Notes from the May 3, 2007 Convening

Attendees:

The following people attended the Child Welfare Network meeting on May 3, 2007 at the Las Vegas Country Club. Chris welcomed everyone and asked everyone to introduce themselves.

• Adrienne Cox – Adrienne Cox Consulting
• Chris Brooks – Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth
• Chris Sutherland – Sutherland ~ Edwards, LLC
• Dana Lee – Nevada Women’s Philanthropy
• Danielle Dreitzer – HACA
• Debbie Kehl – Center for Independent Living
• Denise Tanata – Nevada Institute for Children’s Research & Policy
• Flora Jackson – Southern Nevada Child Abuse Prevention Center
• Fran Marshall – FACT of Southern Nevada
• Gard Jameson – Children’s Advocacy Alliance
• Heather duBoef – Nevada Women’s Philanthropy
• Hilary Westrom – Ritter Charitable Trust
• Jackie Harris – Bridge Counseling
• Jennifer Bevacqua – Olive Crest
• Karen Taycher – Nevada P.E.P.
• Lien Bragg – Department of Family Services
• Nancy Gillis – Center for Independent Living
• Natalie Filipic – Nevada P.E.P.
• Phyllis Murray – Potosi Pines Camp
• Sheila White – Olive Crest
• Shelia Parks – CASA
• Stacey Wedding – Stacey Wedding & Associates

Legislative Updates & Other Announcements

• Stacey Wedding advised that 211 funding bill was still pending.
• Gard Jameson informed the Network that the Children’s Advocacy Alliance had approved an educator position for children’s issues for the next legislative session. It was noted that the best lobbying takes place before getting to Carson City.
• Gard Jameson shared that he was in Reno and has been trying to get reciprocity for mental heath professionals. Several individuals spoke to this and the fact that Nevada is the only state that does not have reciprocity, which is resulting in an artificial demand for services. In addition, individuals with great skills and education cannot be hired by local agencies. Many feel that we are at a crisis point with not enough services available.
• Associations that have issues with the reciprocity bill for mental health providers are the licensing boards for both Marriage and Family Therapists Board and Licensed Clinical Social Workers Board.
• Chris Sutherland asked the members of the Network whether they would like to speak with one voice on the reciprocity issue and everyone agreed. The next step will be meetings between the Alliance and the Associations with a report back to the Child Welfare Network. Hilary Westrom, Gard Jameson and Fran Marshall agreed to take the lead on this and create a position the Network can support moving forward.
• Denise Tanata Ashby, Executive Director of UNLV’s Nevada Institute for Children’s Research and Policy School of Public Health, shared with the group that her organization tracks bills and provides issue updates weekly. Specific issues can be pulled out and sent to the group. They can even assist with writing policy briefs and more. In the fall of 2007, the CAA educator, Denise Tanata Asbhy and Stacey Wedding will work together to provide a recap of the child welfare issues impacted by the legislative session. This recap will be presented at the next Network meeting. Denise also shared the fact that Every Child Matters is coming to Nevada (see attached flyer).
• The Children’s Mental Health Consortium is having a press conference on May 8th at Cheyenne High School in the library at 10:30 a.m. Everyone was invited to attend.
• Potosi Pines is partnering with the Foster Club to provide a life skills camp to youth 15+ years old.
• Gard Jameson shared with the group that the Children’s Advocacy Alliance has hired a web designer, and they may be able to have links to and from other websites. Stacey Wedding suggested that the Network consider establishing a web page or partnering with someone else to develop a web page to house information shared at these meetings. Gard offered to connect Stacey with the web designer.
• An Into the World book is being developed for Washoe and rural Nevada. This book will look different, so it will be easy to identify.
• The Ritter Charitable Trust is working on a few updates to the current version of Into the World. Rather than re-printing the books, these updates will be included on the inside cover. Complete updates will be available on www.alifebook.org.
• Stacey Wedding shared with the group that Child Focus had met with the Casey Foundation and they were very impressed with Into the World and would like to see it reproduced nationally. A partnership is being explored.

Small Work Group Updates

Independent Living — In the absence of Erin Cornelius, Adrienne Cox reported that there was a recent job fair with 75 youth and 20 various vendors.& Clark County is reviewing its independent living programs and re-looking at grants. Stacey Wedding suggested that the Committee not re-invent the wheel in its research and instead, tap into the knowledge of Hayley Jarolimek who used to be the State of Nevada’s Independent Living Coordinator.

Family Resources and Support — This group is going to wait to hear the findings from the Clark County Service Array Assessment before moving forward.

Further to the Service Array Assessment, Lien Bragg from Department of Family Services advised that her staff would come out and speak to groups at their location. She invited anyone to contact her who had a group of families or clients interested in hearing a presentation by DFS.

Youth Involvement — Erin Cornelius has been trying to reach out to youth. It was noted that it may be wise for this group to collapse into the Youth Advisory Council that already exists.

Vision & Mission Exercise

Chris Sutherland reminded the group that the Child Welfare Network is supported by the Nevada Community Foundation and the Ritter Charitable Trust but that the group needs to define its own mission. Chris led the group through an exercise to define the mission. Several people volunteered to assist with the final wording.

Closing