It
is a bittersweet time at the State CRCG Office as we say goodbye and good luck to
Fedora Galasso, our departing CRCG State Coordinator who has taken a new role
with the Community Partner Program. Fedora was instrumental in the initiation
and development of improved communications with CRCG partners, providing technical
assistance, and increasing the visibility of the CRCG program in Texas.
Filling
the CRCG State Coordinator position is Emily Sasser-Bray, a previous CRCG
intern. Emily is excited to return to CRCG in her new role. She possesses nine years of professional
experience in social services, is a Licensed Master Social Worker, and is
passionate about supporting children, youth, and families. Emily previously
worked as a Community Development Specialist with the Texas Home Visiting Program at the Health and Human
Services Commission (HHSC), which will merge with Prevention and Early
Intervention at the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS).
Emily also has experience as a
school-based social worker at Communities in Schools of Central Texas and as a
project manager at United Way of Greater Austin. Emily is enjoying her
first year of marriage and loves her dog Addy, yoga, and playing tennis. We expect a smooth transition in leadership
given Emily's experience and knowledge of the CRCG program, and Fedora's
ability to provide guidance through this change.
In
December 2015, the state welcomed graduate-level interns, Moriah Holmes and
Marilee Ponangi. Moriah has a Master's
in Social Work from Washington University in St. Louis and Marilee Ponangi has
a Master's in Medical Anthropology from Texas State University. Both interns are working hard to improve
technical assistance and communication for local CRCGs.
Strengthening
Youth and Families Conference
The
12th annual Strengthening
Youth and Families (SYF) Conference will be November 7-10, 2016, at the
Sheraton Arlington Hotel in Arlington, Texas.
Strengthening Youth and Families is the only interagency-funded, annual
conference for youth-serving professionals; attracting over 300 attendees who unite
for networking and professional development. Submit a workshop
proposal by April 29, 2016, to present at this event. (Conference registration will open in
August.) Additional information,
including room rate and reservation options,
can be found on the conference Facebook page. CRCG Leadership Trainings are planned at this
event, so mark your calendars and stay tuned for more updates!
For
more information about the conference, please email
Tammy Holland.
CRCG
Website
CRCG Leader Contact Information: The CRCG website
now has an online form to
update your local CRCG leadership contact information. Please help us keep our contacts up-to-date
by filling out this form when you have leadership changes in your CRCG. Accurate contact information is very
important so that local CRCGs and other agencies can make appropriate referrals. Through these efforts, we can make sure every
CRCG receives the news and information they need.
In
March, we also updated the county contacts under "Find a Local
CRCG." Please make sure your
county's contact information is accurate.
If you see an inaccuracy, please fill out the "Update
CRCG Leader" form or send us an email.
CRCG Data Entry:
The forms to enter data about your local CRCG meetings and staffings were
recently updated. Please remember to enter
your data after every meeting. If you haven't entered data, now is a great
time to start! It's important that local
CRCGs provide data so the State CRCG Office can identify the:
- Number of individuals served by a CRCG.
- Most pressing service needs.
- Services and resources available in each area.
- Agencies and organizations involved with CRCGs.
- Any gaps or barriers that prevent service needs from being fully
addressed.
If you have any questions about data submission, please email the State CRCG Office.
Have
you heard? There is an open invitation
for CRCG members to visit Waco Center for Youth (WCY) and receive a guided
tour. If your CRCG ever considers
referring clients to WCY, or would just like to learn more about the services
they offer, this is an exciting opportunity to learn first-hand.
Janette
Maldonado-Johnson, along with nine other members from the Anderson and Cherokee
County CRCG, visited WCY in January 2016.
Janette stated that "the tour was fantastic" and they strongly
recommend a visit to WCY for any agency that refers children to their facility. "The staff was fabulous and they
answered all our questions and concerns… [We] were grateful that [we] were able
to go and see the facility. [The visit
put] us more at ease about when our CRCG refers a youth to [WCY]," said
Janette.
The
State CRCG Office team, along with Rick Moss from the McLennan County CRCG,
visited WCY in February 2016. WCY staff
gave a guided tour of the grounds, answered questions, and provided the chance
to meet with some of the counseling staff.
The facility is beautiful and well equipped with an auditorium, a horse
stable, a chaplain department with a youth band, a family room for socializing
with parents and siblings, and a school where residents continue their
education during treatment and can graduate from high school.
The
staff at WCY want to strengthen their relationship with local CRCGs by
increasing their participation in the aftercare service planning for youth. WCY strives for a smooth transition to
community-based support with the help of the local CRCG, following residential
treatment. Since parental permission
must be granted for WCY to share information with a CRCG, local CRCG members
are encouraged to work with families interested in continued support following
WCY discharge. Staff from WCY state that
they regularly use the CRCG website to find local contacts when planning
aftercare.
Continuity
of care can be a complicated process. We
plan to host a webinar in the future about this topic, so stay tuned for
updates!
The grounds at Waco Center for Youth
Fedora with Annie the horse
The visiting group and guides from Waco Center for Youth- Marilee Ponangi, Moriah Holmes, Rick Moss, Fedora Galasso, Monica Lucas, and Janice Kelly
If
you are interested in a visit to WCY, please contact Janice Kelly, Aftercare
Coordinator, at (254) 754-5161 or by email at Janice.Kelly@dshs.state.tx.us. More information about Waco Center for Youth
can be found on their website.
Send
your collaborative success stories to be highlighted in the coming newsletters
to the CRCG Email Box.
CRCG Bridge Call Series
The
State CRCG Office offers a monthly bridge call for Local CRCG chairs and
members to receive peer-to-peer support, share ideas, discuss challenges, and
network. Each call focuses on a
particular topic relevant to local CRCGs.
Our next bridge call is scheduled on
April 12, 2016, at 2:00 pm CST/1:00 pm MDT. We hope you can join us to
participate in the discussion.
To
participate, please see the conference call information below:
Dial
in number: (877) 226-9790 Access
code: 7541054
Upcoming Bridge Call
Schedule
- Tuesday, April 12, 2016, from 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM CST / 1:00 PM -
2:00 PM MDT
- Tuesday, May 10, 2016, from 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM CST / 1:00 PM - 2:00
PM MDT
Mark
your calendars for the upcoming bridge calls and join us for collaborative
discussion!
CRCG Webinar Series
The State CRCG Office
offers a webinar series for Local CRCG chairs, members, and other interested
persons to highlight state agency partners and provide training on key
statewide initiatives and programs that help serve individuals involved with
CRCGs. Each webinar focuses on a topic
relevant to local CRCGs.
New
webinars are in development and schedules will be sent out in the near future.
If you have suggestions for future webinar topics, please email us at CRCG@hhsc.state.tx.us.
In this section we highlight updates from the eleven CRCG State Agency
partners to hear about opportunities, new resources, and policy changes.
Health and Human
Services Commission (HHSC)
HHS Transition Plan Delivered,
Ready for Review
A high-level plan
laying the foundation for a restructuring of the Texas Health and Human
Services (HHS) System was submitted to a legislative oversight committee and was
the subject of a public hearing at the State Capitol on March 31, 2016.
The HHS System
Transition Plan is being reviewed by the HHS Transition Legislative Oversight
Committee (TLOC), the Legislative Budget Board, and the Offices of the
Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Speaker of the House. The plan is also
posted on the HHSC website for public review.
The transition plan
outlines the process toward a transformed and restructured HHS system. The concepts and functional charts featured in
the plan were largely developed by 13 staff workgroups with input from a
variety of sources. These sources
include HHS agency stakeholders who provided comment through eight regional
stakeholder meetings and an online survey.
More than 4,400 HHS employees provided feedback via the online survey.
The workgroups also
used data from a system-wide functional review, in addition to input from
leadership from each of the five HHS agencies to guide development of the
proposed restructuring.
View
the recording of the March 31, 2016 TLOC public hearing here.
Texas Workforce Commission (TWC)
The newly formed Purchasing from People with Disabilities Advisory
Committee held its first meeting in Austin on Friday, January 22, 2016. The 13-member Committee will provide
recommendations to TWC on matters related to the Texas Purchasing from People
with Disabilities program. The Texas
Purchasing from People with Disabilities program is dedicated to furthering the
state’s policy of encouraging and assisting people with disabilities to achieve
independence by engaging in useful, productive employment activities. Under the
program, individuals with severe disabilities create products and/or perform
services through Community Rehabilitation Programs (CRPs).
The Advisory Committee members assist in establishing performance
goals for the Purchasing from People with Disabilities program and establish
criteria for certifying CRPs. S.B. 208, 84th Legislature, Regular
Session, 2015, transferred oversight of the program from the Texas Council on
Purchasing from People with Disabilities (TCPPD) to TWC.
More information about
the Committee can be found on the TWC website: http://www.twc.state.tx.us/purchasing-people-disabilities.
For additional information, contact the
following CRCG TWC representative:
Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA)
TDHCA,
along with its partners, HHSC, local service providers, and local housing
developers, are implementing the Texas Section 811 Project Rental Assistance
(PRA) Program. Section 811 PRA provides
project-based rental assistance to extremely low-income persons with
disabilities as they receive community-based, long-term services and supports. Texas was awarded $24 million from the U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) under the Section 811 PRA
Program to provide rental assistance to over 600 households.
Currently,
TDHCA is working with 18 properties that include 192 units for Section 811 PRA
Program households. Please see below for
links to the Uniform Multifamily Application and Section 811 PRA Program's
Request for Applications.
The
Section 811 PRA Program also supports households that meet the income
guidelines for the area in which they want to live (the greater of the Federal
Poverty Line or 30 percent of the Area Median Income), must meet the disability
definition of the program and be a member of the target population, which
includes:
- Individuals transitioning from nursing
facilities and Intermediate Care Facilities for Persons with Intellectual and
Developmental Disabilities;
- Individuals who receive behavioral health services
through Department of State Health Services (DSHS); and
- Youth and young adults with disabilities
exiting foster care who receive services through Department of Family and
Protective Services (DFPS).
Qualified
households who are interested in participating in the program must go through a
trained Section 811 Referral Agent. More
information can be found on the TDHCA Section 811 PRA webpage: http://www.tdhca.state.tx.us/section-811-pra/index.htm
For
more information, please contact your CRCG TDHCA representative:
Department of State Health Services (DSHS)
Children with Special
Health Care Needs Services Program:
The Children with Special Health Care
Needs (CSHCN) Services Program at DSHS partners with community-based
contractors across Texas to provide support for families with children and
youth with complex medical needs. Services
may include in-home or center-based respite, parent to parent connections,
educational training and workshops, support groups, and more. (Not all services
are available in all parts of the state.) Case management for families is also available
through DSHS regional offices. Please visit the program’s website for more information
about these services.
The program’s website has
been updated to include a News
& Announcements page, information on Emergency
Preparedness specific to children and youth with special health care needs,
and a Toolkit
with resources on transitioning to adulthood. Additionally, the program
continues to lead two statewide workgroups that meet quarterly by
teleconference.
The next Medical Home
Workgroup call is on:
- Wednesday April 27, 2016, 12:00 –
1:30 pm.
For more information,
please contact your CRCG DSHS representative at the CSHCN Services Program:
Residential Treatment
Center Project:
DSHS and DFPS continue their successful collaboration in the
Residential Treatment Center (RTC) Project, to prevent parental relinquishment
of children due solely to a lack of mental health resources. As children are
successfully discharged from RTCs and reunified with their families, they can
be enrolled in the Youth Empowerment Services (YES) program through which they
receive ongoing community-based supports and services.
For some children, CRCG
meetings may also be scheduled to maximize the quality and quantity of
supportive services that will assist specific families. CRCGs provide
valuable contributions to the reunification process for children and families
in the RTC Project.
For more information,
please contact your CRCG DSHS representative:
Department of Assistive
& Rehabilitative Services (DARS)
DARS continues to work with HHSC and TWC on transitioning
its programs as required in S.B. 200, 84th Legislature, Regular
Session, 2015, and S.B. 208, 84th Legislature, Regular Session, 2015.
Transition teams comprised of
individuals from DARS, HHSC, and TWC continue to implement steps to ensure a
smooth transition of the following programs from DARS to TWC on September 1,
2016:
- Vocational Rehabilitation
- Business Enterprises of Texas
- Independent Living for Individuals who are Blind
programs
- Crisis Cole Rehabilitation Center
The following programs will be transferred from DARS
to HHSC on September 1, 2016:
- The Early Childhood Intervention
- Blind Children’s Discovery and Development Program
- Comprehensive Rehabilitation Services
- Blindness, Education, Screening and Treatment
- Independent Living Services
- Deaf and Hard of Hearing programs
- Disability Determination Services
H.B. 2463 84th Legislature, Regular
Session, 2015, directs DARS to consolidate the Independent Living (IL) programs
of the Division for Blind Services and of the Division for Rehabilitation
Services and to outsource the consolidated IL program to Centers for
Independent Living (CILs) or other organizations by August 31, 2016. DARS held public meetings in Fort Worth,
Midland, and San Antonio in February 2016, to take comments on the outsourcing
of the integrated IL program. More
information is available on the IL Outsourcing webpage, which is the central source of information on
this project for stakeholders.
For more information,
contact your CRCG DARS representatives:
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