Dear Community Partners,

The WCCP is pleased to bring you this edition of the "Partnerships E-Newsletter" and invites you to read about the exciting community collaborations occurring in Washington County.


Sincerely,

Stephanie Stone, WCCP Director

The 2007-2008 Maryland Model for School Readiness data was recently released, and the Washington County Community Partnership for Children & Families (WCCP) is excited to report, that 69% of Washington County's young children demonstrated the skills, behaviors, and abilities that are needed to meet kindergarten expectations successfully. This is a 4% increase over last year's data. When grouping the kindergartners by pre-school experience, there are some notable increases in school readiness over the last five years for children served by Head Start, Family Child Care providers and Washington County Public Schools pre-kindergarten. When comparing the 2003-2004 school year with the current year, there has been a 23% increase in students fully ready for school that attended Head Start before entering kindergarten.

The WCCP wishes to express thanks to all the early childhood stakeholders for working together to make this happen. To view the full report on Washington County, please click here.

The Washington County Community Partnership for Children & Families (WCCP) recently awarded several service providers for the provision of clinical services that are geared toward preventing teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections to both male and female youth. Below, is a summary of each of these projects.

Tri-State Community Health Center, Inc. - $21,244.00
The primary focus of this project is to augment Tri-State Community Health Center's current clinical services through three strategies: 1) Outreach, 2) Individual Case Management and 3) Education. Outreach will include provision of teen-focused and friendly brochures, posters and other marketing materials, collaboration with teen-focused businesses/community organizations and holding a community health fair promoted to youth that will concentrate on teen pregnancy prevention. Individual Case Management includes utilization of a case manager/nurse to provide additional one-on-one education focusing on skill development and behavior modification. Education will include the education of physicians and midlevel providers on the project and provision of appropriate educational materials and discussion with local teen groups.

Community Free Clinic - $22,944.00
This funding will allow the Clinic to schedule weekly teen clinics instead of only twice a month. Additionally, the funding will be used to purchase education materials such as videos and audio/visual equipment to be used for educational purposes during waiting periods at the Clinic. This funding will also enable the Clinic to offer educational workshops exclusively to teens. Finally, the Clinic plans to develop a "Teen Tool Kit" with teen-oriented literature.

Community Free Clinic - $22,527.00
The Clinic will utilize these funds to print signage for placement on County Commuter buses for a year and to continue radio ads on WILD 96.7 (Hip Hop). The goal is to expand the number of teens using their services by attracting additional sexually active teens to their services.

Recently, the Governor's Office for Children (GOC) announced a Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA). The purpose of this NOFA is to provide funding for local jurisdictions through their Local Management Board (LMB) to:

1. Develop and/or expand home and community-based services for children who have serious mental health and developmental disabilities so that they can remain in their homes. In FY 2008, the GOC, on behalf of the Children's Cabinet, will disburse a minimum of 1.3 million dollars in resource development funding for this purpose. These one-time only funds shall be used to finance start-up costs, as described in this NOFA, for needed services as identified by each jurisdiction submitting a proposal in response to this NOFA.

2. Support community capacity building that will enhance a jurisdiction's ability to serve children and families. Funding is potentially available to support one-time expenditures for a target population that is at-risk of an out-of-state placement or in-state residential placement. The amount of funding that may be awarded for these projects in FY 2008 is undetermined at this time and there is no guarantee that funding will be available for these projects.

The Washington County Community Partnership for Children & Families (WCCP) will be working with Local Coordinating Council members to develop a proposal. The WCCP will keep the community abreast of any developments in this process.

The second installment of the Western Maryland Family Leadership Institute (FLI) was held on March 15 in Hancock. There were 11 families in attendance during this installment. All in attendance indicated that the training was worthwhile. Marie Niarhos, Family Leadership Institute Director, expressed that the "Western Maryland FLI was a success and made a difference for the participating families."

The Maryland Coalition of Families for Children's Mental Health does a statewide FLI each year that takes place over six weekends from January through May. Designed to inform, train and empower families to be advocates in their communities and in the State, the FLI, is an intensive program for families caring for a child with mental health needs. Prominent speakers, policy-makers and advocates address the class on topics ranging from special education to skills-building. In addition to the knowledge learned, participants develop a network of friendship and support that lasts well beyond the formal Leadership Institute.

The Western Maryland FLI was a miniature version of the statewide training.