2008 Challenge Awards

The Start With A Story project was created to help the illiteracy problems that plague the family of those in a U.S jail. It also helps create bonds between a parent who is incarcerated and their child. Project goals are to increase the exposure of inmates' children to books and to provide a more child-friendly visit. Alameda County volunteers read to children and incorporate songs and puppets. Then, when the child leaves, they may take one book with them. The program is cost-effective and is mainly funded through donations and volunteers. In 2007, Start With A Story received a total of $2,400 in contributions, and has helped more than 2,500 children visiting the Santa Rita jail. Start With A Story is a cost-effective way to strengthen ties between the library and a traditionally underserved population. It offers many of the services of a full-service children's library branch, but at a county jail facility, complete with a volunteer staff. Many of the books are donations from community members, schools and churches. One local Eagle Scout project brought in approximately 5,000 donated books. Ultimately, Start With A Story aims to contribute to ending the intergenerational nature of illiteracy that plagues inmate families.

Prisoners who have child support bills are unable to pay them while they are incarcerated, leaving the bills to pile up and incur penalty fees. Upon release from prison, the person is left without a legal remedy and this accumulated debt becomes a lifelong financial obligation. The debt decreases the person's ability to obtain employment, and as result, his or her whole family suffers. Assistance to Prisoners With Child Support Orders was created to assist parolees with payment options. This program allows the parolee to still pay off the child support debts, while still being a productive member of society. It also offers them legal representation and advice. The program gives the parolee a better chance at successful re-entry and a positive step back into society. The total costs amounted to $827,402. Of that, 66 percent was paid for by Child Support Services Department and the other 34 percent was paid for by the Public Defender. The program has helped over 700 clients in the past year to avoid the crushing debts from arrearages and interest upon release, and thus increase their opportunity to return to their communities in a positive manner.

Recent research indicates that if a father in involved during the prenatal period and drawn into the birth of his child, he is more likely to sustain emotional and economic ties to his child for the long term. Merced County Human Services Agency started a program called All Dads Matter that focuses on the unique needs of fathers in a positive, nurturing, yet masculine, manner to encourage men to assume a more active role in the lives of their children. The program promotes responsible parenting through education, empowerment, mentoring and supportive services. The program has a resource center, open daily during the week, with counselors and a play area for children. It also includes biweekly seminars for new fathers called "Boot Camp for New Dads." Since inception, 339 have graduated from this seminar. Also offered is a weekly men's support group, and a Celebration of Fatherhood event held near Father's Day . Outcome Improvement Project Funds budget this program at $30,000, and the program receives several small grants. The indicator of success for this program has been participation, which has been increasing every year, and positive feedback from all segments of the population.

Many Calaveras County residents are located in the outlying regions of the county, making it difficult for them to access programs and services. Often, they were required to drive up to an hour one way to the county seat of San Andreas to obtain services from the county agency as well as from partner agencies. Calaveras Public Works and Human Services Agency partnered with the local hospital and its clinics to create outstations. Along with providing medical services, the outstations provided other aids, such as Food Stamps, cash aid and Medi-Cal. Six outreach sites were created. Outreach staff handles completed forms, which prevents over flooding the main offices. The budget was approximately $1,100 per outreach site, which was paid by the agency's operating budget. From February 2007 to January 2008, 4,706 clients were served, a 300 percent increase since the outstations opened the prior year. The county is now providing services and benefits to clients that would not otherwise have had access to them. The one-on-one service and small office atmosphere are appreciated by the community. The outstations are successful due to the inclusion of partner agencies working together to assist clients in remote areas.

Healthy Kids Mendocino is a public-private partnership with a mission to ensure that every child in Mendocino County has health insurance and access to health care. More than 2,500 children in Mendocino County do not have access to health insurance. The result is poor health for children, problems with school performance, emotional stress and worry for parents, and financial stress on parents and the local health care infrastructure. Healthy Kids Mendocino was born out of a strong commitment by both public and private agencies to create a local solution to a national problem. A partnership has been created through First 5 Mendocino, the Alliance for Rural Community Health and the Mendocino County Health and Human Services Agency to bring healthcare to children in need. Healthy Kids Mendocino works with a network of community partners that includes community clinics, family resource centers, business owners, Chambers of Commerce, schools, private providers, individual donors and private foundations. This program runs on an annual budget of $417,511. Funds come from the various agencies affiliated with this program. Since inception, Healthy Kids Mendocino has supported the enrollment and retention of more than 1,800 children into the health insurance program.

Residents in Nevada County seeking public assistance were having to continually attend appointment after appointment to receive the help that they required. Nevada County Department of Social Services and community clinics received a grant from Northern Sierra Air Quality Management District to implement a video conferencing system. This system enabled eligibility, employment and training workers to conduct interactive interviews to determine client eligibility. The cost of this project was $74,822, which included staff time and equipment at six different sites. With the help of the district, CalWORKs and in-kind donations, Video Eligibility was able to fund this project. The implementation of Video Eligibility has directly saved the department $80,000 per year, saving staff time and travel costs estimated at 70,000 miles per year. Now when a client comes to the county for services like drug rehabilitation, mental health issues or job training, he or she can be processed for eligibility the day they come for services. Video Eligibility has positively affected the community, significantly improved service delivery and provided overall costs savings to the Department of Social Services. The Department is looking to expand the service to other areas like independent living, veteran's services and the woman and infant children program.

First 5 Services funds services and system supports for children aged 0-5 and their families with a front-end, preventive methodology in order to create potential cost savings through avoidance of expensive crisis services. For example, this pro-active approach targets pregnant mothers to provide prenatal education and care in order to save the county the burden of caring for prematurely born infants. Some other services include homevisiting high-risk family to reduce need for foster care placements, school readiness programs for kindergarten entry, and BabyFirst Solano, which targets pregnant and parenting women with documented health disparities in birth outcomes. The cost savings considered are conservative estimates only; it stands to reason that such preemptive methods create future potential savings to the legal, health care and special education services that will be less burdened as more children are served early on. In 2006/07, 98 percent of the 133 children served in the family support initiative remained out of foster care and 22 babies of high-risk mothers participating in BabyFirst Solano were born substance-free.

The Drug-Exposed Infant Program in Tulare County was established to create a seamless, coordinated system of care for drug-exposed infants, whether identified in-utero or after birth. Drug-exposed infants and their families require a wide array of social services and impel new alliances among diverse agencies and providers. The community has always had programs/services that address many of the issues faced by drug-exposed infants, but they previously stood alone. The budget for the initial planning of the Drug-Exposed Infant Program was $140,000; other funding comes from grants, leveraged funds and volunteer contributions. Since its inception, the program has resulted in a stronger and less frustrating pathway for families and service providers to navigate the multiple resources, thus maximizing the effectiveness of all. A single, uniform intake was developed for hospitals, government agencies and private non-profits. A Web-based database was developed to track these children and families across multiple systems. The program has provided comprehensive case management to 32 percent of the 806 High-Risk Infant Program referrals that were identified as drug-exposed. The work done by this collaborative was documented and released as a model for other counties in a booklet "Drug-Exposed Infant Strategic Plan and System of Care 2007."

The Faith Initiative is a unique partnership between the Social Services Agency and faith leaders to recruit and engage foster and adoptive families for youth. Currently, the Alameda County has about 2,500 youth in foster care, only six percent of which are in county-licenses home. In 1995, the county had approximately 1,000 county-licensed foster homes and in 2007, there were about 250, a 75 percent reduction. The county's lack of foster care and adoption homes leads to youth being placed in higher levels of care than necessary at financial cost to the Social Services Agency and great emotional cost to youth. In addition, youth are staying in foster care much longer than needed. In 2005, the Faith Advisory Council was formed. Their goal is to recruit 400 licensed foster homes by 2009. Their main strategies are to launch multimedia social marketing campaign and develop an outreach training program. The cost to the county is $264,000 per year for three years. However, the council is an effective recruitment tool, which in the long run saves money in placement and treatment costs. The council has licensed 175 homes in less than two years.

A significant percentage of minority residents in Los Angeles County have a negative opinion of law enforcement or view them as adversaries, instead of a critical resource and an important part of our communities. As a result, many youth are very reluctant to collaborate with their local public safety agencies. In an effort to improve the youth's perception of public safety and introduce public safety as a possible career for youth, the South County Community Services Agency Crime Scene Investigation Teen Camp was created. This six-week program teaches youth about the duties performed by law enforcement. It includes partnership with the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department, the Los Angeles Police Department, the county Office of Public Safety, the Los Angeles Unified School District and the California Highway Patrol. Subjects covered included crime scene reconstruction, tracking, bomb disposal, arson investigation, finger-printing and DNA analysis. The estimated cost of this program was $25,000. However, as a result of the collaboration between the departments involved, the actual cost was $3,088. The participants have become more active in their communities through service projects and employment. Also, participants appear more comfortable when law enforcement is present. Moreover, several graduates are currently pursuing education and careers in public safety.

The Code Enforcement Department of Riverside County developed the model for Community Impact Plans, a five-point strategy that uses the best concepts from Community Policing and Improvement Programs. For the past few years, code enforcement has become an important asset to address public health and safety. In the face of increased foreclosed and abandoned homes, blight and the subsequent health and safety issues have become more prevalent and an adversary for Code Enforcement. Violations such as abandoned vehicles, trash and debris, dilapidated buildings, dry vegetation on vacant properties and illegal signs bring blight to unincorporated communities. The Community Impact Plans encompass the characteristics of each community and take into account the history, demographics, zoning, and media outlets to ensure community involvement and a sense of pride for the residents as their wants and needs are considered. The plans consist of assessment and research, community involvement, education and outreach, clean-ups and pro-active enforcement. Feedback from residents is positive, common code violations have been significantly reduced, and internal management of the department has improved. In addition, the Code Enforcement Department is perceived as playing an active role in solving neighborhood problems.

The Open Access Health Care for Foster Children program was designed by Inland Empire Health Plan and the Riverside Department of Public Social Services to provide a uniquely tailored, organized and continuous system of care as an alternative to Fee-For-Service Medi-Cal for foster children. Previously, foster children lacked continuity of medical care due to their high mobility rate and frequent need to access care. Foster parents faced the daunting task of managing a child's particular health needs for each placement. Open Access Health Care for Foster Children significantly increases the ease of access to care for foster children. It provides a network of primary care physicians that allows foster children to change providers instantaneously, with continuous tracking in the system. An advice line allows foster parents to get medical advice after hours. Foster children also have access to a network of 32 urgent care facilities, and for specialty care, the health plan has contracts with 1,300 specialists. Current enrollment is approximately 2,500 foster children. Data shows that children in the Inland Empire Health Plan return better results in the Well Child visits and Emergency Room visits compared to those in the general Medi-Cal plan.

When disaster strikes, the county is responsible for coordinating with other agencies to provide services to residents spread out over 4,000 square miles. During the 2007 wildfires, residents lost homes and cars, making it difficult to travel to locations from which they could receive aide. In response, the county established local assistance centers to provide "one-stop-shops" for fire victims to apply for aide and to interface with local, state, federal and other agencies that provide services. A host of services is required to operate and maintain the assistance centers, including procurement, regional vendors and information technology. The County Firestorm Recovery Team provided oversight, direction, and support for the centers and daily reports from the team were analyzed to assess and determine future actions. Each center required a manager, assistant manage, public information officer, client intake staffers and others from the county. While this program is relatively expensive, it is an essential tool to help communities respond and recover after serious emergency situations. Between October 25 and November 17, 2007, the county local assistance centers served 24,092 fire survivors. In addition, the centers provided the county and other agencies with timely information about the needs of fire-affected communities.