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As we near the end of June, which is National Reunification Month as well as Pride Month, I want to recognize the people, partnerships and efforts that help families stay together. June is also an opportunity to recognize the impact that LGBTQIA2S+ individuals have had on history and to work toward inclusive environments throughout the child welfare system.
There is a reason reunification is the primary plan. We know infants, children, adolescents and young adults do best growing up in a family that can provide love, support, life-long lessons, shared values and important memories. The Child Welfare Division Vision for Transformation emphasizes that our work is centered on supporting, preserving and strengthening families.
In 2021, 1,682 children were able to be reunified with their families. Our communities always play an essential role in supporting families and children and I want to thank you for the role you play in helping reunification and family engagement efforts. I also want to share how grateful I am to celebrate Pride and Oregon's second official Juneteenth. We cannot do this work without you and we are all better together!
Warmly,
Rebecca Jones Gaston, Child Welfare Director
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Unboxing Day means more than just unboxing shoes for children in foster care living in Polk, Yamhill and Marion counties
In 2017, Bryan McMullin and Micah Sicho decided to start Heart to Soles to give back to their community which includes Polk, Yamhill and Marion counties (District 3). They do this by providing shoes for children in care. Partnering with ODHS and Boys & Girls Club, Heart to Soles held an “Unboxing Day” June 5 for children and young people in foster care. It’s called an “Unboxing Day” because in sneaker culture when you get a new pair of shoes, you are unboxing them. “Sneakerheads” will post unboxing videos on YouTube to showcase cool, new and rare shoes. So, McMullin and Sicho wanted to capture that type of magic when a child opens up their shoe box or gets a specific pair of shoes they want.
Heart to Soles takes pride in the quality and style of shoes they make available and they want children to feel that magic as well. Janet Herb, District 3 Resource Developer who helped plan this event, said they worked hard to make all children and families feel included. All the volunteers had pronouns on the name tags and the tags came with a variety of skills listed such as being able to speak different languages or were trained to work with children with high needs. Each child was also assigned a personal shopper that was specifically matched their needs. A local hair stylist also came out to provide haircuts for the children and other community members. The unboxing event was a success with 135 pairs of shoes and 70 haircuts given out.
This is Heart to Soles fourth year of serving the District 3 communities and they have provided 1,200 shoes so far to children in care. While Heart to Soles only have a few events a year, the events are all crafted to provide a special experience for children and families. Heart to Sole’s vision is to empower children in foster care to have choice in their lives, such as choosing the shoes they want regardless of price and to have any labels these children carry with them fall off for a few hours during the event. The events have been so successful, Heart to Soles is planning to expand to Multnomah County. Until then, you can learn more about Heart to Soles on their website.
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Each month, a public report detailing specific measures of progress of the prior month is sent to Governor Kate Brown and posted online. For the month of April, some key data includes:
- The number of Oregon Child Abuse Hotline (ORCAH) contacts in April was 14,582 which was a decrease by 4 percent over March. Average call wait time decreased from 3:43 to 3:33 minutes.
- Facilitators of Child Welfare's new Resource and Adoptive Family Training (RAFT) series completed facilitator training on using new curriculum.
- In April, the number of children in foster care decreased by 21 from February, continuing a downward trend in the last several years.
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The Parent Advisory Council (PAC) is comprised of parents who have had a child welfare case, are in recovery, and are now leaders in their community. The PAC meet monthly with state leadership in Child Welfare to bring the ground truth of how families experience child welfare services in real time, with culturally diverse membership across six different Child Welfare districts across the state. The PAC is supported by Morrison Child & Family Services, who provide staff to facilitate and Peer Parent Mentors to participate on the council. PAC members are routinely asked to provide feedback on new concepts, program initiatives and documents from the lens of parents’ lived expertise. For example, over the past two years, the PAC has lead training, shared parent stories, and answered questions for all new resource families in Oregon to work toward improving relationships between resource families and biological parents. All PAC members believe that change is possible for all people, parents do recover, and that reunification is achievable for all families. If you are a parent interested in learning more about joining the PAC, please contact the PAC co-facilitators, Stacy Rivera (Stacy.Rivera@morrisonkids.org) or Daniel Pallas (Daniel.Pallas@morrisonkids.org). |
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Child Welfare has been building a continuous quality improvement (CQI) program. We are exploring data to identify outcomes of children and families involved with Child Welfare for improvement. Data will also be used to follow improvements and evaluate the efficacy of the plans and interventions created by staff, managers, community partners, resource families, persons with lived child welfare experience and Tribal Nations. Using data to inform our work is critical to the success of our Child Welfare Division Vision for Transformation. In February 2022, Child Welfare formed the CQI Advisory Committee to establish and create a Data Equity Vision. Sixty percent of the committee are individuals from the community. In July, the committee’s work will shift to supporting the implementation of the Data Equity Vision and the larger Child Welfare CQI program. We are seeking community members to support this continued work. The time commitment is for one year, meeting two times a month; meetings last for approximately one hour. If you are interested in joining, please complete the intake form or reach out to Alysia Cox, the Child Welfare Deputy Chief of Strategy and Innovation or Jennifer Ricks, the Child Welfare CQI Manager at CWCQI@dhsoha.state.or.us.
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ODHS Washington County is actively recruiting volunteers to assist with our Child Welfare, Self Sufficiency Programs (SSP), Aging and People with Disabilities (APD) and Vocational Rehab programs! Some of our current needs include:
- Driving children to school, home, appointments and other transportation needs
- Assisting counter-facing positions in SSP and APD with reception and office support
- Supervision of children in office
- Sorting and organizing donated items
Please share and/or refer any friends, family, or interested parties to the WashingtonCounty.Volunteer@dhsoha.state.or.us inbox for more information, or to sign up for volunteering opportunities!
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Do you have ideas for the next issues? Submit photos and videos of your work to ChildWelfare.Director@dhsoha.state.or.us. |
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