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Directors, NCSSA, NCACBSS,
The Child Welfare Interim Committee is going as well as can be hoped. They have met twice (Nov 5, 6) and will be meeting again some time in January (most likely second week). Most of the time has been spent in presentations to members to help educate them about the work of CPS . Susan Osborne, Director of Alamance county and Joe Lasinger, CPS supervisor in Johnston county, presented on Wednesday Nov 5th. Both did an AMAZING job of conveying the complexity and challenges of CPS work. The legislative members frequently made reference the rest of Wednesday and into Thursday to both of their presentations. JoAnn Lamm with state DSS also provided a great presentation that helped members understand the process of a CPS report and the basic workings of MRS.
Why is it going so well? - COLLABORATION!! Our Association partnered with the State DSS and the Covenant for NC's Children to make sure that we were providing the same message to the members again and again. We coordinated the information provided in the presentation on the first two days to be sure that our message was heard repeatedly (See attached priority items). We met with the co-chairs and some of the members ahead of time to help educate them about CPS. Many Directors have individually met with their legislators ahead of time to help prepare them for committee.
The meetings ended Thursday Nov 6th in the afternoon by each committee member expressing what he/she hoped to see come from the committee. What we heard consistently from them that was needed:
1. Statewide case management computer system
2. Better access to state and national criminal record checks
3. Enhanced efforts to educate, recruit, and retain qualified social workers
We will be meeting with committee members between now and the next meeting to help reinforce the above mentioned needs along with encouraging the support for MRS. If you have any questions or want detailed information about the committee please feel free to contact me.
Thanks,
