam County Prevention Works! Community Coalition The meeting was called to order by Jane Shefler, Elna Kawal, Kathleen
Dionne, Carol Huard. Everyone
made introductions. Those attending were Carol Huard, Diana Assumpcao,
John Beitzel, Nancy Martin, Jan Laine, Rob Brook, Susan Surprenant, Mary
Jacoby, Ida Carroll, Yvette Cline, Jennifer Charles, Janet Williams, Debra
Sharp, Florence Bucierka, Jody Jacobson, Martha Hall, Fiona Hert, Bill
Jevne, Jane Shefler, and Cynthia Martin. Carol
Huard came today to talk about CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates).
This program for Carol is the culmination of a dream she has had
about working with kids. She heard about the program when she was in Hawaii and
learned about the Guardian Ad Litem program.
She explained her interest was really peaked when she realized the
importance of the early years of a child’s life. The presentation she had today was particularly important
since this is Child Abuse Prevention Month.
She showed the display that will be doing around the county with
handouts and stickers for this month’s activities. She followed her introduction with a power point
presentation. She
explained that a Guardian Ad Litem is an unpaid professional.
She encouraged everyone who knows someone who might be interested
in being a court appointed special advocate to contact her.
This program began in 1976 in Seattle as a problem and ended as a
solution. One judge felt he
lacked critical information about cases to make determinations as to the
best interests of the child in placements.
He wanted to have some information be provided by community
volunteers who would speak for the children.
In 1983 it began in Clallam County.
She cited one case to explain how the program benefits young
children. By federal law many
children now benefit from CASA volunteers.
Each child is appointed one volunteer.
This person has several roles.
They are investigators and devote a minimum of 50 hours to each
case. Many spend more time.
They act as facilitators by working with parents, foster parents,
teachers, and social workers. They
also make recommendations to the court.
They advocated for the child until the case is permanently
resolved. It takes a
dedicated person to play this role.
The only background you need is to be an advocate for a child.
Volunteers come from a variety of backgrounds.
They can be working full or part time.
They have the power to change children’s lives.
Last year, 57 volunteers helped over 200 children in our county. We have a regular need for these dedicated volunteers.
Nearly every county in the state has a program.
Every child deserves a safe, loving, and secure home.
Guardians advocate for elderly as well.
Some counties may actually pay guardians ad litem.
Every case has three parties:
the state (CPS), attorneys for parents, and then the guardian ad
litem who advocates for the child. She
introduced Pat Privatt who is one of the volunteers. Pat is someone you can contact if you are interested in
participating or wish more information.
She can be reached at pprivatt@cco.cllallam.wa.us
at 417-2282, extension 241. Business
Meeting of Prevention Works! The
business meeting was called to order by Jane Shefler who encouraged us to
move things right along so we would be done by 1:00.
She explained that at the last board of directors meeting the
following assignments were made: Jane
will be President, Jan Laine is Vice President, Shaine Schramling is
Secretary, Jane and Shaine will be sharing treasurer’s role. Annual
Meeting Report: Reports from Don Corson on the Annual Meeting were
passed out. This
is somewhat different than the previous notes from the meeting that are on
the website. The plan at this
time is to assign the Strategic Planning Committee to follow-up with
recommends that came out of the annual meeting.
Jane felt it was helpful to review our direction each year.
The issue of literacy came up at the meeting. That is something that will need to be dealt with as a part
of the recommendations. Big
Event Report: We all felt this was an event that was well received, well
attended (270), and a helpful financial asset with an additional 130
people donating making about $1800
for the event. Diana
Assumpcao and Health and Human Services from the county were instrumental
in making this event such a success.
Jane recommended we do this annually.
Angie Graff suggested we work with the hospital each year to have
this event. Yvette Cline said it did not affect their conference and that
it had been worth attending a second time.
Jane asked for people to volunteer to make this happen and make
suggestions about who ask to speak.
Having it be a triple effort of the hospital, Prevention Works!,
and OPAEYC. Treasurer’s
Report: From January 1 to now we have about $6100 in assets.
We have one more bill for the big event.
Webmaster: The board of Directors recommended we pay Shaine Schramling
to be webmaster. Up until
now, Shaine and Cynthia have volunteered many hours to get it up and
going. It is a huge resource.
Shaine has requested that we give her an honorarioum for being the
webmaster at $100 per month. This
will be in conjunction with the County who also now pay some portion of
this money. It was moved and
second that Shaine would be given an honorarium and the motion was passed.
Jan Laine said that we should compliment Shaine and Cynthia for
their efforts on behalf of Prevention Works!
Strategic
Planning Committee:
The Strategic Planning Committee will be meeting shortly.
Carol will not be part of that group nor will Brenda Butterfield.
Looking at a long term county wide plan will also be included as
part of their task. Carolyn
Foundation: The need to distribute funds for the second year of the
Carolyn Foundation was discussed. The
group felt we still had some time to get this process started.
The issue of apply for second year funding was briefly discussed,
whether we would fund parties who were previously funded or additional
groups, the time line for the process, and when the funding needs to be
spent. It was suggested that
this should go back to the executive board for recommendations rather than
to expect that the RFP committee make the decisions.
It was strongly suggested by Cynthia that we look again at the
original ideas put forth for these funds and make sure that it meets the
guidelines set up by Prevention Works! since last year there were some
issues that came up about the granting process. Membership Committee: Susan Surprenant has agreed to be in charge of the membership committee. Mel asked Susan to be part of the board. She wants to look at the process and how we can increase membership for the year.Child
Abuse Prevention Month:
Diana Assumpcao talked about April being Child Abuse Prevention
Month. She talked about
the sign in front of the Juvenile Services Building that memorializes the
children we have lost to child abuse.
The display board will be traveling throughout the county, signs
are already on the buses, the county commissioners did a nice proclamation
about Child Abuse Prevention Month, the media picked it up and had
something on television that night, and Jan is working on the memorial
service for April 26 at 12:15. Kids
Fest: Kids Fest is this weekend and the Y is doing its event this
weekend also. Diana passed
out flyers on Kids Fest. Family
Friendly Business Committee:
Nancy Martin discussed the Family Friendly Business.
They received their first nomination.
The group will get together in a week or so.
There was an article in the Peninsula Daily News.
It came out rather late. Nancy
reported that she did receive a call from the Sequim Gazette.
We have people going on KONP, service clubs are being contacted,
and the word is started to get out. The
letters went out to about $75 worth of people.
We need money for plaques and one for each area.
It was moved and it was seconded that $75 be given to buy plaques
for the three awards given. Home
Visiting Committee: Home visiting committee is still on break.
Parent
Education Committee: The Parent Education Committee met and is beginning to look
at speakers for next year. Fiona
talked about what the committee discussed as part of the literacy efforts.
It was looking for efforts to compliment each other’s efforts.
She encouraged us to begin early on looking at all the programs
being offered so we might contact the Early Learning Foundation for
funding help. KEYS: Elna Kawal continued with Fiona’s comments on literacy to
begin her report from KEYS. Their
next meeting will be April 25. They
are trying to look at a literacy calendar for the county.
This is something that could also be on the web site.
They are looking for volunteers to read to others over the summer.
Issues of criminal background checks came up even if more than one
person was in each group. KEYS is looking at ways to compliment the efforts of other
groups rather than to set things up on their own.
Let Elna, Kathleen Dionne, or Cynthia Martin know if you have
information for this calendar or information on people to interested in
helping groups with volunteering to read.
Yvette suggested the Parks and Rec or YMCA. The Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe has a summer reading program
for two weeks. Anyone who has
information on reading programs in the county contact Cynthia so we can
get this into the website. Laurel
Beck is a volunteer for Americorp and might be worth contacting about what
she is dong on reading. Rock
and Roll: Jody Jacobsen talked about the activities for this month
related to Volunteer Appreciation Month.
Rock and Roll will be having a dinner on April 24 at Vern Burton
Gym. No regular meeting in
April but again in May. Training
for Home Visitors from Central and Eastern part of the County: Training
for home visitors as part of the demonstration project for central and
eastern county on depession in mothers will be on May 7 from 10 to 3 p.m.
at OMC in Linkletter Auditorium. Contact
Diana Assumpcao for more information. Because of this meeting that needed to be scheduled, Prevention Works! will change our next meeting to the following week. We will meet on Tuesday, May 14 at 11:30 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. for this one month only. |
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