Another successful Community Forum

We hosted another successful Community Forum yesterday on Transitional Living Services for older youth. These forums are opportunities for any community member to come together to openly discuss the theme topic and how our community is doing providing services to a target population, or around a certain family support need. We always have good, open community dialogues, and hopefully, can continue to help create a better community array of services from these beginnings.

Presentation before 2 staff meetings of DHHR

I made a presentation before staff meetings of DHHR employees yesterday. One group was the social service staff (CPS, YOuth Services, Adoption, adult services) which included many staff who we have regularly worked with over the years. The second meeting was WV Works and income maintenance/ economic services. I presented about all the services we do, our mission and community engagement efforts, and how some of our services and mission can benefit families they come in contact with. Tanny O'Connell, the new Regional Director of DHHR was also present to introduce herself to the District staff. I used the opportunity to put a further plug in for us receiving the go-ahead for 2 more beds at Gustke Shelter, as she is new, and may take a renewed interest in pursuing this. The Youth Service staff at DHHR have for a long time supported our attempts to increase the bed capacity from 8 to 10, but it has fallen on "bureaucratic" complications at the Bureau of Children and Families level.

Presentation before United Way funding committee

I presented our case before the United Way funding committee this week. We are trying to get a raise in their support of our after school program, and maintain the funding we receive for the shelter. We should hear in a few weeks.

Partners in Community Outreach

Ann and I attended the statewide meeting of Partners in Community Outreach this week. This is a group of community folks who provide the in home family education services in their community, under the three programs with proven impact, Parents as Teachers, MIHOW, and Healthy Families America. We were very pleased to attend and found it very informative. We also attended a press conference at Woman's and Children's Hospital on Safe and Sound Babies; a public awareness campaign about safe sleeping for babies, and shaken baby syndrome ("keep your cool.") This was a very positive and impressive press conference.

May!

April was an incredible month for CHS-Parkersburg in terms of activities to promote positive support to children and families in our community. It was exhausting in so many ways, and had its disappointments (in terms of some grants we DIDN'T get, to further our work), but all in all it re-affirmed many things about our mission and impact. Thanks to all the staff for their hard work; and thanks to our community partners and supporters for the so many ways you help us with our work and mission.

May is likely to prove similarly busy! Of note in May will be the agency's Council of Accreditation site visit the last week of the month. We expect Parkersburg to be a site visited. This every four year process gives the agency the opportunity to show that it meets national standards for quality of programs and agency organization and structure. There has been some very hard work going on to prepare for it, and we approach it with confidence, due to the dedication and commitment to quality that the agency holds. We note National Foster Care Month this month, and besides the day to day work of Ken, Greg (and in her absence due to her maternity leave, Carna!!) and Shelley's supervision of the program, we will have an event on Saturday May 8th at City Park in Parkersburg to commemorate the month. Statewide, there is a larger walk on Saturday May 15 in Charleston. Its called "Walk Me Home" and it is also a fund raiser for foster care in West Virginia. May also sees the meeting in Capon Springs of all the Partners in Prevention projects around the state. Lisa and Shauna will be attending this on our behalf, and really enjoy spending the time with the other projects' people, and the very strong state leadership for Prevent Child Abuse. May is also when the Alliance for Children hold their annual conference, and Shelley and I will be attending this conference in Charleston. The Alliance always puts together excellent workshops and sessions, bringing some of the most relevant topics to the leaders of the Alliance. Missy will be attending a grant writing workshop in Flatwoods this month, in hopes of gaining some skills and ideas for further our work here at CHS-Parkersburg. We will be holding two of our community forums this month; one on the 6th about Transitioning Living Services, and one on the 25th about the new Child Protective Service system (called "SAMS"). We will be having the "usual" Family Nights, life skills sessions, Glasser groups, youth activity nights and hosting various meetings, too! I will be attending the United Way funding request session to advocate and support for our allocation from the United Way. We are having a meeting this month to organize our local mailing list of community supporters, in preparation for beginning a quarterly site newsletter. Look for an update about the November auction event at the Art Center soon, too. Ann and I will be attending a statewide meeting of the Partners in Community Outreach, as well as the kick off event of "Our Babies: Safe and Sound" in Charleston on Tuesday.
And in the meantime, our staff daily/ weekly / monthly continue to serve hundreds of area children and families with the many ways that hopefully strengthen families, provide nurturance and promote the well being of children. Take a deep breath and get ready for a wild ride!

First Book

We had a presentation and planning session yesterday about the First Book program at our offices. This program is national in scope but works closely at the local level to simply "get books in the hands of children who otherwise might not have books." We are going to go ahead with plans to have a local program. Two of our staunch advisory council members, who have vast experience in education, were enthusiastic in support of us taking on this project. Ann Griffith is spearheading the effort for us. More information soon- see Ann or I for information about this project.

McKinley All Star Band concert last night

Fred Shreve and the McKinley All Star's Band performed a benefit concert for CHS-Parkersburg last night at Jefferson Auditorium. This was a big hit for a first time event. There were somewhere between 120- 150 people in attendance. Mostly folks new to CHS-Parkersburg and our Americana Music Series. They were mostly educators from the schools here, out to see their friends and cohorts perform. They put on a great show; including original songs written by Greg Syner and Fred Shreve, and some classic rock tunes that got everybody clapping and whooping it up. They were great showmen, engaging the audience, and solid in their musicianship and vocal harmonies. Fred had two funny songs portraying the life of a principal - one about boogers and one about pinworms, that were big hits with the audience. Both Greg and Fred can pull the heart strings with some sentimental songs about families, relationships, growing old. The "cover tunes" were well done, getting reactions from the audience, and done with lots of pep and enthusiasm. Their song selections and pacing the show, and use of multiple encore numbers showed a good sense of connecting to an audience. We raised over $800 to support our neighborhood work, which is closely tied with McKinley school, so everyone was happy with the event. We made some good future contacts with educators in the community, due to this generous offering of a benefit show by Fred and his bandmates.