Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Jefferson County Race, Community & Child Welfare (RCCW) Initiative

RCCW Leadership Advisory Board: Vision, Mission & Values

As a partner to the Reclaiming Our Dreams: Youth Leadership Institute, we felt it was important to include some additional information on the Jefferson County Race, Community & Child Welfare Initiative.
Vision:  An anti-racisit community where all children and families receive appropriate and equitable support and services.

Mission:  The Jefferson County RCCW Leadership Advisory Board exists to promote public policies and practices that ensure equitable care and support of all children and families by addressing disproportionality and disparate outcomes through multi-system strategies and community involvement.

Values:  The Jefferson County RCCW Leadership Advisory Board values:
  • Well being of children and their families
  • Anti racism culture
  • Positive sustainable systems' change through best practices, data-based decision making, committed involvement and transparency
  • Accountability, mutual respect, honesty and integrity
  • Advocacy to shape public policy and practice through multi level strategies
  • Leading by example and challenging complacency
  • Continuing education and public outreach
  • Entire community leadership responsibility for all children
RCCW Leadership Advisory Board Committees

Development Committee
To garner support from identified targeted sponsors within the community including community service providers and corporations for general funding of the initiative including "Undoing Racism" workshops. To seek out and apply for grants to benefit the initiative.  To partner with community agencies to provide community forums and conferences regarding the intiative.

Chair: 
Jeanean Jacobs   
Jeanean.Jacobs@marhurst.org

Public Awareness, Education, and Communication Committee
To focus on community outreach including training and educating the public about racial disproportionality and disparate outcomes in the child welfare system to promote equitable treatment of all chidlren and ffamilies. This includes facilitation fo "Undoing Racism" workshops and developing a Speakers' Bureau. To develop materials (i.e. brochures, flyers, reports, handouts, etc.) and carry out all functions related to communicating RCCW activities and events to engage the community in the efforts of the initiative.

Co-Chairs:
Ta'Londa Holland
tholland@famchildplace.org

Arlisa Brown
Arlisa.Brown@jefferson.kyschools.us

Evaluation Committee
To carry out functions required to recommend priorities and evaluate the efforts including data collection and strategic plan review. To gather materials for assessment of "Undoing Racism" workshops and RCCW conferences to track trends and identify opportunities for improvement.

Co-chairs:
Anita Barbee
anita.barbee@louisville.edu

Phyllis Platt
pplatt@spalding.edu

Policy, Practice and Culture Change Committee
To review the policies and practices of systems or agencies associated with child welfare for unintended consequences and make recommendations for improvement. To promote an anti-racist culture within lcoal organizations and community agencies.

Co-chairs:
Chris Bruggman
cbrugg@insightbb.com

Rashaad Abdur-Rahman
r_hm89@hotmail.com

Executive Leadership & Membership Committee
Executive Leadership - To be comprised of RCCW Leadership Advisory Board Co-chairs and all committee chairs to carry out the business of the Board while the Board is not meeting. To plan Board meeting place, time, set meeting agendas, etc.

Co-chairs:
Ron Jackson
Ron.Jackson@metrounitedway.org

Natalie Reteneller
NReteneller@ymcalouisville.org

Membership - To recruit and retain members for the Jefferson County RCCW Leadership Advisory Board in accordance with established membership ratios. To prepare slate of recommended officers (co-chairs and committee chairs). To compile and report information to the Board annually and recommend improvements.

Administrative Contact:
Jennifer Holeman
Jennifer.Holeman@ky.gov


LINKS:
COMMUNITY PARTNERS:

The Jefferson Service Region of Kentucky DCBS (Department for Community Based Services) has worked strategically since September 2005 to begin redefining the definition of "child welfare". To most of the public, the "child welfare system" simply means the public child welfare agency or "CPS".

This mythical definition of who "child welfare" is can not be further from the truth.  What the public at large must remember is that members of the community (not the CPS agency) have referred all families to the public child welfare agency for investigation of abuse, neglect or dependency. Families of color are referred by the community at a disproportionate rate compared to their population in the general census.

Once a family is involved with Kentucky DCBS, community partners that make up the "child welfare system" help DCBS make most of the key case decisions made during the life of a public child welfare case.  The key decisions include the results of the investigation of abuse or neglect; the decision to leave the family intact or remove the child from the home; the decision to move a child from one placement to another placement; and finally, any permanency decision about a child (for example, the decision to change the child's permanency goal to Adoption). 

Community partners are at the table when Kentucky DCBS makes these key decisions through two types of meetings that are conducted with families. All families who receive ongoing services from Kentucky DCBS will eventually be part of a "Family Team Meeting" or a "Facilitated Staffing" (sometimes called "Team Decision Making").  It is during these two types of meetings that community partners who make up the "child welfare system" help Kentucky DCBS make the key decisions in a public child welfare case. 

These community partners are listed below and are committed to helping redefine who the "child welfare system" is in Louisville, Kentucky.

 
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