Historical Overview of the Kern County Network for Children
IMG hspace=7 src="http://wwwstatic.kern.org/images/kcnc/smjamesinglassescroppedcolo.jpg" align=right vspace=7> In 1992, a report authored by Children Now, a nonpartisan organization for children, identified Kern County Children as being among those most at risk of:
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A stated original goal of the Network was “to attain the combined commitment of all Kern County families, communities, and government entities to help build and sustain healthy families.” The primary means of achieving this goal was to include the identification of strategies, and subsequent recommendations for action to service providers and the Board of Supervisors, regarding policy, service delivery systems, budget priorities, and legislation that will improve the way we approach helping families become stronger.
Since the Network’s decisions and recommendations were to have a countywide impact, an essential key to its success was the inclusion of a diversified and committed membership of executive decision-makers.
| The County of Kern was also facing a looming budget crisis. For the first time, pink slips and “golden handshakes” were becoming a reality. Public agencies were under scrutiny on how poorly our children were doing while at the same time dealing with a reduction in budget and staff. There was also great frustration between agencies’ lack of coordination and collaboration to maximize efforts. Most services were located in Bakersfield, which often prevented families, especially those living in rural communities, from accessing them. Additionally, agencies often operated in isolation, competing to serve the same populations and duplicating efforts. Programs were designed with the best interest of the implementing agency in mind, instead of how services best fit into the larger service delivery system. As a result, clients were often caught in-between. There were often long waits for services, and cross-training of staff was identified as a real need. |
Original Mission, Philosophical Statement and Goals 1993
Original Mission Statement:
"To attain the combined commitment of all Kern County families, communities, and government entities to help build and sustain healthy families."
Original Philosophical Statement:
It is the belief of the KCNC that all children are valuable and that it is through the family and communities that children learn the skills to become productive and responsible members of society. All families and communities must be able to provide their children with the foundation to meet the challenges of growing up and becoming productive members of society. In order to strengthen the capacity of families and communities to deal effectively with the pressing problems of poverty, medical, mental and educational deficiencies, teen pregnancies, drug and alcohol abuse, child abuse, runaways, gang violence, and delinquency, the KCNC intends to develop available, affordable and accessible services and resources throughout Kern County.
Goals:
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Original KCNC Executive Committee "Statement of Purpose":
The Executive Committee shall advise the members of the Network regarding matters of policy and procedure, perform such duties as the Network assigns and act for the Network, between Network meetings, as is necessary and appropriate, with the understanding that such action shall be subject to modification by a majority vote of the Network.
Key attributes of the original KCNC Executive Committee:
- Risk takers
- Searching for ways to do things outside the box
- Mutual bond and trust factor amongst them (they were looking to make partnerships that were new and exciting)
- Fiscally responsible. They looked at what they had and how they could maximize resources (e.g., Mental Health gave Human Services match money to draw down more child welfare money)
Major KCNC Benchmarks Since 1992
- In September 1992 the Kern County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the resolution establishing the Kern County Network for Children (KCNC).
- In March of 1993 the KCNC successfully became a 501(c) (3)
- In 1993 the first Annual Children’s Summit was held and the Kern County Board of Supervisors proclaimed the week March 22-26, 1993 as “Children’s Awareness Week,” culminating in the Summit. The inaugural Summit was a first step in development of the KCNC’s initial action plan, based on small group discussions that took place at this event. Attendees during the afternoon session participated in a brainstorming session that helped to identify what was of the most importance to them. An example of an issue that was revealed was the need for a comprehensive information system that led to the development of HelpLine. The Summit was also the first venue to bring folks together from a variety of disciplines to receive training. The networking that occurred was amazingly powerful, and for the first time for many, names became faces and soon developed into working partnerships.
- In November 1994 the County of Kern entered into a Joint Powers Agreement with the Kern County Superintendent of Schools Office for the purpose of creating a Joint Power Authority to serve as the administrative agent for the KCNC.
- In March 1994 the KCNC, with the support of the Kern County Superintendent of Schools Office, published the first “Conditions of Children in Kern County Report.” This written report served as a comprehensive statistical report covering indicators of well-being of children in the field of education, social services, health, mental health, and juvenile justice. In 2000, this report was changed to a web-based report that appears on the KCNC’s web site so that information contained in this report is always current and technical assistance with data can be obtained easily from KCNC staff.
- In 1994 the Kern County Interagency Consent and Authorization form (common confidentiality form) was developed and adopted to help agencies share information and better serve families. By developing a single, comprehensive information release form for all agencies and schools, service providers can share the family history. Thus a) services from other agencies can be expedited upon intake; b) families seeking help are not required to tell their story repeatedly and c) services providers truly collaborate in helping children and families.
- In 1994 the KCNC provided encouragement and technical assistance in development and application of our county’s first Healthy Start sites. Schools started to think about the needs of their students outside the classroom and how meeting those needs would improve classroom performance. The KCNC introduced the schools to the Memorandum Of Understanding process and in order for county support each participating school was required to have a student assistance team. Healthy Start was the first opportunity for many schools to make the paradigm shift from classroom to community. This shift recognized that schools must play a role in helping address social issues faced by families so that children come to school ready to learn.
- In 1994 a public/private partnership, created through the KCNC, enabled the County Health Department to make lice medication from a private manufacturer available to parents through schools for less than $2 per treatment. This was much less than the $11 retail price parents were forced to pay previously. Impoverished families routinely couldn’t afford the medication, and children were forced to miss school until treatment was completed. The partnership made treatment affordable and this led to a significant increase in attendance rates. For example, the Lamont School District saw a 40% increase in their average daily attendance rates as a result of addressing the issue of head lice.
- The Neighborhood Partnership Projects began in 1994. The Partnerships represented a significant attempt to do business in a different way, without “new” money. Instead, communities had to rely on the reallocation, realignment, or redirection of existing funds. The Partnership Projects were a call to action aimed at neighborhood communities — an invitation to take ownership of a local planning and empowerment process. It required communities to assess their needs; to develop a plan for addressing problems which must include investment by neighborhood residents and to make a commitment to participate in collecting, recording and analyzing data. The Projects did not receive money. Instead, they received a commitment by government agencies to realign human resources and other materials to the process of planning and implementing local strategies for building safe, healthy communities. They served as the laboratories for learning to rethink traditional roles and to redeploy resources of public agencies in ways which are more accessible, useful and effective to our target populations. Four communities were selected to participate, and their efforts continue today. These partnerships also became models for what are now 20 community collaboratives.
- In 1995 under the direction of the Kern County Board of Supervisors, KCNC began serving as the planning body and administrator for both Child Abuse Prevention, Intervention & Treatment (CAPIT) and Family Preservation & Support Program (FPSP) funding. KCNC ensures the Request For Proposals (RFP) and the services provided are integrated and use a collaborative approach throughout Kern County. The KCNC took the lead in encouraging agencies to design programs around what the community needs are based on input from community members and people receiving the services.
- In 1995 KCNC began assisting and encouraging the use of Multi Disciplinary Teams (MDT’s) for Neighborhood Partnership sites, Healthy Start and other case management programs. The goals of the MDT are to share information so families get the help they need and avoid fragmented or duplicative services. Throughout Kern County, MDT’s now exist with participation from county agencies, schools, community-based organizations and law enforcement.
- In 1996/1997 KCNC assisted the Department of Human Services with a review of the Children’s Emergency Response System after Kern County experienced seven child deaths in one year. This process involved many trustees and resulted in numerous recommendations that were adopted by the Department of Human Services. It also helped educate the community that issues such as abuse are far larger than any one agency can handle alone. This also led to the development of a “white paper” on this issue that explored patterns in the abuse and strategies to address this community wide issue.
- The 1997 publication of the Recipes for Community Success “cookbook” captured the many lessons learned by successful community based collaboratives and has served as a tool in the expansion of the four original Neighborhood Partnership sites to the 20 local community based collaboratives.
- In 1997 KCNC created a leadership development program to nurture indigenous, grassroots leaders within local communities. The program targets a diverse cross-section of our community with the goal of teaching them to become more involved and empowered to create change in their own communities so that they may advocate for children and families, as well as their community’s priority concerns. To date over 200 diverse individuals have graduated from this program. Many graduates have moved into leadership positions within local agencies, putting their talents to use serving children and families.
- In 1997 KCNC embarked on the Priority Results efforts that identified two priority results and indicators for tracking success in achieving these results. Subcommittees were established and strategies to address each indicator were developed and shared with relevant stakeholders. The KCNC continues to track these indicators and many KCNC partners continue to develop programs that directly impact these two result areas.
- In 1998 KCNC partnered with KERO-TV (Channel 23) on the “Kids You Should Know” project that highlighted youth in the community making a difference. This was the start of an effort to increase partnerships with the business community. Another example is the ongoing partnership with the Sheraton Four Points Hotel that distributed furniture and beds to families in need.
- In 1999 KCNC and the Kern County Collaborative (a group representing community members, government and community-based organizations) were merged into one organization using the KCNC name. This brought the Kern County Collaborative staff, which had focused on implementation and community collaboration, together with the KCNC staff, which had focused on policy issues in an effort to avoid confusion and better integrate our work.
- In 1999 KCNC published our county’s first annual Report Card, a document that highlights some of the key data and indicators of child well being.
- In Fall of 1999 KCNC Executive Committee established an Action Plan Committee charged with reviewing the original mission and developing a plan of action for moving forward. The mission statement was revised slightly and sustainability of local collaboratives was determined to be a major focus for the KCNC.
- In Winter of 2000 KCNC approached The California Endowment with a proposal to fund all 21 local collaboratives in an attempt to obtain private foundation funding, a break from the traditional government funding of our work. The California Endowment approved this two-year proposal and asked that their funding be used in conjunction with Proposition 10 funding.
- In Spring of 2000 KCNC brought together 21 local community based collaboratives to jointly apply for Proposition 10 funding to better serve children ages 0-5 and build each of the collaborative’s capacity to serve children and their families. Proposition 10 is not just a check, but also provides the ability to build capacity and facilitates the redesign of systems to provide better service. KCNC brought together 21 local collaboratives (and therefore 21 different communities), 21 fiscal agents and 21 different sets of identified needs and goals under one umbrella. This is unique to Kern County and allows for a venue to help create improved policy and procedures in how we serve children. The KCNC played a critical role of integrating services for children 0-5, a major emphasis of Proposition 10’s strategic plan.
- In Spring of 2000 KCNC helped to organize the first annual Leaders In Life Youth Conference, an event planned for youth by youth. Targeted for youth in grades 6-12, a planning committee of some 40 youth works with an adult planning committee to plan all aspects of this conference. Over 950 youth from every corner of Kern County attended the Leaders In Life Youth Conference in 2003.
- In Spring of 2002 KCNC reorganized its governance structure to include a 20-member Governing Board and a much larger Advisory Board, which is comprised of over 100 children’s advocates.
- January of 2003 KCNC and local collaboratives were awarded $2.9 million in Prop. 10 funding for a third year of funding to support integrated services through local collaboratives.
- In just two short years, KCNC and local collaboratives have served a total of 74,778 individuals in 23,962 families with California Endowment and Proposition 10 funds. This represents 14,481 children ages 0-5 and 28,056 children ages 6-17 who have been able to access services via Family Resource Centers located throughout Kern County.
Conclusion
Kern County Network for Children has been widely recognized for contributions to our community and to improving the conditions of Kern County’s children. Some of the recognition that has been received includes:
- California State Association of Counties Partnership Award
- Kern Council of Government Regional Award of Merit for Local Government Innovation
- State of California Special Achievement Award for Innovations in Maternal & Child Health
- National Award for Excellence in Community Collaboration for Children and Youth (This award is sponsored by the Local Collaboration for Children and Youth in Washington, D.C., National Association of Counties, National League of Cities, American Association of School Administrators, International City/County Management Association, National School Boards Association, and U.S. Conference of Mayors).
- Greater Bakersfield Chamber of Commerce Beautiful Bakersfield Youth Group Award
- Bakersfield Chamber of Commerce Beautiful Bakersfield Public-Private Partnership Certificate of Recognition Certificate
- Junior League of Bakersfield Organizational Partnership Award
- Kern Council of Governments Regional Award of Merit for Local Government Innovation
- Professional Development Seminar for Nonprofits – United Way’s From the Heart Award / Youth
- The Foundation Consortium Community Approach Award for excellence in community collaboration and systems change
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