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Date: May 2, 2024
Contact: Communications.dhs@odhsoha.oregon.gov
I am pleased to share the Oregon Department of Human Services (ODHS) post-legislative session overview, which includes some important gains for ODHS and the people we serve. Among these gains are investments that will increase families’ access to food and financial resources, support youth in foster care who have complex needs, and enhance customer service across multiple parts of our agency.
For example, one key investment will allow us to roll out the new Summer EBT program in 2024, providing food benefits to families during the summer months when children lose access to school meals. Another will increase the maximum cash benefit available to survivors of domestic violence through the Temporary Assistance for Domestic Violence Survivors (TA-DVS) program, providing more of the critical resources families need to move into safe housing.
Other session highlights include investments that will allow us to:
• Provide housing supports to older adults and people with disabilities who receive long-term services and supports.
• Continue critical efforts in Child Welfare to prevent youth in foster care from experiencing temporary lodging.
• Plan and implement technology that will better serve providers working with people with intellectual/developmental disabilities.
• Fill longstanding staffing gaps in Central Services, shoring up our business infrastructure and ensuring it can adequately support ODHS staff as they serve Oregonians in communities around the state.
• Fill additional gaps in the Office of Resilience and Emergency Management (OREM) so it can continue ensuring older adults, people with disabilities, Oregon Tribal Nations and other disproportionately impacted communities can stay safe during and after emergencies.
Of course, these gains could not have been realized without the hard work of our staff and partners and the support of the Legislature and the Governor’s Office. Across our programs, staff worked tirelessly over the short session to ensure lawmakers had the information they needed to move vital human services legislation to the Governor’s desk for signing into law.
I also am especially grateful to our staff working in local offices all around the state, translating investments like these into positive outcomes for Oregon communities and Oregon Tribes. It’s through their day-to-day commitment to building well-being, guided by our Equity North Star, that our collective work moves forward.
With gratitude,
Fariborz Pakseresht
Director, Oregon Department of Human Services
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Agency-wide strategic planning is a new process for ODHS. It’s an opportunity to document the important work underway to better serve people and families, as well as set measurable goals to be completed within a 3-year timeline.
ODHS’s strategic plan focuses on fixing or improving our core functions. The Strategic Plan goal areas are equity, Tribal relationships, technology, data, workforce, operations and cross-program collaboration.
The draft plan, available on the ODHS website, is based on existing input from staff, partners and communities. The plan focuses on shoring up our foundations including providing excellent customer service and fulfilling commitments to communities, Tribes and people we serve. This is largely internal work which will help us work together to serve people better.
ODHS will engage community and staff during the implementation of the plan, which will begin in June 2024.
This year’s Child Abuse Prevention Month theme, Doing Things Differently: Moving from the Challenge to the Change, emphasizes the importance of innovative prevention-based approaches to supporting children and families. The Oregon Department of Human Services (ODHS) is committed to advancing programs that address poverty and other challenges families face that could put children at risk.
A few key highlights from the full message, available on the ODHS website:
- To expand the agency’s child abuse prevention efforts, ODHS is working with the Doris Duke Foundation to establish the Opt-in for Families initiative in Oregon which will be supported by a $9 million investment by the foundation.
- April also marks the Oregon Child Abuse Hotline’s (ORCAH) fifth anniversary. ODHS centralized ORCAH in 2019 to change the former model of localized child abuse reporting, multiple hotline numbers and lack of operational coordination to an updated model based on national best practices. With centralization of the Oregon Child Abuse Hotline, wait times to report abuse reduced by an average of one minute, 59 seconds, down from the 2022 average wait time of two minutes, 42 seconds.
- Other ODHS initiatives to prevent and address child abuse include family coaching programs and improved tracking of caseload ratios to ensure caseworkers have adequate time to connect families to prevention-related services. For more information on 2023 work to support children in families in Oregon, see the Oregon Child Welfare Assessment Findings Report published by Public Knowledge.
The Oregon Department of Human Services (ODHS) Office of Resilience and Emergency Management (OREM) recently closed the Resilience Hubs and Networks Grant application window.
The $10 million of funding comes from the 2023 Oregon Legislature to build resiliency within communities. More than 700 applications were submitted.
“This grant money is part of a long-term goal of having our communities create resiliency so they can prepare for, respond to and recover from disasters. With this grant a community can design what they need to be resilient. Thank you to everyone who applied. We can already see that communities are engaging in very innovative projects,” Ed Flick, OREM Director said.
Funding announcements will be made in early June.
To learn more about the Resilience Hubs and Networks Grant, visit: https://www.oregon.gov/odhs/emergency-management/Pages/resilience-grants
The State Rehabilitation Council (SRC) works to ensure Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) is consumer driven and that available programs, services and resources result in competitive integrated employment.
The agenda includes program updates from VR Director Keith Ozols, project updates, partner updates and progress reports from SRC committees. See the full agenda for details. All SRC meetings are open to the public, and the SRC invites feedback about people’s experience with VR. The agenda includes time for public comment at 9:15 a.m. MT.
Public comment may be made during the meeting, with five minutes allotted per person. Comments may also be submitted in writing by April 26 to SRC Coordinator Kaire Downin at kaire.l.downin@odhs.oregon.gov. Full meeting message available on the SRC webpage.
Summer EBT is a new program to help families buy food for their children during the summer break from school. Starting in Summer 2024, families will get $120 for each eligible child to buy groceries during the summer months. Webpages in English and Spanish are now available with answers to common questions about the new food benefit program. Around 294,000 children in Oregon may be eligible for Summer EBT.
The Summer EBT food benefits will be put on an Oregon EBT card (Oregon Trail Card) that families can use to buy food at grocery stores, farmers markets and other places that accept EBT cards. Children who receive Summer EBT can still participate in other summer meal programs. Getting Summer EBT will not affect a family’s immigration status.
More resources to share information with households that may have eligible children are coming soon. Oregon Department of Human Services (ODHS) will offer Summer EBT in partnership with the Oregon Department of Education (ODE).
Join us on Thursday May 16, 2024 at noon for a Spanish virtual event with five Latina leaders.The Latina leaders will share valuable information and resources available for families that are parenting a child with a developmental disability, including bilingual parent support groups across the state.
To join the event, simply go to our Spanish Facebook Page on May 16 at noon. No need to register.
Did you know ODHS also has a website completely in Spanish? The information on this website was translated by our staff, not a translation software to make sure it is the most helpful for our Spanish speaking communities. You can find the Spanish website by visiting servicioshumanos.oregon.gov
 ODHS Provider and Partner Resources
Oregon is better when all are celebrated and loved. An Oregon partner agency, Oregon Department of Justice, has launched You Belong, a campaign to share information about the confidential Bias Response Hotline. If you have experienced or witnessed a hate crime or bias incident, please contact Oregon’s confidential Bias Response Hotline at 1-844-924-BIAS (2427); make a report or chat with us online at StandAgainstHate.Oregon.gov.
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