Dear Community Partners,

The WCCP has had community resource guides printed and is now accepting requests for a free copy or copies. If you are interested, please click here and email the number you'd like to request and how you intend to use them.

A PDF of the community resource guide can be accessed by clicking here.

Sincerely,

Stephanie Stone, WCCP Director

According to state law, on October 1, 2007, the Maryland Association of Local Management Boards submitted its first annual report highlighting the collective efforts of the 24 Local Management Boards to the House Ways and Means Committee, Senate Finance Committee and the Joint Committee on Children, Youth and Families. This legislative oversight is intended to ensure the implementation of a local interagency service delivery system for children, youth and families that provides a continuum of care that is family and child oriented, emphasizes prevention, early intervention and community-based services, and gives priority to children and families most at risk.

The report highlights programs from each jurisdiction that are positively impacting Maryland's Eight Results for Child Well-being: Babies Born Healthy; Healthy Children; Children Enter School Ready to Learn; Children Successful in School; Children Completing School; Children Safe in Their Families and Communities; Stable and Economically Independent Families; and, Communities That Support Family Life. It provides an overview of initiatives that are funded through the Children's Cabinet Interagency Fund, with the support of the Governor's Office for Children, as well as a synopsis of the creative strategies and initiatives that Local Management Boards (LMBs), along with their multitude of partners, have launched. The budget information included in the report provides an impressive illustration of the Children's Cabinet Interagency Fund dollars ($31,851,102) and additional funds leveraged ($31,455,210) by LMBs.

For example, in Montgomery County, using the wraparound model, over 350 children and youth with complex emotional and behavioral needs were successfully served with pooled resources from the Governor's Children's Cabinet, Governor's Offices for Children and Crime Control and Prevention, Montgomery County government, and Maryland Department of Juvenile Services. This pooled funding, particularly from the county government, enabled the wraparound eligibility criteria to expand to include early intervention for children who were not at the highest risk of out-of-home placement. Note: Wraparound is a definable planning process that results in a unique set of community services and natural supports that are individualized for a child and family to achieve a positive set of outcomes due to the complex needs of the children and families.

LMBs are more than dollars and programs. LMBs help children and families lead safe, healthy, and selfsufficient lives by providing leadership in the planning, coordination, and enhancement of services for children and families. LMBs facilitate collaboration across child-serving agencies, and promote effective partnerships with public and private stakeholders. With their partners, LMBs identify and prioritize human services needs, utilizing data driven decision making. Through a collaborative planning process, resources are directed to fill identified gaps and strengthen existing strategies within the service delivery system. For a copy of the full LMB report, click here.

The Children's Cabinet has recently approved the Three-Year Children's Plan. Please read the Executive Summary below to learn about the purpose of this document. To review the entire Three-Year Children's Plan, click here.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Three-Year Children's Plan provides a structure for collaborative work to improve child well-being in the State of Maryland. It delineates how the Children's Cabinet and the Governor's Office for Children will work with state agencies, Local Management Boards, private organizations, families, youth, and members of the community to achieve the Children's Cabinet vision that all Maryland's children will be successful in life. The plan emphasizes fiscal accountability and local responsibility.

This 2007 Three-Year Children's Plan Update builds on the first Three-Year Children's Plan, published in June 2006 and it will be integrated with the Interagency Strategic Plan upon its completion. Pursuant to executive order, the Governor's Office for Children, on behalf of the Children's Cabinet, must update the plan annually (Executive Order 01.01.2005.34). In creating this updated plan, the Children's Cabinet solicited recommendations from the Advisory Council for Children, and the Maryland Youth Council (both creations of executive order). See Executive Order 01.01.2006.03 and Executive Order 01.01.2006.10.

After considering recommendations from a variety of stakeholders, the Children's Cabinet agreed on the following goals for the updated Three-Year Children's Plan:

1) Develop a Comprehensive State Prevention Strategy

2) Implement the Ready by 21 Action Agenda

3) Build on Existing Foundations

The rest of this document includes:

· A description of all strategies and specific action steps related to the three goals for this updated 2007 Three-Year Children's Plan.

· Stakeholder recommendations that were considered in crafting the updated 2007 goals.

· Updated data on how Maryland is doing in the eight child well-being results.

· Major accomplishments of the original 2006 Three- Year Children's Plan.

The Maryland Coalition of Families for Children's Mental Health (Coalition) held their annual Family Day in Annapolis for Children's Mental Health on February 5, 2008. The Coalition organizes this event each year during the Maryland General Assembly's legislative session to bring the voice of families concerned about children's mental health to Maryland legislators. The Family Network and several concerned families from Washington and Allegany counties spent the day in Annapolis bringing the voices of western Maryland families concerned about children's mental health to Maryland legislators.

Teen Pregnancy Prevention Youth Development Funds - $20,000

The WCCP is excited to fund a new initiative which utilizes art, drama and education to impact social issues such as teen pregnancy prevention. Authentic Community Theatre, Inc. (ACT) will provide a Performing Arts Production with original script, music, and choreography. Middle school-aged youth will be invited to perform in the event and will contribute to its creation through collaborative efforts with the Creative Arts Team (CAT) of Authentic Community Theatre, Inc. The performance will be fun and informative and its goal will be to raise questions that will inspire dialogue between adults and youth. In addition, a weekend retreat will be offered on May 9th and 10th. This program will serve the needs of adults and youth on the topics of communication and healthy human sexuality. The retreat includes an opening drum circle to engage the participants and to create a fun sense of community. Presentations will be made by Dr. Childerston, Licensed Clinical Psychologist, ACT's Creative Arts Team (CAT), and the sex education content will be developed by ACT with support from the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Coalition, Inc. ACT will also produce Drama in Education programming for middle school-aged youth, which centers on life skills development. Through these new relationships, youth and their parents will be invited to participate in the retreat. Original works in drama and music on teen pregnancy prevention will be created for various community events such as the Tough Talk Health Forum.

Teen Pregnancy Prevention Parent Awareness Funds- $19,300

Authentic Community Theatre, Inc., with support from James Childerston, Ph.D., will facilitate a two-hour session, which educates parents of young children on how to begin a life-long conversation on human sexuality. Parents will be taught age appropriate responses to children's questions and how to initiate tender but imperative sexuality issues such as safe- guarding your child from sexual predators. Workshops on parent-child communication will also be developed for the faith-based community and the business community and will utilize issue based drama techniques as develop by ACT.

The WCCP will keep you apprised of these upcoming events as plans are finalized.

Funding for Clinical Services for Teens To Reduce Teen Pregnancy and Sexually Transmitted Infections Awarded

The Washington County Community Partnership for Children & Families (WCCP) recently awarded $13,285.20 to the Community Free Clinic for the provision of clinical services that are geared toward preventing teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections to both male and female youth.

The Community Free Clinic has operated a fully staffed Teen Pregnancy Prevention Clinic for the past two years. Presently the clinic can operate only twice a month due to budget and staff constraints. They served over 250 male and female teens last year during their flexible and confidential drop in clinics. All services are offered totally free. With this additional funding, they propose to increase the number of teen clients served through broader service availability, increased advertisement, and through increased outreach, educational materials and clinical supplies.